Chapter 18 of Tales That I Can Remember by Elsie Swagerty Burton
Life soon evolved into how Harry and I could maneuver into getting together. It was depression time. Harry’s father had had a bad accident involving his left elbow and although he was employed by the San Jose bus system, owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad, he didn’t work steadily now nor was the pay so very much. Young men could not even find odd jobs, so Harry found it difficult to court me. We took advantage of the fact his sister Ada and I were best friends to make our contacts more often.
For some time I drove a touring car, an old Oldsmobile, we kids called Josephine. Gradually we got more and more modern vehicles. During the last years I was at home, a Ford V-8, one of the first ones. When my older brothers went to high school, they went out for after school sports. My younger brothers and I would have to wait those long hours for them. We went to the Bronson’s in inclement weather. Sometimes I took Ada home hoping to see Harry too. When I failed to watch the time, the brothers had to wait for me.
Mom would go to all the football games in which boys played. She would become so excited and shout so enthusiastically, shy old me was embarrassed more than once.
I didn’t go in for competitive sports during high school. I took classes in “natural dancing” and “clog.” Sometimes my schedule had to be completely changed to get the gym classes I wanted. I took Glee Club my Sophomore year. Chemistry was a disaster but it fascinated me. Spanish class got progressively more and more difficult. English literature was great although it was difficult to keep up with the reading. I enjoyed the compositions but I had trouble with sentence structures. Civics, U.S. and World History were a joy. Economics was fascinating but bewildering. Drama class was great. I was able to perform in only one production because one had to maintain a certain grade level in order to participate and I was unable to qualify in most cases. It was a real disappointment to me.
At lunch times, on those days when weather permitted, my friends and I ate our lunches in the park-like area between our school and the Carnegie City Library. I had a few very close friends but kept the same ones all through high school. There were many close associates, many among those who went to our church.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 