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  • Tags: Margaret Landon's Childhood 1903-1921

Margaret reads a letter from her grandmother Dorthea, Laurids wife. The letters tells about Margaret's birth and how her grandmother came to wash her.

Evangeline was punished by her mom for running after and catching the streetcar. On another Margaret also was punished for running in front of the streetcar. Mom would usually punish the kids verbally.

Adelle's health began to be a matter of concern. In 1917 she had an operation at the Mayo Clinic, which left her with other heart related problems. She later was admitted again to the Evanston Hospital for a long bout. She would spend many long hours…

Margaret recalls many black maternal families coming from the South to Evanston, IL, for work. She describes the many black women she met and talks about one in particular, Florida Mitchell, who worked for her mother Adelle. Florida was raising money…

An incident with Mrs. Rosing that Margaret's mother never forgot. Shortly after Margaret and Evangeline recovered from their sickness Mrs. Rosing saw them coming down the street wih their mother. Thinking that they were contaminated, she hurried to…

A.D. preached to Margaret an awful lot, though she was very religious from an early age. She eventually avoided him when she could. He was very cold, although he didn't want to be. He would give up his lunch to do something for the girls, and he…

Aunt Minnie wouldn't visit as often as Adelle wanted, because she and her husband were farmers. She and her husband had a very nice house for that era but never had running water. Margaret and her aunt's children never were close: neither enemies nor…

Margaret tells how when Betty was born she supplanted Evangeline as favorite and remained mother's favorite most of her life. Betty didn't bother with the rules and mother would overlook it, which she didn't do with the other girls.

One day Margaret saw Elisabeth hold sand in a cup. Mother was baking in the kitchen and as she turned to the sink Elizabeth dashed in an threw the sand into the flour bin

Betty was a rascal very early in her childhood. Mother, at least in part because of the operation, began to have some health problems, and she wasn't allowed to go upstairs very much. Elizabeth would get into mischief and run upstairs, in defiance of…

Betty was born in 1912 by C-section, a very serious operation in those days. It was a miracle that Adelle survived. Grandmother came down from Racine to help. A.D. took wrote notes hour by hour throughout the ordeal

Margaret remembers playing behind the house with Evangeline who was making mudpies, a common practice in those days. Evangeline would eat those mudpies, a habit Adelle had a hard time to cure her of.

Evangeline had a gift for style and art. Her parents sent her to an art institute and she began taking lessons when she was young. She began sewing when she was four, and at age eleven she sewed herself a dress so nice that a woman stopped her in the…

Adelle had a sense of style when she was young, but the dresses she sewed for her daughters didn't seem very nice to Margaret. Adelle also did the girls' hair, and their father, A.D., wanted them to keep their hair long--it was a biblical thing.

On Lincoln Street lived a woman named Lucy Fitch Perkins, whose son Larry was about Evangeline's age. She was a very popular writer of children's books. She would call the neighborhood kids to read them her stories, trying out her new books.

In 1913 the Mortensons bought a new house at 2400 Harrison St., just a couple of blocks from 2218 Central St. This was a comfortable, plain, square house, like so many throughout the Midwest in those days. The family lived there until 1923 when they…

The Lincolnwood School was a very nice building, with excellent teachers, especially in music and arts. Seventh grade kids all participated in the Evanston Music Festival. Margaret remembers the great musician John McCormack who often sang drunk, and…

Margaret learned very early not to lie or steal. She remembers the first time she lied, she quickly realized she was not good at it. She also recalls stealing a piece of gum and felt so bad about it that she decided that this wasn't for her.

Margaret always loved Christmas. One time A.D. couldn't be home for Christmas, so the family didn't buy a Christmas tree. Margaret found one that someone had thrown away by the road side. She dragged it home triumphantly, and Adelle realized how much…

Margaret's scarlet fever a second time, one year after the first one, and this time it was worse. She was treated just in time, but she became completely deaf in her right ear. Her hearing in the left ear, though, was so acute throughout her…

When Margaret was seven or eight years old she became very sick. The family doctor could not figure out what the disease was, so there was very little that could be done to help her. Suddently she had a terrible convulsion and the sickness was all…

Margaret and her sisters grew up in a musical family, and they all had music lessons. Evangeline and Betty were talented musically, Margaret had no gift. Betty had a very brilliant teacher at Northwestern University, but lost it all when she came to…

Margaret tells about a little essay she wrote in French in High School in Evanston. She had excellent French instructors there but lost her French when she went to Wheaton.

At age three Margaret had an ear infection and went through an operation safely. Grandfather Laurids learned about it and sent a note to greet the family. It was nicely written but not so comforting. Other letters from other relatives were warmer.

Margaret wasn't allowed to go to plays, movies, and dances. All the kids at her school went to dance lessons, but she wasn't allowed to, although she was the best dancer of her class. Her father was so strict
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