Martha and I were enrolled in Madame Ludwig's ballet class when she opened her studio in Sauganash. She taught classical ballet, and although we were only six and eight years old, we were put through the training taught by a former professional ballet dancer. Campbell approved and one of the joys for me at that age was to climb up on his lap and ask him to tell me about seeing Pavlova. As a young man in London, he had seen the great Anna Pavlova dance The Swan. I never got tired if hearing about it, and his description of it brought it to life for me. Mother made me a white tutu trimmed with Christmas tinsel and a matching crown, and at the Christmas party for children held every year in the Sauganash Community House (in the year 1927) I danced pirouettes all around the tree to Madame's playing of Nutcracker on the piano. All the lights were out except for the tree.
When I got home, I climbed up on Dad's lap and told him all about it. I was so thrilled when he called me his "Little Pavlova". It was a highlight of my childhood! Martha never cared much for ballet, and I think it was because she did not always feel well. Campbell's children were a mixed bag of personalities. Martha, always carrying a box of Kleenex with her and was always a little irritable, but she loved playing "dress up" with me and paper dolls, and she loved to read, as I did. Every two weeks we would go to the Sauganash lending library in the Community House and it was such fun carrying home our armfull of books as we were each allowed to take out six books. Martha always reminded her younger brother and sister that she was "the oldest"! She stood a full head taller than me for many years and her large hair bows made her seem taller. She tended to be irritable, and again, I believe that was due to her allergies which went undiagnosed as mother was a Christian Scientist and did not believe in taking children to a doctor. Campbell avoided taking her downtown with him as she was so impatient.
Brother Irv was always in motion. He never sat on Campbell's lap! He would lie on the floor in front of Campbell's chair or in front of our console radio. Irv was not interested in books at all but loved to have someone read to him. Mother never read to us, so Martha and I were the readers in the family. We read to our dad and to "the little kids", Irv and Helen. Irv loved the "Tarzan" books and one whole winter was spent reading the whole set by Edgar Rice Burrough's. He also loved "The Swiss Family Robinson" and "King Arthur". Oddly, and although a very active boy, he did not care for sports. He preferred being active on his own...hunting frogs and tadpoles, building things in the garage or whittling with his trusty knife. Campbell saw to it that he had a workbench of his own in the garage, complete with tools. He was also VERY mischievous, and once when he got his first water pistol, he shot out all the light bulbs in the basement and all of Mart's and my paper dolls that we had carefully lined up on the windowsill. He would NEVER go downntown with his father as he hated the tall buildings in the Loop!
Irv did not do well in school simply because he had trouble sitting in a desk all day. Helen was a compliant child, the youngest, and was always regarded as the "baby". She was by nature a "follower", always tagging behind Irv. But she also got more attention than the rest of us because she was smaller and cried easily and often.
We were generally a happy family.
By 1928 Mother had decided that she did indeed want a Tudor house as she was ready to move on to a more spacious home, so Campbell had the architect draw up some plans for her approval. However, first he wanted to take a trip through the southwest United States as he had never visited it (before). So, one day a brand new Cadillac limousine pulled up in front of our house. It was a lovely dark green in color, the first model of its kind in COLOR!
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