I took Mom to a doctor appointment today, and during the time the nurse was there, we were talking about random stuff and somehow the conversation brought back memories for Mom. I'll try to recreate some of what she said:
When she was a little girl, at one point her family lived in a four-flat in Chicago owned by her maternal grandparents, Henry and Frieda Korn. They also lived in the building, as well as Arthur and Shirley Korn and their kids. Arthur was Henry and Frieda's son, their daughter was Florence, married to Arthur Burrell.
Henry and Frieda owned a small grocery store. They would let their kids know when they got butter in, as it was during World War II and butter was hard to get.
Mom got to go to the movies - I think she said her grandmother took her. Once she saw an Abbot and Costello movie. Abbott was in the hotel bathroom shaving. Costello was sitting on the bed. A zombie would come out of a sliding door in the wall. Costello would sputter and try to get Abbott's attention, but when Abbott came out of the bathroom, the zombie was gone. Mom then had to try to go to sleep, and her bed was against the wall. She was sure a zombie was going to come out of the wall and get her.
She also mentioned that her mom didn't like some of the jobs her dad had. He worked for the railroad in Chicago, and was at one time a street car conductor. For the railroad, he would redirect trains when troop trains would come through. She didn't know for sure why the family moved to Fort Dodge when she was a kid, but it could have been related to her mom not liking Grandpa Burrell's jobs.
Grandma Burrell did like one job that Grandpa had - as a chauffeur. I guess he worked for a private employer, and once they went to Virginia and Grandma got to go along. Grandpa paid half of his motel bill to cover her.
Mom also mentioned that she worked in her grandparents' grocery store and got to read the comics for free.
She mentioned something about her cousin Johnny Korn, but I can't remember what it was. We discussed that this was the same cousin who skinned his knee and had to have a bandaid, and went limping around. Then the bandaid fell off, he put it on the other knee and limped on that leg.
Much of what we talked about was all new to me. I need to start doing interviews with Mom to get her memories.