**NEW VIRTUAL EXHIBIT

1916 to 1919.  Family life, Grade School Years

Written and told by Helen Kavanaugh Tobbe (1905-2002) and transcribed by her youngest child, Kate Tobbe Ptak.

My brother Jack was a cute little kid. He was about seven years younger than Jr. and I were. One day, when he was in third grade, he was walking home from school with his friend, Carny, who was from a very poor family. They were walking past Grandma's house and Carny needed to get to a bathroom soon, so Jack invited Carny into Grandma's to use the bathroom. Grandma wasn't home at the time. The two boys spotted freshly baked bread and a crock of jam. Jack, who was a very friendly, hospitable child, invited his friend "poor Carny", to have some bread and jam with him. They spread that jam nice and thick on their slices of bread. The jam was Grandma's Spring Tonic, made of honey, figs, and senna (which is a strong laxative). After the snack the boys went on home. Jack didn't mention his visit, but Grandma knew someone had been there, so she called and warned Nellie that someone was going to be very busy for a while. Well, Jack and “poor Carny” didn't make it to school for two days - they were too busy. Those boys really cleaned out their systems. “Poor Carny's” family was too poor to have indoor plumbing, so he really had a lot of running to do!