Part 2:  1905 to 1916.  Family life, first years

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

I was born November 20th, 1905, in a small home on 6th Street, Bay City, Michigan. It was further away from my Grandmother Callahan's home than mother wanted to be. We moved to 12^th Street, across from St. James Church and four houses from Grandma's on Monroe Street. In 1908, Dad built 242 on Madison Street, one block over. Dad had built electricity into the house but also included gas lighting because the electric wasn't reliable. By this time Jr. and Margaret were born. Then Mary Louise was born in 1909, but she died six months later.

242 North Madison. The home built by W.P. Kavanaugh in 1908 for his family. Source:  Kavanaugh Family Files

Nellie [my mother] was not very well after the death of Mary Louise. Aunt Mollie, mother's older sister, had married and was living in Flint, Michigan. At that time, she had no children. She took me to Flint in September 1910 to help mother out. She brought me home a couple of days before Christmas. About January 2nd, Aunt Molly told WP [William Patrick Kavanaugh, my father], we would be leaving. Dad said, "We?" Molly responded, "Yes, Helen and I will go back to Flint by train." "Oh, no! Helen is staying home."

That's when Jr. & I started kindergarten at Holy Rosary, a private school. Those days didn't last long because Jr. would have no part of cotton balls, cutting and pasting, or daisy chains. He became a very disturbing kid and while not expelled from kindergarten, he was not welcomed, so we both left. Can't remember much else about early school days, but to this day the smell of bananas takes me back to that cloak room at Holy Rosary - guess that's why I never cared for bananas!

WP's first car was bought in 1911 or 12. It was a "Jackson". The roads were made of cedar block until about 1920. The blocks were "rings" of cedar trees, set into the roadbed like tiles are set into a floor. I remember snowplows. Of course, the streets weren't plowed - there was no need. Cars were put up on blocks over the winter. The snowplows were for the sidewalks. A private company contracted with neighborhoods, street by street. If the residents of Madison Avenue wanted their sidewalks cleared, they would hire the "plow''. This was a horse drawn wooden box on which a driver would sit, with the front shaped like a wedge to push the snow aside. That front wedge was made of steel. In winter, WP would freeze the side yard at the house and make a skating rink for the neighborhood. He also built a toboggan run from the roof of the garage onto the driveway - the sleds would often end in the street. Another winter "sport" we enjoyed was catching a ride on the back of the horse-driven sleighs travelling the roads. Of course it was "Verboten", but we would slide off a few doors from home. We didn't roller skate much in the summer, because the sidewalks were made of bricks or boards - not a good skating surface.

The first three children of William Patrick (W.P.) and Helen (Nellie), nee Callahan, Kavanaugh.

Left to Right: Margaret (4/3/1908–4/9/1996), Junior (1/25/1907–2/14/1997), and (Helen 11/20/1905–3/4/2004) Source: Kavanaugh Family Files

Our cleaning lady, Veronica, came several times a week. While she was on her hands and knees scrubbing our kitchen floor with a big wooden bucket, Jr. would often sneak up and pull her apron strings or jump on her back. That behavior didn't last very long as one time she just bent further over and let Jr slide headfirst into the bucket of soapy water.

One fourth of July, when Jr. was about seven, he and a friend, named Major Cahalan, whose father worked for WP, caused a lot of excitement. WP always brought firecrackers to be set off on the 4th. Besides safe items for kids to play with like sparklers and punk sticks, he always had fireworks for display to be shot off after dark. Jr. and Major ran out of sparklers, so went to WP's car to look for more. While they were rooting through the box of fireworks looking for more sparklers, one of the boys dropped his lighted punk stick. The fireworks display came early that year. Earlier even than Jr. and Major expected, as they started off while the boys were still looking for more sparklers.

As Jr. got a little older, he would eavesdrop while his dad and Bert Gafney, WP's lawyer, would talk business. When WP found him doing so, he invited Junior to join the meetings.

Jr. and I got along quite well, but he and Margaret, well, both thought they were right! If Jr. said the moon was made of green cheese, I could care less as long as I didn't have to eat it, but Margaret, wow!

Our friends and neighbors on Madison Avenue included a very French family, a Jewish family, an English family, and of course we were the Irish family. It made for interesting times. The French kids, the Vallees lived across the street. They always wanted to swap their damned ginger snap cookies for my mother's good home baked cookies. I still hate ginger snap cookies. We used to take them up on our back porch and see who could sail them the farthest across the alley. The Vallees were a wealthy family who had five children. The father was the superintendent of the beet sugar factory. The mother died when the youngest, Teddy, was still a baby. Teddy, who was Jr.'s age, was a fragile child. His older sister, Marguerite, was my age. After the mother's death, the children's Grandmere came from France to live with the family. She never spoke English.

Jr. and I were often invited over to their house, which was very formal with maids, etc. On Sundays, Mr. Vallee would often take the family for rides to Quaniquesee which was a zoo and park. Jr. and I were often invited along. For these excursions, the chauffeur and Mr. Vallee would sit in the front seat, Grandmere and the Vallee children would sit in the back seat, and Jr. and I were directed to sit on jump seats facing the back seat. This was not a jolly excursion, for the family, especially with Grandmere along, was very stiff and formal. We hated these outings and tried to wiggle out of the invitations, but all too often Nellie insisted that we go.