Welcome to my blog. My name is Nancy Connelly and I’m addicted to nostalgia. Rather than swearing it off, I’ve created this site to get a daily dose of the past. I’m blessed to have boxes of photos, writings and memorabilia from my grandmother, aunt and mother.
My childhood skipped a generation. My Grandmother was 81 and my mother 40 when I was born in 1965. While my friends grew up living the history of their parents’ youth in the 50′s, I was at least a decade behind them in slang and music. I thought everyone sat on a davenport, up-chucked when they were sick and said “Hot Dog!” when excited. My parents were exposing me to Jimmy Dorsey and Glen Miller while my peers learned of Elvis and rock ‘n’ roll. Mom taught me to dance the Lindy Hop, polka and waltz in our basement to records playing on an antique Victrola.
My mother grew up on a farm outside of Bloomer, Wisconsin which is in the northwest part of the state. She was born in 1925, the youngest of five children. Her parents had done well financially through the years until my grandfather co-signed on a farm for his brother. As the depression hit, his brother abandoned the farm and left my grandparents with his burden. During my mother’s childhood and teen years they were quite poor, but as she always told me, “Though we wanted for clothes and shoes, we were farmers, so we were always blessed with plenty of food on the table.”
Daily Diary: – This blog begins on January 1, 2012 with the first diary entry I have of my mothers: January 1, 1941. Each day I’ll begin with Mom’s entry followed by my own thoughts and memories. I’ll add in pictures I have (not necessarily from the given date), mementos from her high school newspaper, local newspaper, school yearbook and other memorabilia she stored away.
Memoirs: I have both my grandmother, Barbara Earnestine’s, and my mother, Barbara Jean’s, handwritten memoirs. I’ll be putting them on these pages over the year. There are days where my mother did not write in her diary, it is on these days in particular that I plan to continue on with the memoirs.
Please feel free to join me in my 1940′s journey through comments on each page. You’ll be required to give your email, which will not appear to anyone but me, and I’ll need to approve your first comment. This is simply to prevent spam and inappropriate comments.
Thankfully, I was raised on the very same farm as Barbara Jean and the rest of her family. Her older brother Edgar Oliver was dad to my brother and I. Since he was 44 when I was born in 1964, I know all about the differences in my “education” than that of my friends. I am very familiar with the Big Band Era, Red Skelton, Danny Kaye and all the rest. If that antique Victrola is the same one that sat upstairs at Grandma’s, I remember being mesmerized by it when I was allowed to play music on it as a child. Growing up, we didn’t have everything that we wanted, but we had everything that we needed. There isn’t much that I would have changed in my growing up years. I was truly blessed.
I loved visiting my family on the farm. With so many cousins there, I thought that was the best place in the world to be! Yes Natalie, we both had older parents! They took after their parents when it came to “settling down”
The Victrola I mention was not the one from the farm. I think Leonard got that and not maybe Tom has it. One day Mom and I were out looking at antiques and she saw a Victrola for sale and started telling me about hers growing up and how she still had a bunch of records and how she loved it so much… So, I suggested she buy that one. And she did! I still have it now and I treasure it immensely.
Hi Nancy,
Also, if you are on FB, please friend me. There are pictures there of my father, mother, brother, etc. Not too many Pamela Smock – I am a professor at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. I received my PhD from UW-Madison, which is how I met Smoky (Leonard Schmock) who I believe was William’s son. Hope to hear from you!
My name is Pam Smock. My father’s father (my grandfather) was Millard. He died around the time I was born. I have heard my mother mention the name “Barbara Jean” but I am going to have to read everything to catch up. It is very exciting to know more about my father’s side of the family – he doesn’t say too much.