Hometown Potpourri

Growing up in a small Midwestern town in Indiana during the aftermath of the 1929 Wallstreet market crash, pre-World War II, and facing teenage in a fatherless home during the war years, the author has described her childhood in an era of the past.

As a young girl, Ms. Battistini describes how family tragedies affected family life and the contrasts of living through sadness in a child’s world.  Facing a world of two parent, stay-at-home-mother families, as the youngest child after the death of her beloved father, she takes us through the frightened world of an original “latchkey kid.”  Social mores at the time was one that pushed mental and emotional problems of children into a “social dumpster”.......meaning they were not recognized, nor dealt with.  The old Victorian adage of “children should be seen and not heard,” had permeated into the early twentieth century .  She literally walks us through the childhood contacts that left their marks on her social development.  The reader cannot help but make comparisons to children of single parent homes of today, and the social aids that are available to them. She subtly refers to the stigma of a husbandless family, and gender inequality. She describes family life before her father’s death, and the importance of family gatherings.

Growing into teenage sociability during World War II, Ms. Battistini touches upon the effects of the war years on her family as well as the community.  She demonstrates how as a youth she pursued her education through the parochial school system finishing in the public schools of Sarah Scott Junior High and Wiley High Schools.  The impact of high school friends is defined and has been lifelong.

As a forty-four year old graduate student taking an aptitude test, the author found her forte could have been in mechanical engineering.  As a young college student, she and her peers found the career options mainly to be in teaching, nursing, secretarial work, and/or marriage.  Ms. Battistini spent forty-seven years in the field of education at all grade levels.  At the time of her retirement, she was a high school guidance counselor.

After having worked in the field of education for forty-seven years, I retired in 1997.  I graduated from Indiana State in 1951 and taught second grade in Griffith, Indiana.  My husband, Larry and I raised four children, Peter, Paula, Patti, and Patrick.  We have three granddaughters:  Katie, Maggie, and Annie.  I received my M.S. in guidance and counseling in 1974.  At the time of my retirement, I was a guidance counselor at Merrillville High School, Merrillville, Indiana.  Since that time, I have been involved in many activities for which a working mother has no time.  Presently, I am Vice President of Administration of Women’s Association of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Society; corresponding secretary of the Southlake Chapter, American Association of University Women; a member of the Scholarship committee for the Eli Lilly Community Scholarship Foundation of the Lake County Legacy Foundation; completed five years of service on the Grants Committee of the Lake County Legacy Foundation; am a member of the Lake County Chi Omega Alumna; am the Drug and Alcohol Revision Committee for the Highland School Board, Highland, Indiana.  I am also a member of the Jean Akers South Lake County Chapter of the Red Hat Society.

Update….Since Pat has been pursuing a career in show business in California he has me to events where I have had the opportunity to meet some of the favorite stars of movies of the 1940’s……shown on the opposite page.