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My Life Recollections
By Edna Olivia (Johnson) Atkins

Chapter 1, Part 2
Minneapolis, Minnesota

There was one place we lived that I'm inclined to believe it was where Esther was born, when a big black cloud appeared and the Mothers gathered us all together and we went down in the cellar. It wasn't until night when the cyclone struck and we spent the night in the cellar. In the morning a big tree had fell across our front porch. Mother took us for a walk the next day to see all the damage it had done. I can remember the roof off of one house, and a whole wall off of another so we could see the furniture and the piano all upended. It was a frightening experience.

It was here I had a dear friend named Elsie Anderson. Her father was a policeman who was later killed trying to arrest someone.

Now I think it is about the time we moved to the little house where Bert was born. It was a nice little house. Dad was a fanatic about planting flowers and we had a beautiful big yard to play in. The people who lived in a big house in front of us rented it to us. One of the pictures I have in the album of the family was taken there.

I don't seem to remember much about Dick, only that he sold newspapers on the corner and Dad made him a shoe stand with which he always was out early shining men's shoes on Sunday morning. I remember he was sick a lot and one time it was really serious. Dick got sick one Sunday morning. Mother was bathing us all. She looked in Dick's throat. She told Dad to get on his bike and go get the doctor who came immediately. He lined us all up and looked in our throats and said Dick had diphtheria. They wrapped him in a blanket and the doctor took him to the hospital for contagious disease. They called them "Pest Houses" in those days. No one could go see him. He was suppose to have black diphtheria. When he got better, Mother took us for a walk and we waved to him at the window. When I started running a temperature Mother sent for the doctor and he said I had a light case. Mother wouldn't let him take me to the hospital so he gave me a shot of serum and quarantined us. When I got better, Mother put a mattress out in the yard so I could get a little sunshine. As I was laying out there the neighbors little girl came over to play. Mother took her home and asked her Mother not to let her come over but her Mother said to let her stay, as she had been so lonesome. Sorry to say that she got sick and died. We all felt so bad.

That summer on August 6, 1908, Bert was born. My cousin Anna was staying with Mother to help her. She packed us a lunch and told us to go to the park and have a picnic. When we got home we had a new baby brother.

Sometime later we moved to a larger place. It was a four flat building and we lived in the lower right flat. Here we had a bathroom and gas lights. It was here that Dick and I had the mumps. The folks were planning on visiting some friends in the country and decided we were old enough to stay at home alone. I was eight and Dick was a little over ten. Mother left food ready for us and we were fine until it started to get dark. We were afraid to light the gaslights. We just sat and stared through the window. The folks were late for some reason and I remember when they finally came, Dick and I both started to cry.

We had many nice times there. I had my eighth birthday there. I remember I got a new dress and new slippers. I was on the sidewalk showing them to my friends when Mother called and said it was time to go. Dad must have made some extra money for he bought a lot out near Minnehaha Park. He went out every weekend and planted garden. Dick and I got so carsick on the streetcar; Dad would take Dick out there on the handlebars and then come back and get me. Mother took the streetcar with the little ones and a picnic lunch. On the way we passed a veterans' home and cemetery so every Memorial Day we would bring flowers to the cemetery. It was quite interesting but I probably didn't even know what a veteran was. We always called them old soldiers. Minnehaha Park and Falls was a beautiful place and we had so many good times there. There was a statue of Hiawatha and later in school when I learned the poem about Hiawatha it brought back many memories. All this tells of my life until the Spring of 1910.
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