52 Ancestors – Week 29 Challenge

    

This week I am writing about my personal experience when this country met the challenge of putting a man on the moon. It was fifty years ago yesterday! Although it’s not about an ancestor, I am an ancestor to my descendants.

My husband and I got up early that morning, we had things to do and places to go. Friends had invited us to attend the Air Show in Sandwich, Illinois that afternoon and we needed to get our children ready to spend the afternoon with a babysitter. Once everyone was ready, we said goodbye to the kids and headed off to Sandwich to meet our friends Bob and Judy at their brother-in-law’s house in Sandwich. He was the editor of the local paper and got us free tickets.

We got to Sandwich about noon and met our friends. It was common at that time and place to offer guests a “Grand Tour” of the house. We saw a beautiful Victorian house that was well updated and furnished. The special surprise was in the kitchen where we first witnessed the miracle of the microwave over. Imagine it could heat a hot dog in less than a minute and warm the hot fudge without melting the ice cream! That was only the first amazing experience of the day.

It was a hazy Summer Sunday and the Air Show was scheduled to begin I believe at 1 PM. In addition to airplanes doing stunts and seeing sky divers perform, the featured attraction was Bob Hope! We got there early so we could have a front row (or close to that) seat. We had a huge blue and white blanket that we spread out on the ground and settled down to wait for Bob Hope to appear. We were also to see Ginny Tiu and her sisters do their singing act.

We waited and waited in the Summer heat. Ginny Tiu and her sisters performed for us and we waited some more. Finally, the audience heard the announcement that Bob Hope would not appear until the astronauts had safely landed on the moon. The audience was disappointed, but nobody left. I think it was about four o’clock when Bob Hope appeared and was greeted with loud cheers because we knew that the astronauts were safe, and we could all enjoy the show.

It was a great show!  A wonderful ending to a great day. But it wasn’t really the end of the day, since when we got home again we stayed up late to take pictures of the walk on the moon off out television screen!

Men on the moon! 20 July 1969  photo taken by Dave Peterson 20 July 1969 from television screen.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 26 “Legend”

It has long been a legend in the Connery family of Chicago that our patriarch Michael, commonly known as M J once lead the St Patrick’s Day Parade down State Street on a white horse.

M J Connery circa 1920?

In an effort to confirm this legend, I did some research on both the history of the parade and my grandfather M J.

What is now the parade in downtown Chicago began on in the Southtown area of Chicago as early as 1843 with seven hundred seventy five marchers who first marched to St Mary’s church for Mass and then marched on to the Saloon Building at Clark and Randolph. [i] According to the article the Saloon Building became the first City Hall in Chicago.

The parade was held in Southtown from it’s beginning in 1843 until 1901 with the exception of 1897 when it was cancelled due to the increase in both poverty and homelessness because of the severe weather.[ii] After 1901 there were no more parades until they were reinstated in 1956 by Mayor Richard J Daly.

In 1898 Grand Marshall Bob Monahan led the parade on a prancing horse.[iii]

Searching the Chicago newspapers for M J Connery in the years between 1890 and 1910, the time he lived in Southtown, shows that M J was active in the community and ran for election as alderman in the 13^th ward [iv]1893, 1894[v] and 1898[vi]. At this time, it is not known if M J was ever elected but being on the ballot three times, shows a strong commitment to his community.

About 1910 M J and his family moved to the West Town neighborhood of Chicago and his allegiance changed to the Garfield Park neighborhood.

My conclusion is that M J never did ride that white horse down State Street. I think the references to Bob Monahan on his horse were mixed into the stories of life in Southtown when my aunts and uncles were children. Unfortunately, it would seem that the legend is really a myth, however I am open to additional proof.

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[i] Lindberg, Richard, How Chicago Got It’s Green Back, Chicago Magazine a 22^nd Century Media Publication, 15 June 2016, online image, accessed 2 July 2019.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Chicago Eagle, 11 March 1893, page 1, image 1; Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.gov, imagea online, accessed 2 July 2019.

[v] Chicago Eagle, 0  March 1894, page 4, image 4; Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.gov, imagea online, accessed 2 July 2019.

[vi]   Chicago Eagle, 26 Feb 1898, page 4, image 4; Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.gov, imagea online, accessed 2 July 2019.