My Mother
My mother was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1899. When she was nine months old the family moved to Glasgow. She lived there until she came to America in 1921.
When she was fourteen she graduated from grammar school. her brother wanted her to go to high school and learn to be a teacher, but she didn't want to. She wanted to go to work. The first day she went looking for a job she took her lunch, being quite confident that she'd get a job. She got a job at the place where her sister worked. After she'd been working a week she went to the boss and asked for a raise, and she got it. Her sister was boiling mad because my mother had been working there for only a week and already earned more that she did. My m other quit that job after a while and got another one.
During the World War she got a job as (a) street car conductor. One night it was so foggy that she was forced to stop the street car. When the fog cleared she found that she had stopped the car a few inches behind a truck.
Once when she was still in school she cut her foot and, since she went barefoot, she always got the cut dirty. One day her mother put a poultice on it, tied her to the bed post, and went out. There was a wedding down the street that she wanted to see so her older brother, Jim, crawled in the window, untied her, and they both crawled out again. Before she was halfway down the block the poultice was off and her foot was black. When her mother came home, my mother was still tied to the bed post, but she couldn't for the life of her say how her foot had gotten so dirty and the poultice just stuck on top.
There was another time when my mother and some of her girl friends were locked in the school yard. While climbing over the fence my mother got her pants caught and ripped them. When she got home, she slid them into the clothes hamper so her mother wouldn't see them. It didn't occur to her that her mother would see them when they were washed.
My mother has two sisters. Both are married and have families. She also had two brothers, Jim and George, but Jim was killed in the war and George was thrown by a bull and he died a year later. He and his boy friends were playing marbles. A woman was taking her bull to the home pasture and it started after the boys. The other boys ran but my uncle stopped to pick up his marbles, and the bull caught him and threw him into the air twice. He was never well after that.
In 1921 she came to America to live. She met my father at her cousin's house, and in 1922 she was married to him. My sister was born in 1923, my brother in 1924, and I was born in 1926. For the last few years my mother has been under a doctor's care, but her health is almost perfect now.
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My Father
My Father, John C. Watt, was born in Kilwinning, Scotland, on July 12, 1880. He went to school there, and in his youth he was very athletic. He played football; soccer, and entered into many bicycle races. While playing soccer, he had his knee knocked out of joint, and he hasn't been able to play much soccer since. He still carries the scars on his body from bicycle racing.
My father was a shoemaker by trade, and he owned a shoe store and a fruit and vegetable store. In the year 1908 he came to America and got a job in Pullman Shope(sic). He has worked there ever since. He is now the president of the Pullman Twenty-years Service Club, and he, also, runs the shoe stores down at Pullman.
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My Brother and Sister
My sister is the oldest of us three children. She was born on October 6, 1923. She went to Kohn Grammar School until she was about eleven years old, than(sic), she transferred to the Van Vilissengen Grammar School. She graduated from there in 1938 and went to Fenger High School. She graduated from Fenger in 1942, and she is now working at the First National Bank.
My brother is next to the oldest. He was born on September 18, 1924. He graduated from Kohn Grammar School in 1938 and then went to Pullman Tech. He graduated from Pullman in 1938 and went to work for the Goodman Manufacturing Company. He worked for Goodman until January 16, 1943. On January 23, 1943, he took the train to San Diego, California and a life with the United States Marines. He is now stationed in Jacksonville, Florida. We haven't seen him since he left. I am always proud to say I have a brother in the Marines.
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