Grandma’s Stories

Jan 18th Episode – 4

When you have had an exciting “journey” through life – you should write about it for the children and grand-children – they will have questions and when you are no longer here to give them the straight version, they will always wonder? So, when my children were young and it would be “NAP TIME” – I would always put them to sleep with all that I did in the 1940s. Also, there were the “ORPHAN HOME” stories, but for their young age  – there were stories about things happening in the “OROHAN HOME” that I did not feel they should hear, at bed time!

When I first went to German St. Vincent Orphan Home – every child – first grade and older – you were assigned some area, and under the charge of a particular NUN to work for. So, I just had my 8^th birthday, and my assignment is to work for Sister M. Edith, who took care of the girl’s side of the basement. There was the girl’s playroom, the bath tubs (8), footbath maybe 20foot long, and a large room (30 x 30) with maybe 24 sinks and along the white tile walls – every other tile a towel holder with a number above it. Each and every child had a number, and mine was #91. Everything in this area needed to be cleaned, the tile needed to be cleaned with coal oil to make it shine.

Of course, the bathroom – eight stalls 8 toilets! I was told that the “TOILETS” were one of my jobs and once a week to wash the inside of the commode out with the soap and rags, and where to get all this cleaning stuff. On the first “VISITING Sunday” when my parents came out to see me and my brothers, what do you think one of the first questions my Mother asks me?”What do you do, here?” Since I am the oldest, I’m only too glad to tell all and was happy to tell exactly what all I do!

“I help scrub the long corridor, on my knees – I clean he sinks with cleanser, and wipe the walls down with this funny smelling stuff – and I clean the toilets out with my bare hands!” Well that was too much information for my Mother to take – without 101 questions. So with all that – I was in tears my Mother in tears – which I should have to-do such a job without gloves and proper training.

My Mother was a “Stenographer” and when she got home typed a letter to the St. Louis City Courts System, to find out – why her 8 year daughter needed to clean toilets? Well, you know what – hit the “Fan” – the Orphan Home received a call and I had a most horrible life – just for answering my Mother’s questions?

This story does not end here – there is more – you just have no idea what a kid has to put up with!

Jan 17th Episode – 3

No other “ORPHANS” at German St. Vincent Orphan Home had a Father like ours! Since this was a Catholic Orphanage, every First Friday – of the month – we had Devotions to the Sacred Heart!  It seems to me that also that there was a Full Moon – at this same time – and my Father would get sufficient to “DRINK” to give him “COURAGE!”

All the Orphans and all the NUNS would be in the Sacred Heart Chapel – for First Friday Devotions!  If you take a look at a photo of the Orphan Home and the grounds surrounding – some thirty acres – you will see that the entrance to the HOME has an entry foyer area and then maybe ten foot part of the corridor area – with doors opening up to the Chapel.

So with everybody in Church for Devotions – the door bell rings – the NUN that has “Charge” of the “Entrance area” immediately runs to see who is here and lets them in. That’s my Father – Denny H. Mc Clarren Sr.  – Who now has the “COURAGE” to tell the NUN – “Get my children ready, I’m taking them home, now! She immediately tells Sister Michael to get Denny and Tommy Mc Clarren ready to go home with their father. I’m thinking the NUN‘s name in charge of the entrance area was Sister Adeline She now hurries to get Sister Seraphine, who has charge of the girl’s clothing and third floor area – she gets me to run to my locker and get my coat and tells me to run to the “Entrance Area” that my Father in waiting to take us home!

I am so happy that I am going home. My brothers and I are jumping to all hold on to my “DAD” – we are walking on clouds – you just have no idea what it feels like to get out! It feels like getting out of “PRISON!” I can tell he has had too much to “DRINK” – but when he has been drinking – there is a different side of him that you have to learn to “watch out for and be very careful”  – because the wrong word or action – you could be facing a wild “beast!”

As the oldest I would keep track of what was going on – always had to be prepared for a catastrophe – at any time – but we were happy to be on our way HOME!

In the first years of our being in the Orphan Home under the guidance on Mother Erentrude – this “FULL MOON” episode took place quite often. But – when Mother Meinulpha Meyer  took charge – she was younger and stronger and she called the Normandy Police Dept – that was the end of my Father taking us home – when he got up enough “COURAGE” from the bottle!

Jan 16th The “Episode” Continues!

The events that stick in my mind are things that happened to me when at the German St. Vincent Orphan Home. My luck was to be there from 1945 to 1952. If it were not for the fact that we were to only be temporarily  – placed there  – maybe things would have been a lot different for us as a family. The paper work that my Mother signed was just a “formality” for a 6 month term. My Mother wanted a divorce from my Father and had paid three (3) different lawyers, but she was Catholic and Democrat and we had someone in the family in “POLICTICS” who called the shots. One call from her to the lawyers, and they did not work for my Mother any longer, but strung her along taking her money – till finally she was pregnant and could no longer get a divorce.

So, as I was telling about the longer than usual stay home from the “ORPHANAGE” for the Holidays – our return was like putting us in “PRISON” – because that’s way I was treated like a criminal. Earlier, for Christmas, I was telling about the doll with my Aunt Irene Riley’s real hair – and having been to the “Doll Hospital” for a complete makeover and was now a “BRIDE” instead of having been dressed as a WAC – this prize possession of mine – my Christmas gift – was gone! No one in the “ORPHANAGE” knew where my DOLL was. The NUNS said they knew nothing about it and I could not find it in any of the lockers, in the “Girl’s Locker room.

Every September and February – all Lockers are changed so that kids who have left the “Orphanage” or had Graduated from 8^th grade – leaving empty lockers – and to keep the lockers in a sequence of older girls by class room grade separate from the first graders – or some such system that the NUNS devised – Everything that I own and did have before going home for the Holidays, I no longer own? All Gone – Everything. And “NO ONE KNOWS – where anything of mine is?

It was like I did not exist anymore? Why not leave me stay home with my parents, if I was no long wanted and all my possessions could be taken and sent to “Germany!”

Let me tell you – not all children are better off living in “Orphanages” or other places – that are only interested in the money they receive. For us to live at the “Orphanage” Catholic Charities collected my Father’s pension and got a Court Order for $10.00 per child  – per week. There were other families whose parents paid also, so there was no free lunch!

Jan 15th “One of our many Episodes!”

Back in 1946, the “Orphans” would be allowed to go home to be with their parents, for the Holidays. My sister, Eve Karen Mc Clarren was born February 16^th and for Christmas we were all going to home.

My father came to the German St. Vincent Orphanage on Christmas Eve to pick up my brothers, Denny and Tommy and me and some of our clothes – since we would b e home for two weeks. When we walked in the front door, I can still see in my mind the layout of boxes and baskets of foods and gifts that were for our Christmas. Just looking at all this stuff, I thought we were the richest of people alive. When I compare what I really saw and what was really there, using today’s amounts of food stuffs and thing I would prepare today – we were just average people. It’s that way with a lot of yesterday life seen by a child and when the same is seen by a 50 year old, it shrunk!

We were so happy together, finally – and my mother and our new baby, Eve Karen – needed us – at least me, because I would just love to sit in our Boston rocker and rock my baby sister and sing all the songs I could think of. My brothers had lots of new things to play with and were also helping to sing to our new baby sister. Also, my father was doing all the right things to make every ting work, so that my mother could rest and get some strength back after her long hospital stay.

Our two weeks home went by so fast and we were all so happy, the decision was made that my parents were keeping us at home with them and not to send us back to the Orphanage. My brothers and I were in 7^th heaven or so we thought – but Catholic Charities working for the German St. Vincent Orphanage, contacted the St. Louis Court system and proceeded with arrangements to get someone to go to our house and take us from our parents home and bring us back to the Orphanage. By the time all this was done – it was now almost March.

As a child – maybe 9 years old – I felt like a criminal returning to the “ORPHAN HOME” – a lot of the nuns were from Germany – WWII had just ended – and I was treated unmerciful – there was no earthly reason that the NUNS should mistreat small children for what the parents do..

There is so much more that happened that I will have to continue – later.