Globusz^® Publishing 

In the northeast part of Normal, Illinois was a state institution build after the Spanish-American war around 1865. It was to house and take care of orphans who lost parents, or one parent was not able to take care of their child due to the war. Like many such institutions, it started small and grew and its needs demanded. It was to take care of either male or female children. As time passed and other wars increased the need for a place for such children, this home grew and improved. In later years it expanded and allowed children needing a home to enter outside of veterans children. Its housing and facilities included its own school, gymnasium, indoor swimming pool and many other recreational and educational needs of the children.

Housing consisted of cottages housing either sixteen girls or males separated in set aside areas on the site. The majority were boys, and they have separate cottage areas according to age groups. This meant that those who had not reached puberty stayed in one area and them were moved up to older boys cottages in a separate area. When any child, either male or female, reached 18 and graduated from high school, they left the home and were on their own. The state did provide assistance for living until they turned 21.

The home had established a rather strict and set pattern for all the children to live under. This was to keep order and uniformity in the way children acted. This did not promote the usual family structure and attitude of those children living with their family. With several hundred children living in this home, this was deemed to best way to have the children grow up under the influence of the home. Individual concern of a child would be rather difficult to maintain and control, so a uniform system was developed. The system was universal with both the male and female children living in the home.

Once a child entered the home, the welfare department started seeking foster homes for the children. Since this was during the years 1942 to 1951 for me, this was a very limited option. A single female or a married couple ran each cottage. Those with married couples were in a better environment for future life. I was in one under a single lady and later moved to the older boys cottages under a married couple. This will be covered later in the book.

The home did try to make life as good as if possibly could. It was not always a perfect situation for all the children and there were some serious problems at times. In general, most children were treated very well and benefited from the life at the home. The time I spent in the home, some rather disturbed and troubled children were brought in and they were mixed with all the rest. I guess I could be labeled as a troubled child due to the trauma of my family background. I was two and a half years old when placed in the home and have no memory of anything prior to entering the home.

The home had its own bakery, community kitchen, laundry, power house which generated steam heat for all the buildings, hospital, administration building, school, indoor pool, gymnasium, movie theater and all the separate cottages for the boys and girls in separate areas. There was an elaborate group of underground tunnels for all this throughout the home.

The schools large auditorium was used on Saturday night to show movies for all the children at the home. I remember the cartoons, news films, but cannot remember a single movie I ever saw there. Actually cannot even remember a movie name I saw at the theater in Normal on the weekends either.

The school consisted of first to eight grades and called Felmley Jr. High. There was also a separate boys crafts building used mostly for summer school. It had its own auditorium for movies, plays and band concerts. The gymnasium for sports along with an attached large indoor swimming pool was located near the girl’s cottages and not near the school. There was only a two-week summer vacation. The summer schooling was to keep children occupied and was mostly arts and crafts. Most of the teachers were student teachers from Normal state teaching school. There were a few regular teachers too. I attended this school from first grade to seventh grade only. Upon graduating from grade school, the children attended a high school in the town of Normal till they graduated there.

The gymnasium had a full basketball court and was only used for that. The large indoor pool was attached to the gym and was one of my favorite places to go. I was a good swimmer. They put in a high diving platform, but I was too afraid to jump from that height. Managed to get a junior lifesaver award.

The powerhouse was a coal fed provider of electricity, steam heat for all the buildings. All the water supply from the city of Normal was channeled through it and them pumped to all the cottages and buildings. Every building had steam heat and there were underground tunnels leading to them from the powerhouse. These tunnels carried water, electricity, steam heat and sewer lines and all linked to the powerhouse.

The hospital was named Horner Hall and I was in it a few times over the years. Once with scarlet fever which ended up with me having rheumatic fever the rest of my life. I also had my tonsils removed there. There was a dentist office too and the dentist would come in occasionally to handle patients. I remember him swabbing my teeth with some new item that was supposed to keep them from decay. I don't know if it worked or not and if still in use today.

The bakery made all the breads, pies, and cakes for the cottages. I worked there once in a while and got to sample some of the fresh baked goods. The large kitchen was located in the back of the administration building. It made all the meals for the children three times a day. The meals were delivered to the cottages in steel containers with enough for sixteen children plus the number of cottage parents. The food was actually very good and well prepared. Shortly before I left the home, the meal delivery to the cottages was stopped. There was a very large dinning room in the Administration building right next to the kitchens. The cottages took turns walking the children to the dinning room for meals.

Next to the bakery was a receiving and storage building for incoming food supplies like milk, eggs, meats and other items. I remember them having large wooden kegs of dill pickles. I actually liked them and was able to get one once in a while. They also had buttermilk sometimes and believe it or not, I like it too and got some sometimes too.

The laundry was also in the back area of the administration building and was picked up from the cottages and delivered back when washed, folded and ironed if needed. The children in each cottage were required to change their own bedding and put away clean laundry in closets until needed. Sometimes the children had to iron some of the laundry. They were responsible to put on clean clothes after their showers and put dirty clothes in appropriate hampers for pick up.

The entire home looked like a campus for a large school. It was surrounded by large open fields and had no fences or gates to keep children in or anyone out. Things were much different in those years and security did not pose a problem. It was safe.

I have no knowledge of any problems with abducted or children being lost from the home.

The children in all the cottages were assigned cleaning duties. This included bathrooms, kitchen and all rooms in the house. The house parents mostly supervised this. The children had to make their own beds each morning, change the sheets when required and do any assigned special cleaning if needed. Each cottage had its separate living space for the house parent(s). This was their bedroom and bathroom.

There were three basic types of cottages. The girls were a nice two story and in a row all by themselves. They could house sixteen girls at a time. The boys were divided into two separate areas. Those not yet to puberty were in the area called the village. Later when they reached puberty, they moved to boys row. The village cottages were one-story cottage. They had a large living room with a working fireplace, large dining room with five round dinning tables with one for the house parent(s). They had a large long bedroom to hold sixteen old fashioned iron and spring beds. They had one large shower and bathroom. The boys’ row and girls’ row houses where two story and a little larger, so they could accommodate older children. These were really large and had more space than those in the village. All the cottages had sixteen boys in them.

Each cottage had its large kitchen and dinning room. The kitchen was used mostly to serve the food delivered by truck in steel-pots. It as was to wash, dry and store dishes, silverware and other kitchen items. The children were required to wash, dry and put away all dishes, silver ware and drinking cups and glasses after each meal. The truck would pick up the washed containers for the next meal after each one. Just before I left Washington cottage to move to boys row, the food delivery was stopped. There was a very large dinning room in the Administration building and each cottage would walk the children there for meals at assigned time. The large main kitchen was right there too. No more washing dishes!

The kitchen did have cooking facilities like a stove, oven and refrigerator. Sometimes a house parent might fix something special for the children. The refrigerator was necessary to store the cod liver oil the children had to take every day. I still remember that stuff: a tablespoon full for each boy once a day. Ugh! I actually developed a good taste for that stuff.

The city bus of Normal/Bloomington made a stop near the home to provide transportation to town and back for both the adults and the children. Times were indeed different then, children of almost all ages could leave the home without an adult to watch them. There were no fences around the home to keep children in or others out. Children were given an allowance to go to town for a movie on weekends. This usually was 25 cents. It paid for a round trip on the bus, movie ticket and some candy. Later it got all the way to 50 cents. Looking back lets me see why going to children’s Saturday Matinee was simply something adults avoided.

Relatives were allowed to visit the children – once registered. They could bring gifts and take them out to a movies or park or dinner as long as approved and registered. This was encouraged by the home. My grandmother on my father’s side used to see me often before she passed away. My mother was restricted due to her background and problems although she did get to visit me a few times. She never saw my brother and I at the same time. My grandmother on my father’s side would bring me a large box of Italian cookies at Christmas time. It did not last long with sixteen boys sharing them. I miss the cookies. They were tasty. This grandmother was on my father’s side and never wanted to see my brother Richard. She was a true Sicilian.

Once a year was American Legion day. Each division sponsored a child in the home I was. On their day they brought special food, toys, rides and had fun playing with the children. On year I got a bike and was so proud of it. It was used, but I thought it was the best in the world. At Christmas all the legions groups made sure there were plenty of Christmas gifts under the tree for all the children in all of the cottages. Had the bike for about four months and then one of the boys in the cottage wrecked it. Lucky he only got a few scratches. I can still remember the Christmas tree at the cottage with piles of gifts for all the sixteen children left by the American Legion. Each child had a group that sponsored him or her for these events and birthdays and holidays. I can clearly remember the legion members giving me the bike and posing for the pictures they took.

During summer time off, most of the children attended a small camp in Wisconsin. This was located at Coloma, Wisconsin, It was owned by a state senator who let the state use it for this. I met him there once and he actually wanted to adopt me. For special reasons, the state would not let him do that. Had an unusual event happen there. One of the counselors decided I needed to look like a cute young Indian boy for the games we played. He had me wearing only a small towel as a loincloth and a feather in my hair. He seemed to enjoy making sure I look cute and had wandering hands. Today I understand his problem. Lucky some of the other counselors stopped him and things worked out and had fun that day.

All the clothes were supplied by the state that had a special storeroom for children to go and find what could fit them. This included shoes. There was also a barbershop in the hospital building for all haircuts for boys and girls. It was a very self-supporting institution. You can find lots of pictures and information about the home if you search on Google at ISSCS. It was almost as though there was an undeclared uniform for both the boys and girls. This was because only basic clothes were purchased by the state and style was not considered. I remember having to roll up my pants because they were always too long.

There was another popular place for the children to hike to outside the home on weekends. We called it Crab Creek. That is because of the crayfish, which looked like little lobsters or crabs to us. It was deep enough in some areas to swim in too. This was on a private farmers land and not sure what happened to that. This was the place where some of the children would run away from home to hang out. They usually came back quickly. We never heard what happened to some who ran away.

One favorite place for me was the ball diamond park near the village. Once in a while was able to play baseball with other boys from the home. There were lots of ball games from schools outside the home to watch and was fun to do that. There was a large open field to the left and right field, which I called spider valley. This was due to seeing hundreds of small spider webs in it early mornings in the summer due to overnight dew. The main entrance to the home was near the ballpark too. There were no gates and only a sign telling where one was entering. The home had no fences around it.

Next to the home was a farm for growing vegetable and was run by the home. When the crops needed weeding or picking, the children were used for this work. I remember cutting asparagus and picking string beans. Later we would get the beans in baskets at the cottage to be snapped in half and cleaned for the main kitchen. There was a man who was called Beef Anderson who was a supervisor and he was not liked by any of the children. He was somewhat of a bully.

Now that I have given you a general description of the home, it is time to tell you about me. And what happened while I lived there. Much of what I tell you may be difficult to believe, but none of it is fiction. Remember, this only about me and not what the rest of the children experienced. There were a few who did experience the same things though, but I cannot say who they were.