Helen writes about being a child and teenager

In The Story of a Lifetime: The Personal Memoirs of Helen Sullivan McIntyre, Helen takes a moment to answer a few questions about herself.

What were you like as a child?

I was shy.  My Mother used to say I was afraid of my own shadow.  She said "You let people walk all over you!  God help you when I die!"  I guess I was a mope.  I always had lots of dreams but never fulfilled them.  My Mother always talked about how I would never cross a street without hanging on to my Father's hand; while my brother Tom would run head first into the traffic, and that's how he lived -- going right up the ladder to his highest potential.  I was the opposite. But next month I'm going to be 84.  Don't mess with me.  I'll tell anybody off!  My Mother would be PROUD!

What was your greatest fear when you were a teenager?

That I would never stop growing.  I was afraid I would be 6 feet 5. When my Mother's friends would see me every so often, they would always say "Helen I think you've grown a foot since the last time we saw you."  I didn't like to hear that at all

I thought I'd never have a boy friend or ever get married.  And, if my Mother and Father died, I'd be all alone.

To whom did you turn for advice?  Why that person?

I wasn't much for asking advice but my Mother always gave me advice anyway.  Tom would give me some advice too.  I remember I was going on my first date, Tom decided to talk to me.  He said never to let a boy take advantage of me; and not to let them touch me where they weren't supposed to.  Then he pointed to my breasts and said, don't let them touch your breasts.  I guess I said OK, turned red and walked away.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your teen years?

It was hard at first.  It seemed I was just a little girl and then all of a sudden I blossomed into a tall young lady.  I had lots of insecurities at first, but it all turned out OK.  When I think back it was a fun time.  No big worries, just what we were going to do for fun.  I went up to Long Lake a few times with Mary Alice (Hopkins).  Her folks had a cottage there.  I went up to Lake Lawn Lodge on Delevan Lake, Wisconsin, for the first time with Ruth Nott.  I loved it and went back again many times.  Mary Alice would borrow her brother Ish's car and she, Junadell and I would ride all over Chicago.  We had club meetings and a group of us would get together every few weeks.  We saw all the latest movies, ate many a hot fudge sundae, took long walks in the summer, usually down Madison St. or Washington Blvd.  In our late teens we wound up with Jim Moffett, Jim Cullen and Larry McIntyre.  We took rides in Jim Cullen's roadster.  Had parties at our houses.  Had my first drink! Never enjoyed myself.  My dates were nice, good looking, tall, but I just never could relax and was glad when the date was over.

Yet, when we got mixed up with Larry and the two Jims I enjoyed myself and when Larry first kissed me, I knew I loved him right away!  There never was anybody else.

Tom Sullivan Describes the Area Where he Grew Up

Excerpt from Thomas A. Sullivan's Memories, March 4, 1994.

Tom begins his 12 page "Notes About Things I Remember - Mostly Trivia" noting that the write up has been requested by his grandsons.

"I was born at home on Fillmore Street in the Westside of Chicago, in the upper of a two-flat owned by my grandmother (maternal [Bessie Thompson Madigan]).  It was a true 'back of the yards' neighborhood.

"We faced north.  In our long block from the east:

• St. Louis Ave, going west
• An empty lot
• The Pattons, a little brick home with three generations of widowed or unmarried ladies
• Our brick two-flat
• An empty lot
• The Maloneys, four rough-necked boys and a girl
• A yard owed by our city ward for storage of trucks and maintenance equipment
• A saloon
• Central Park Avenue

"On the north side of Fillmore street, facing south:

•  A City pumping station for water
• More City Ward equipment
• A swimming pool
• A factory making screens
• Homan Ave.
• This is a two block stretch as St. Louis ended at Fillmore

"Behind the above is the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad tracks and behind it a multi-storied Sears Roebuck building that stretched the two blocks from Central Park to Homan Avenues.

"None of this is meaningful to anyone but me -- I spent the first ten years of my life here, and here Helen was born, at home, on 3/11/14.  This was the Center of my Universe."

 This Google Maps shows were 3511 W. Fillmore was located.

Tom Sullivan's Memories of Fillmore Avenue, 1908-1918

Excerpt from Thomas A. Sullivan's Memories, March 4, 1994.

My Early Life - 3511 W. Fillmore Avenue, Chicago

"My Father had a workroom in the basement of Fillmore Street and he formed a number of things out of pipe. He had a crude ability for woodworking but metal was his forte.  I remember him making a wide swing on the second floor porch where we lived.  I must have been about three as I could just stand and look out the kitchen window while he worked.  This is the earliest memory I have.

"When they built the swimming pool across the street I was about seven.  A friend of my Father's was in charge and I used to go over every day and play along the edges of the pool.  One day he asked me if I wanted to learn to swim.  I greed and he threw me in.  I thrashed around and nearly drowned.  He had to jump in clothed and pull me out.  That ended his interest in me.  I still hung around until the job was done but he ignored me.  Guess he thought I didn't try.

"Another memory - one day my Father and I took Helen to Garfield Park in he buggy.  He was sitting on a bench at the top of a hill while I pushed the buggy.  Suddenly the buggy got away and rolled down the his dumping Helen in the pond.  My Father raced down and fished her out, ruining his shoes, trousers and the rest of the day.  I must have been eight.

"In my first year I went to Our Lady of Sorrows School because they had a bus.  I was five but good at spelling because of my Mother's efforts at home before that time.  I used to place second in all the spelling bees after a girl who had a lock on first.  all through grammar school there always was some girl who would beat me at most subjects, tho I generally was among the top boys.

"My second and third year where at a "German" school a few blocks from home.  For some reason my folks didn't like it so fourth, fifth and sixth were at St. Agatha's about a mile from home - where I was baptized.  I used to walk there in the morning, back and forth at noon, and home in the P. M.

"It didn't help much, I was still a fat kid.  The Jews were just starting to move into the neighborhood.  When we walked in orderly class lines from the school to the church they threw pennies out the window and pandemonium developed.  After a couple of instances the kids were threatened with eternal damnation if they didn't stay in line so the Jews gave up.  We had the B.V.M. sisters who prided themselves on teaching so my seventh and eighth grade3s at St. Thomas Aquinas were a breeze.  We had moved to Latrobe Ave. by then.

"To wind up Fillmore Street - Ruth [Rooney] would come to visit from Denver a couple of times a year.  Her Father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad so he would get some sort of a deal for his family when he traveled.  Ruth was bound to make a gentleman of me: tipping hat, ladies first, men walk on the outside, etc.  My Mother was strict on table manners but didn't bother with other things, but Ruth made up for it."

 Ruth Rooney and Tom Sullivan, c1910.

 From Helen Sullivan McIntyre's Album.  Photo entitled "Pals"

Helen remembers Tom when they were young

Helen writes in The Story of a Lifetime: The Personal Memoirs of Helen Sullivan McIntyre about when Tom and she were young:

Tell about your brothers and sisters and your relationships with each of them when you were little.

I just had a brother called Tom.  He was 5 1/2 years older than me.  We didn't do too much together.  He always seemed so grown up.  Although I did remember when I was about 6 we would play down in the basement.  We'd fill the double wash tub with water and sail home made boats.  My tub was the Atlantic Ocean and Tom's was the Pacific Ocean.

I also remember when I was in second grade and Tom was in eighth grade at St. Thomas Aquinas School, I became sick to my stomach and the nun said I should go home.  She said do you have any friends or relatives in the higher grades that could walk you home.  I thought and thought, finally I said I know Joe Differman in 8th grade.  So she had him brought down to my room and he took me home.  He was a good friend of Tom's.   When Tom got home he was mad and asked me why I said Joe and not him.  I said, "Oh, I forgot you were in 8th grade!"  He sure thought I was dumb!

We also had some white rabbits in cages in the back yard.  We never cleaned their cages and sometimes forgot to feed them and a couple died.  My Father got disgusted and opened the cages and let the rest run away.  We were upset - but had no more rabbits.

What other memories would you like to share?

Tom was in 8th grade at St. Thomas Aquinas and I was in 2nd grade.  He was an altar boy at St. Thomas Aquinas Church.  One day the altar boys were told to bring their cassocks home to be washed and ironed.  When I saw my Mother ironing this pretty, white lacy thing I thought she had made me a new dress.  I wanted to wear it.  She told me it wasn't mine, it was Tom's  I started to cry.  I said "Why is Tom getting a new dress and not me?"  My Mother tried to explain why, but I still was jealous.

My Mother always had Christmas Eve with all her relatives.  We always had the biggest real tree ever but there was never any presents put under the tree until Santa Claus came.  When it was time for him to arrive, Tom and I were told to go and wait in the kitchen, a bit later we would hear the doorbell ring and a few minutes after that we were called back into the living room and there was loads of presents under the tree.  One Christmas Eve we were waiting in the kitchen and the bell rang.  I said "Oh that's Santa Claus!"  Tom said " There is no Santa Claus, That's Mother ringing the bell.  Then she hurries upstairs and puts all the presents under the tree."  That was when I didn't believe in Santa Claus anymore!

Al and Nell Sullivan on Honeymoon, 1907

Al and Nell spent their honeymoon in Denver, Colorado, per their daughter Helen.  They married on August 20, 1907.  In 1907, it is believed Nell's sister, Nanette, was living in Denver.  They most likely traveled to Denver to visit with Nan, her husband George and their then 2 year old daughter, Ruth.

Helen pasted the photo into one of her albums, making it the front page.

  I thought it appropriate to keep her "artistic" rendering of the photo!

Tom Sullivan's Early Memories of his Parents and Sister

Excerpt from "Notes About Things I Remember" by Thomas A. Sullivan, March 4, 1996.

Mother, Father and Helen

"Mother was the most important person influencing my mind and career.  We had a blackboard and she used to teach with it faithfully every day.  Before I started school in Sept. 1913 at 5 yr., 3 mo., I knew the alphabet backwards, count well above 100, and spell common words.  My table manners were good but my clothes consisted of "Buster Brown" suits and long curls which were cut off just before starting school.  When I found I was the only one in the school in Buster Brown, that ended.

"My Father tried to bully me rather than explain.  I tended to go my way without confiding in him.  For example, when he announced, when I was in eighth grade, that he was taking me down to St. Ignatius High to enroll me, I told him I had already registered at St. Mel several months before.

"My Mother was very concerned about Helen's birth.  I was much overweight and she had a bad time, but Helen was normal but a fussy baby.  I was a much older person (5 years) and ignored her as she wasn't a boy and hence from a different world.  We grew up separately, she had her friends and I had mine.  I didn't get to know her until Mother died when she suddenly took over as the head of the family and began to get me in line as part of her world."

 Photo of Nell and Al Sullivan, Helen in car window, on a vacation trip late 1920s

Memories of Al Sullivan by his Daughter

From The Story of a Lifetime: The Personal Memoirs of Helen Sullivan McIntyre:

What memories do you have of your father during your childhood?

"How hard he worked.  He was a steamfitter and put the heat in all the houses on the north shore.  He'd leave at 6:30 in the morning and come home about 4:30 dead tired.  He was always dirty from the work and rushed to the bathroom to wash up.  On hot summer days he would come home not only dirty and tired but his clothes were wringing wet!  He used to tell me how he would walk on the high steel girders while the homes were being built.  The girders were only a foot wide and he was up 2 or 3 stories with no protection on either side.  I would say "aren't you afraid you'll fall?" He'd say "No, just always keep looking up - never down."

 This photo, taken in the 1910s, shows Al Sullivan (second from right) at work.

  Behind him is some of his steamfitting handiwork.  

"I remember his sitting in his den reading western magazines one was called Argosy.  He loved the western stories and bought several magazines a month.  Whenever we would ask him what he wanted for his birthday or Christmas, He'd always say, "Just a few kind words."  He loved to listen to Laurel and Hardy on the radio.  I can still see him sitting in the living room and laughing his head off.

"He liked to tell funny stories and our alderman Tom Casey would always stop by to listen to him.  He was very conservative and didn't feel like spending a lot of money foolishly yet he saw we had great vacations and everything that we needed.  He was a great guy.  Now that I realize it -- I wish I had told him how much he meant to me!"

What other interests did he have?  What were his hobbies and what did he do for fun?

"He loved to read, especially western story magazines.  He loved flowers.  We had the prettiest backyard on Latrobe ave.  There were roses, phlox, lilacs, peonies, geraniums, daisies, petunias, verbenas, four o'clocks. He also made a little vegetable garden with onions, carrots, radishes and tomatoes.

"He loved music and Sunday morning after Mass he would always bring home a new record for our Victrola or a new roll for our player piano.  He loved movies and stage plays.  He loved the water and taking boat rides. He loved a nice box of chocolate candy.  He also loved Christmas.  He'd buy the biggest real tree in the lot and always have to saw off the top to fit in our living room!  He also always bought real holly wreaths for all our windows."

Which of your father's physical and personality characteristics did you inherit?

"His tallness, sense of humor, the love of the water, being near a lake and going for boat rides.  He loved to read and so did I.  He loved plays, movies and music and so did I.  He couldn't carry a tune and neither could I. He was a good dancer - not me."

What else do you remember about him?

"I remember how he loved my mother.  He'd say "How's my baby," "You look so pretty today."  Even when people were around he'd say "Doesn't Nell look pretty."  Mother would get so mad -- she'd say "Oh Al, stop it, don't be so silly."  I guess she was embarrassed, but he never did stop it!  I often wished Larry would talk to me like that!"