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ELIZABETH CODY MOORE
REMEMBERS "DADDY" |
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Hard times returned in '29 and he struggled along with everybody else.
His health failed and he died of cancer in 1937 at 62, when Elizabeth was 27. Professionally trained, she
worked at Cleveland's Public Library and married Edgar Arnold Moore in 1934. Baby Edgar was born in 1936, Philip in 1940 and Mark in '47.
Her sister Sarah Isabel 148/275 also worked at the Public Library, but she was 10 years younger, so no overlap in employment.
Elizabeth begins with a remark to her neice, Margeret Diane (Thompson) Monahan 148/2761...
"Peg, you asked me to tell you what I remembered about Daddy, so here goes.
This is sort of a biography, I think, because I keep remembering things about myself."
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"Daddy seemed to be sort of a socialite. He enjoyed
going to parties and dancing. Mother met him at two or three
dances when he wasn’t a particular gentlemen friend of hers.
Aunt Grace’s friend, Ann Watley, was a friend of his at one
time and they all hoped that they would get married. They
thought that would make a great combination, but that didn’t
work."
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"One year Daddy did go with us. We went in the car
to Jacksonville, all of us. And, then we got on the
boat and then they put the car on the boat and we
went to Baltimore. And then, we got on the train -
Mother, the maid and the kids and Daddy and
Philip took the car and drove from there to
Cleveland. That was the one trip that I remember
that Daddy was with us. Most of the time he just
didn’t travel with us. I guess it was just too much
to have too many kids around."
"What I remember about life with Daddy in those
days - we were very much in awe of him. We didn’t
see too much of him. When the house was built,
Mother and Daddy’s bedroom was at the end of one
hall; that’s the house in Cleveland, the nursery was
at the other end of the hall. That was a long way
away. And, I can’t even remember a baby being in
Mother and Daddy’s room. Mother just had to run
around and take care of the babies. Daddy used to
enjoy babies. He’d sing to them and bounce them
on his knee. But I can remember seeing him hold a
baby up and saying, this one’s wet. He couldn’t
stand wet babies."
"Something else I remember about Daddy, we never
ate our meals with Daddy. We had to eat in the
breakfast room or in the kitchen because he
couldn’t stand having kids acting up while he was
eating. Good many years later, I remember one
time, by that time I think there were six of us or
maybe five, when Daddy was at the table with all of
us and somebody began to giggle. Daddy took his
plate and walked out to the kitchen and set down
out there to eat. We were all just really scared.
Made us realize that you had to be really good to
eat at the same table with Daddy."
"I think Mother tried real hard to keep things
peaceful, quiet and calm for Daddy because it was
easier to do it that way. I remember seeing them
get dressed up and go out places sometimes in the
evening or sometimes they would go on a trip and
leave us with the maid. So they enjoyed each
other’s company. But just so many children were
just a little bit more than Daddy was willing to
handle. I think. I don’t ever remember his
punishing us, except Philip. One day I remember
Mother said something Philip had done and she
said, “Your Father will have to take care of this.”
Mostly if we got spanked, it was Mother that did
the spanking but we were scared of Daddy anyway."
"By 1920, when Sarah was born there were five of us
then and I know Mother said she felt that going
back and forth twice a year with all those children
was too much too handle. But, also, I think Daddy
was beginning to realize that he couldn’t spend so
much time away from his work, I don’t know.
Anyway, for one reason and another, they decided
to stay in Cleveland that year instead of going to
Florida and oh, I know one problem was because
there wasn’t any school."
"I hadn’t been going to
school all this time. I would start school and as
soon as I went to Florida I would bring my books
and it wasn’t until the end of the year we’d come
back and finish that year in school. So, Philip was
getting old enough to go to school too so they
didn’t think it was a good idea to keep us out of
school that long. That was another reason we
stayed in Cleveland that winter."
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"Anyway it was
certainly not a good year for any of us spending it
in Cleveland. At the end of the summer a strange
thing happened. Something I really haven’t figured
out but anyway we all moved out to the farm and I
don't think Daddy went with us. I think Daddy
went to live with Uncle Harry. Now I believe that it
was because the house had been foreclosed. He
probably was having financial problems. We never
heard about money at all. Money just - I didn’t
think, you couldn’t have this because we can’t
afford it. It wasn’t anything I ever heard in my
childhood. But, I think, that was the situation."
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"I went to Helen Early’s school for a year and the
next year they said well they couldn’t afford for me
to go to Helen Early’s school and I should go to
Frostproof. Anyway, Helen Early said I was ready.
for the 9th grade. Now at Frostproof High School
they had four teachers. I don’t know how many
kids for the whole high school and I thought - I was
really snobbish, I thought I was just too good to be
going to a Frostproof school, that I was better than
they were."
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"I remember she was there over Thanksgiving. She told us she had a
turkey leg made out of nuts. I was impressed with
that anyway. And, he just didn’t have anybody to
get him up and he thought I was needed to stay
home and take care of the younger children
anyway, so that was the end of my going to
Frostproof to high school. Because when Mother
came home from the hospital with Peggy, she put
her basket; I had the little tiny room, that had the
ceiling came down over the room, you could hardly
stand up in it. She put her basket in there. Plus I
guess Daddy wasn't going to have a baby in his
room anyway and she told me how to take care of
the baby. She showed me all about everything."
"So, nobody was thinking about my going back to school." |
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"I know Mother used to teach me, and Dr.
Cord's wife tutored me in Latin and just some how
or other they decided they could’ve afford to send
me to Helen Early's school and everybody was
unhappy about my going to Frostproof. Me and
Daddy, we didn’t either of us care about that
situation. So that was the end of my Frostproof
schooling. And then, of course, the next year I
went away to boarding school."
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"At one time I remember
the newspaper had a story about Daddy having
done a million dollars worth of business that week.
Of course, most of that business was on paper as
its true with all the deals during the boom. One of
the things Daddy worked on with Uncle Frank was
getting the owners of property all around the little
town of Crooked Lake to sell it to Mr. Babson.
Neither Daddy nor Uncle Frank ever got any
commission for selling the land to Mr. Babson
because he felt they should be glad to have him in
their area."
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"About this time, they build the North wing for the
house and Daddy built a much larger office and he
had a decorator come and decorate his office and
decorate the downstairs of our wing. We had a
guestroom and special living room. I thing it was
supposed to be Mother and Daddy’s living room.
The big living room was supposed to be ours. I’m
not sure just what the situation was. We also had a
baby grand piano and we just had all kinds of
things."
"Oh yes, he was also superintendent of the
Sunday school. Daddy always took us to Sunday
school from the time I was just a little one I could
remember every Sunday. And, later on when we
didn’t have any Sunday school to go to, he had
Sunday school in our house for us."
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"It was also about this time that Daddy became
interested in drilling for oil in West Frostproof. I
remember going out there and seeing this rig and
him saying, “this is where our bread and butter is
going to be coming from.” Of course, they never
found any oil there or any of the other places they
drilled around Frostproof. But, there was a lot of
excitement about it at one time."
"By 1928, the boom was pretty well over. Daddy’s
business, as well as any real estate business in
Florida, had just hit rock bottom. I know they
couldn’t afford to send me to college for the
second year, so I went up to Cleveland to live with
the Gales and what went on from then, I really
wasn’t at home enough to know."
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"Of course, gradually Daddy became more of an
invalid. I know he was in the hospital in Atlanta
and he was also in the hospital at Bay Pines.
Finally, of course, in 1937 he died of cancer."
"Daddy always had big idea(s) and enjoyed prosperity; of course, most people do. But, he especially seemed to feel the way things turned out was partly his fault and he was really very depressed for having a family he couldn’t support and I think he just partly just became too depressed to want to get along any further." |
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"He just felt he was a total
failure and he became very difficult to live with. I
am sure he was unhappy and I know he made
everyone else around him unhappy. He was also
very domineering at times. It seems as though he
was trying to assert himself and convince himself
the still had something to say. It was all very sad
that that was the way his life turned out."
"I am sorry to end on such a negative note. If I
think of anything more that might be of interest
I’ll add it."
"But, I’m going to turn the tape over and on the
other side I’m going to see what I can tell that I
remember about Mother. Margie suggested that I
do that." (She never completed one on her mother.)
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