Thursday, August 20, 1981 Vol. 92, No. 1 USPS 650-640
THE University Daily KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Section 3 City lifestyle
Lawrence native recalls past
Editor's note: Mrs. Aldrich's family has informed the Kansan that on July 20 Jeanneette Aldrich suffered a mild stroke and was hospitalized.
Staff Reporter
By MARC HERZFELD Staff Reporter
The books propped up on the couch along the wall show glossy photographs of places Jeanette H. Aldrich has visited: Pormpei, Rome, Cairo and Athens.
But in her hands are reminders that she cannot travel as she once did; a carved bamboo cane from Tokyo in her left hand and a small bottle of nitrogycerin pills in her right.
AFTER TRAVELING three times around the world in the last 28 years, Aldrich had settled in New York.
"I feel that I have traveled full circle now." Aldrich said. "Living in the Eldridge House is some small compensation for not being able to walk very well."
Aldrich's grandfather, Robert Gaston Elliott, lived in the Eldridge House, Seventh and Massachusetts streets, during the 1860s. Elliott was the editor of Lawrence's first newspaper, The Free State, and he selected Mount Oread as the site for the University of Kansas, Aldrich said.
"Grandfather of a philosopher, and he
was a temple to knowledge on a bill," she said.
ALDRICH ATTENDED KU herself during
wife's visit and she said students were differ-
ent when at work.
"Ladies wore hats in class and out," she said.
"Of course, our dresses were much longer and the mud was much deeper."
Blue jeans, now standard campus attire, were seldom use in KU students.
"They were jeans to clean out the stable. Blue jeans were called overalls and they were considered farm clothes," Aldrich said.
Entertainment at KU was different from current student diversions, Aldrich said.
"Some of the students did dance, but it was a little frowned on," she said.
Drinking, at least among the students Aldrich knew, was almost non-existent. Aldrich said that the churches in town formed a large part of most students' social lives.
"Of course, if we had the price, we bought season tickets and attended baseball games," she said.
ALDRICH REMEMBERED the Lawrence
GOLDFIELD musical's main
place for both culture and entertainment.
"I remember going there with my father when I was five or six years old," she said. "When I came home that night, I told my mother I wanted to be an Opera House lady when I grew up.
"There was a vaudeville show, with singing and dancing, although very discreet dance, not too loud."
Aldrich said that the Opera house scared her. "It was a perfect firetrap—just a great big woman."
The Bowersock Theatre, as the Opera House was then called, did burn down in 1911, the same year that a tornado tore through downtown Lawrence, near Aldrich's home.
"It noticed the color of the sky—it was a yellow
no yellow I had ever seen—it looked
poisonous."
"There was an incredible noise, and every wowl in the house was sucked out from the outside."
"If we had been out in the street, the telephone wires would have chosen us to roistermeat.
That 1911 tornado killed three Lawrence residents, and in addition to damage caused to Lawrence buildings, blew out windows and ripped a tradpoor off the roof of Old Haworth Hall, on the site of the present Wescoe Hall, on the KU campus.
ALDRICH LEFT Lawrence after her 1919 graduation to teach English at high schools in Hutchinson, Boise, Idaho and Portland, Ore.
She married a young Portland Lady, Bertin Aldrich, in 1928. Both Aldrich and her husband were members of the NAACP.
"We had always planned to do a little traveling, but then the Depression came along and kept us pretty much tied to Oregon," she said.
Her husband died in 1854, and Aldrich returned to Lawrence to care for her parents. She noticed changes from the town she had left behind 30 years before.
"The greatest change has been the spreading of the stores into outlying areas, and the general deterrence."
After her parents died in 1962, Aldrich started
her career as a world traveler, using Lawrence as her home base.
She had long wanted to sail around the world, but she said she felt a need to look after her parents before she left Lawrence.
ONCE SHE WAS IN EUROPE, Aldrich rekindled her interest in languages, especially German. She studied at the Goethe Institute in Germany and the now tutors friends who want to learn German.
Aldrich fulfilled her dream of visiting Athens, on a hill her grandfather had loved but had new friends.
Her last trip, a Mediterranean cruise she took three years ago, left Aldrich with a bad impression of modern packaged tours.
"I had only half a day to spend on the island of Credit, when 10 days is not really enough," she said.
"I traveled when travel was gracious, and when the waiters had time to pick up a spoon when you dropped it."
NOW, ALDRICH cannot travel because of her health, and because of her falling eyesight, she is unable to write letters to people she met on her travels.
However, she said her main regret was her last of appreciation for her father while he was alive.
Her father, Samuel Elliott, was a Lawrence postman who never made much money but always kept his family of six children well-fed and entertained, she said.
Aldrich received her first taste of travel when her father took the entire family camping. Even the family cow accompanied them to supply fresh milk.
Her father loved giving fireworks shows on the Fourth of July, Aldrich said. She said she still remembered her father saying after a show, "There's 25 cents gone to blazes."
"I was watching the stars and I remember
that she glay they wouldn't go out like the
fingerprints."
Aldrich, now 86 years old, remains independent in spite of her walking difficulty. One friend, Betty Allen, 340 N. Michigan St., said that Aldrich hadt to ask for favors.
Allen said, "I asked her whether she needed any groceries, and she said, 'Just bring me six'."
Philip Bohlander, left, and Robert Pierce, discuss what to do next in the renovation of a house on Ohio Street. The house is one of several older homes being renovated in the Oread Neighborhood. See renovation story on page 4.
Lawrence lifestyle map
A. Lawrence City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets
B. The Lawrence Arts Center, Ninth and Vermont streets
C. The Beer Garden, 1344 Tenn. St.
D. Bogart's of Lawrence, 611 Vermont St.
E. Bottoms Up, 715 Massachusetts street.
F. The Congo Bar, 520 N. Third St.
G. The Greek's Sports Desk, 2000 W. 23rd St.
H. Green's Keg Shoppe and Tavern, 810 W. 23rd St.
I. The Harbour Lites, 1031 Massachusetts街.
J. Ichabod's Inc., RFD 3
K. The Jayhawk Cafe, 1340 Ohio St.
L. Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St.
M. Louise's Bar, 1009 Massachusetts街.
N. Louise's West, 1307 W. Seventh St.
O. Mike's Pub, 1717 W. Sixth St.
P. Mr. Bill's, 201 W. Eighth St.
Q. Suds-N-Duds, 2120 W. 25th St.
R. Van Lee Valken No. 6, 1830 W. Sixth St.
S. The Hawk's Crossing, 12th and Jayhawk Blvd.
T. The Wagon Wheel, 507 W. 14th St.
U. The West Coast Saloon, 2222 Iowa St.
V. Time Out, 2408 Iowa St.
Editor's Note: See related stories on pages, six, eight and 10.