"Taking Root in Wilmette" by Elisabeth G. Weedon, 1867-1965

Description

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Track1

Transcription

TRACK 1 

Hi I'm Vivian Weedon. Today I'm going to read you a story which my mother wrote. This story tells about coming out to Wilmette to make a home in 1895. Now things were very different in 1895, and even I who came along in 1903, don't remember many of them. However, in an attempt to bring it even more up to date, I've asked my niece, Deborah Ardley, to question me as we go along, about things as we go along about things she doesn't understand. Deborah was born in 1948, and um..she spent much of her time with Grammy in the old home. But she can't remember some of these things, and so as we go along she's going to interrupt me. Now this article was written by mother for the 40th anniversary Bulletin of the Wilmette Woman's Club [pp.9-13]. That was in March 1931. OK...we'll go along.
 
It's called "Taking Root in Wilmette," by Elisabeth G. Weedon.
 
There is an old theory to the effect that every seven years one is a completely new being; that there remains not even the least tiny atom of the person who existed before. Whether true or not, this seems rather a fascinating conjecture to follow into it's varying by--paths. To be sure the change in one's personality, bodily, mental, and spiritual, (if the behaviorist still allows us a mental and spiritual existence), is so slow as to parallel that of evolution. And yet, if one looks back, critically, upon her individuality at seven, at fourteen, at twentyone, at twenty-eight and so on, (this one simply refuses to go a step farther than nine times seven) it is apparent that nothing remains of the self of the early septennates and only faint traces of that appearing in the later ones. "I am not the man I once was," is often said, sadly. I wonder if it might not be said gladly. The passing years do steal the gold and leave the gray, abstract the high ideals and bring passive acceptance, take away the belief in Santa Claus and leave the certainty of the tax collector. They also bring, however, understanding, tolerance, a breadth of view and a sense of humor which makes an apparently drab pattern of life more comfortably wearable than in the days when one confidently and breathlessly attempted to pattern it after an unattainable design. How many of us, having hitched our wagons to a star, expecting to reach the status of a second Rosa Bonheur, a second Julia Marlowe, a second Patti or George Eliot or Pavlowa, suddenly have found ourselves wheeling a baby carriage and really enjoying it! Thirty-five years ago Wilmette was a village of far horizons;
 
DA: She wrote this thirty five years ago?
 
VW: Yes, she wrote it thirty-five years ago which was 1931...in fact well I guess that doesn't exactly...well maybe she wrote this in 1930. We lived in that house from 1895 until your aunt Winifred sold the house in 1967. Now let's see where were we?
 
… of autumn fields gay with the blaze of goldenrod and prairie sun flower, with the crimson, knightly spears of liatris, with the purple mystery of the wild aster, with the thrilling blue of the fringed gentian. A village set in spring woods spangled with violets, blue, white, yellow; with Solomon's seal, spring beauties, purple phlox, wild geranium, buttercups, the pink of wild crab) trees, the white mist of wild plum and shad bush. A village of bird song and of bird beauty; the brilliant orange of the oriole, the scarlet flash of the tanager, the clear color of the little blue bird and the more sober hue of the indigo bunting...

Creators

Weedon, Elisabeth G., 1867-1965, Author

Vivian Weedon, 1903-1995

, Performer

Ardley, Deborah

, Performer

Item Type

Audiocassettes

Description

Undated conversation between Vivian Weedon (1903-1995), and her niece, Deborah Ardley. Weedon read aloud an article written in 1931 by her mother, Elisabeth G. Weedon (1867-1965). The reading is interspersed with questions by Ardley followed by Weedon’s replies and comments. This recording is part of the Wilmette Public Library Oral History Project begun about 1974. A June, 1976 interview with Vivian Weedon’s sister, Sydney Weedon Templeton (1894-1994) is also part of the library’s Oral History Collection.

Notes

"Taking Root in Wilmette" by Elisabeth G. Weedon (1867-1965). This recording is part of the Wilmette Public Library Oral History Project begun about 1974. A June, 1976 interview with Vivian Weedon’s sister, Sydney Weedon Templeton (1894-1994) is also part of the library’s Oral History Collection.

Place of Publication