Jacqueline (Jackie) Jones, Resident 1956-May 1961
I became a resident of the Avondale Children's Home in December of 1956. My parents divorced a couple of years before that and my mom was forced to go to work to help make ends meet. At that time, I became a domestic engineer at the age of 12. I was cleaning the house, doing the laundry on a wringing washer and hanging the clothes on the outside clothesline, cooking meals and if that wasn't enough, I took care of my four siblings. Click for more...
Through all of that there wasn't much of a chance to be a pre-teen so I began to rebel and finally got their attention. So my brother and I went to live with our Grandparents to help alleviate some of the financial burden. Two months later Grandma passed away in her sleep. My brother was placed in a foster home and I went to the Children's Home, as Grandpa was unable to care for us the way he worked.
Actually the situation was the best thing that ever happened to me. I finally was allowed to be a teenager for the first time. It was two weeks before Christmas, I was still mourning the loss of my Grandma and then being away from home for the first time it was a little difficult to settle in and adjust. Once I settled in it was like living with 23 big and little sisters.
I learned discipline and structure. Our day started at 6:00 a.m. on school days and 7:00 a.m. on weekends, holidays and summer vacations and the day ended with bedtime at 9:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Upon rising, we made our bed, dressed and then had breakfast. After breakfast, we did our chores; such as, dusting, dust mopping, cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning the dining room, and doing dishes all before getting ready for school. On Saturday the chores were a lot more serious cleaning. The chores were rotated on a weekly basis so you didn't get bored of doing the same job. In the summer, we washed walls and cleaned windows and even got to try our hand at doing some painting. The work we did was not hard and when I got older I realized it only helped prepare me for life.
During the schoolyear we participated in many after school activities-school plays, dances, prom, and went to all the football and basketball games. We were allowed to date (double date) but we seldom did, only on special occasions. There was always a designated time to do homework, after supper and before bedtime and if you were lucky enough to finish early you got to watch a little television before going to bed.
We attended church on Sunday and I was very much involved in the youth group, helped with church suppers, taught a pre-school Sunday School class, and attended church camp in the summer. I still attend the same church- I was married there, had all three of my children baptized there, and my two sons were married there.
In the summer, we went to Lake Isabella to swim a couple times a wekk, went to the Skyway Drive-in theater, went to the county fair, went camping at Seneca Lake and Pymatuning Lake and like normal teenagers we sunbathed as often as we could.
We got to attend several local functions throughout the year. We went to the Liberty Theater and saw many of the big name movies, like "The Robe" and "The Ten Commandments", went to the Shrine Circus in Columbus, and the Sertomea Pancake Day.
Birthdays were made a very special day with a cake and a gift(purchased by one of the local women organizations). At Christmas, we were asked to make a list of three items we really wanted for Christmas. We got one of the items on the list and them we all got some small things that were bought in bulk; such as: nail polish kits, gloves, slippers, bubble bath, etc. At graduation, we allreceived a large piece of Samsonite luggage with our initials on it.
The home had a huge room in the basement that was used as a recreation room where we played board games, cards, listened to and danced to the current music on a record player. When the old Avondale School that sat in back of the home closed, it was renovated into a recreational center. A jukebox was donated for us to play the current hits and occasionally we went shopping to update it with the newest hits, and someone gave us a used Ping-Pong table. It was a neat place for entertainment and socializing on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon.
My mentor and very special friend was the head cook and she was a die hard Cleveland Indians fan and listened to them on the radio on Sunday afternoon in the kitchen. Since I liked the Indians too, I always volunteered to help her make sandiwches for the evening meal so I could listen to the game with her.
I got to work part-time jobs to earn extra money to help pay for my class ring, senior year pictures and other extras. I delivered the evening and Sunday morning newspaper, "The Signal". I frequently babysat for a family (she was a former resident) and sometimes helped her with cleaning chores on Saturday. She has been my very best friend all these years. The summer before my senior year I was able to utilize my secretarial skills from school by working at a local real estate office.
My experience of being at the Avondale Children's Home was truly very rewarding. I learned life morals and work ethics from the time I spent there. I developed some very lasting friendships that I have stayed in contact with over the years.
