The Plaza Hotel was a nice residential hotel. When I walked down the hall with Uncle J. D. after dinner to get a pint of hand packed vanilla ice cream the tiles creaked because they were loose. He used to say always buy vanilla ice cream. In chocolate, they can use older milk.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Sattler had ten children, seven girls and three boys. One of them is Philomena. One of the boys died as a young child. Uncle Ed was an undertaker in Chicago and was one of the many aunts and uncles who came over most every night between Christmas holidays and New Year’s like we do here and they would play auction bridge. On New Year’s Eve my mother would come in at 11 or midnight and bring Helen and me a dish of ice cream if we were still awake.

Christmas Eve when I was very young, say 7 or 8, I was asleep in my Grandmother’s front bedroom and my tooth came out! I went out and I said my tooth came out! and opened the door! Everybody was there in the living room decorating the tree and they said “Would you like to join us and help us” so that was kind of fun, "helping Santa Claus". They kept their Christmas decorations in an old straw suitcase. Nowadays we could never keep all our Christmas decorations in a straw suitcase.

Uncle Dennis, one of the ten aunts and uncles married Mame Hines, the sister of Edward Hines who built the Edward Hines Jr. Memorial Veternan’s hospital, a very big hospital in honor of his son.

Uncle Dennis was a sport, a lot of fun. He danced the cake walk; he belonged to the rotary where there was a rule you could not state your place of employment. He stood up, introduced himself and gave his company name, sat down and took off his hearing aid, laughingly so nobody could denounce him.

While playing solitaire in Grandma's front room, I looked up and saw Uncle Dennis standing in the doorway. I said sheepishly "I was cheating" and he responded "I was watching you".

I seem to have made a trip home once during the war. When I changed trains from one station to another in Chicago, Chicago had seven train stations, I stopped in the Plaza Hotel to see Aunt Louise and Aunt Elizabeth. By a very strange coincidence or plan of God, it’s seems so unusual, Aunt Elizabeth was on her death bed actually dying when I arrived. Aunt Lousie was sitting in the livingroom and she was very old, older than Aunt Elizabeth, she said "I don’t know what to make of it". Aunt Mame who owned a funeral parlor called for a hearse before Aunt Elizabeth died because she knew how close it was. I stayed a couple more days to attend the funeral and my father was upset on the phone so he said "So you’re not coming." but he did drive to Chicago and picked me up and drive me to Iowa. That was kind of him to do.

When the war was over I discharged and I knew that Dad had arrived in California. I stopped in Chicago and went to a hospital to see Aunt Louise. She was somewhat senile and pointed out to me “This is my wedding ring and this is my engagement ring". She wanted me to sing with her. She was always lively at every party and she did sing and play the guitar. But, I was too emabarraseed or stuck up to sing with her. She sang "I don’t know why I love you like I do I just do."
Today I am sure I would have sung with her.
Then I took the train and proceeded onto Burlington.

Aunt Elizabeth once said to me would you like to come with me to pick up the laundry to see the china man. Of course I said yes and when we got down there and the man was handing us the carefully ironed shirts I said more than once to Aunt Elizabeth, "Where is the China man I don’t see the China man". And she would hush me up because she meant the men who worked in the laundry and I was thinking of a little piece of china so she kept hushing me.