My Mother's Scrapbooks

Cover of 1944-1945 Scrapbook

I remember as a child spending many a rainy afternoon poring through my mother's photo albums and scrapbooks.  There were two scrapbooks dating to her last two years at College of  St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN

First page 1945-1946 Scrapbook

It was war time...the fall of 1944. Letters and telegrams from other places, Europe, the Pacific, the East Coast, join report cards, dance cards, playbills, corsage ribbons and more throughout the pages.

Those report cards, although better than those of my father from Notre Dame, were not quite up to the standard we often felt were expected of us growing up.  Why was that so, there was never any punishment or reward for grades, just the expectation we would do our best and our best should probably be all "A"s.







Suitors abound.  One filled his letters with comical drawings... others sent small gifts such as hankies.  And then, in the fall of 1945 the lay of the land changed .....

Mom's "little sister" congratulated her on being among the 2% of librarians that married...noting that of course she was not yet a librarian or married!   From then on the letters from others dwindled, but did not disappear.  There were still letters from the suitor that eventually married a good friend, the brother of her "little sister" and her soon to be brother-in-law as well as all those from my father who was on the East Coast.

The war in Europe ended, then the war in the Pacific theatre.  In early winter of 1946, Mom was named St. Catherine's Winter Carnival Queen.  In June she graduated with a Bachelor degree in Library Sciences.  She spent the next year teaching library science to the nun's at Hill House.

Scrapbook 1944-1945
Scrapbook 1945-1946
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