Percy Kenneth Brock - My grandfather-Part 2

From My Mother's Notes

Phyllis Fricker's Memory Book

Chicago, Illinois and Valparaiso, Indiana

In the interim my father went to work at a Knitting Mill in Dunneville. Here he met a girl, Mabel Evelyn House, who was to become my step-mother. Now, Dad moved to Chicago to set up a printing shop. My step-mother also moved to Chicago and worked as a Hostess in the Dining Room of an exclusive Restaurant. My mother had a sister - Hazel and her husband Ed Bierworth, who lived in a Brownstone 2 storey house. My Father and Mabel lived with them in Chicago. Grandma Faulkner then took me by train to live with them in Chicago. I can remember the day they got married. I was almost 5 years old. I recall having difficulty calling Mable Mother.

We then moved out to a suburb of Chicago called Forest Park. We lived in a two-apartment house - downstairs. How my Father got all of these different jobs I don't know. I do know he was a genius with machinery of any kind and very inventive. He was a whiz at woodworking and metal working and anything mechanical.

Their next move was to Valparaiso, Indiana, where my Father set up a custom-made shirt Factory. He had 3 or 4 girls working for him. He made the patterns himself - all brass bound fiber-board. He imported beautiful shirting material from England. Mother used to work beautiful monograms on the pockets for him. I loved to go to the factory which was upstairs in a large building. Across the hall from the factory was a dentist's office.

The dentist used what was then called "Laughing Gas." I remember hearing the patient's snickering away while they were having their dental work done.

I can remember being out for a walk with Mother and Daddy in Valpo and I would shout out "There's one of Daddy's girls." Mother would say "Sssh! I never could understand why she was so concerned.