The Kids Are Growing and So Is the Store

As Carrie Raschka's two youngest daughters had close birthdays, she decided to host a joint birthday party to celebrate Bernice's fourth and Wilma's second. (I haven't been able to find an exact birthdate for Bernice, but I believe it was sometime in July 1915; Wilma had been born July 15, 1917.) And so some fifteen little children came to the Raschka home on Lake Street on Wednesday, July 9, 1919. They spent the afternoon playing games and eating goodies. A week later Uncle Charles and Aunt Luella Olson came out from Fort Wayne, bringing with them 18-year-old Cousin Flossie and probably some birthday presents as well.

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Back in Ainsworth, the store that the Raschkas had enlarged in 1905 was growing once again:


(Click on image to enlarge)

You will notice the lengthy article on that page about the return of George Severance, Jr. from military service. He was at last safe at home with his family, including his wife of two years — and I think in those two years they'd spent more time apart than together.


Sources:
♦ "Goldman's Store Building Being Enlarged." Hobart Gazette 1 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Hobart's First Soldier Returns." Hobart Gazette 1 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 10 July 1919; 17 July 1919.
♦ Untitled social column. Hobart News 19 July 1917.