Ancestry Chapter 40
1920 Motorcycle Demise, 1920 Census, West Prussia Given back to Poland
The Decade Beginning with the Year of 1920
The Demise of the Motorcycle, 1920
The date is not precise, but about.
This time it is Steve Norek who has an accident. He was not seriously hurt, but he needed emergency room treatment. Anna’s boyfriend, Joe, took him to the hospital. At the hospital they put something that smelled very bad on his wounds and sent him home.
Joe and Anna hid him upstairs but Michael Norek noticed Steve was missing from the dinner table, or smelled the medicinal odor from upstairs. In any event, Poppa Norek found Steve, and that was the end of the motorcycle.
Story related by Bob Norek who heard it from his father Stephen. Placing event in 1920 because of the recollection was that Joe was the person who took Steve to the hospital. And the story is corroborated by the photo on this page of Mike Jr. Click on the photo for the enlargement, and you will see the motorcycle-for-sale sign in the window.
Photo on
left is Michael Jr. taken in front of
the Norek home on 23rd Place. I am guessing a date between 1919 and 1920.
Click the photo to see the motorcycle-for-sale sign in the window.
1920 Census, 2144 W. 23rd St. Chicago
The name "Norek" is spelled correctly. Surprising given the census taker's misspellings noted below.
Now here again the husband/wife age difference is being fudged. (Since the children's ages are listed correctly, the errors on the parents' ages must be deliberate.) We saw earlier an age fudging with Michael and Helena.
Michael (spelled "Mickly" -- the census taker's spelling preference?) is 43 (wrong, 56). Antonia is 33 (wrong, 31). Mickly (that's Michael Jr.) is 11, Josephine 8, Peter 6, Gertrude 4, Dorothy 2, Dolores 3 months, and Stephen 25. Where is Anna? She's upstairs.
In the same building, upstairs flat, we find Mathias, photographer, wife Cecilia 29, children Helen 5, Ralph 3 and Marion 1. Plus Anna Norek, stenographer, 22.
Is anyone wondering why Anna, a 22 year old working gal, who might already be dating her future husband, Joe, is living upstairs with her sister Cecilia and her family? If so, please reread the line-up downstairs. (Upstairs Anna probably even had her own room.)
Census interview of the Norek household was conducted on January 10, 1920.
Partial page from the 1920 Census.
Prohibition will begin six days later, and it will last until 1933.
Ten days later, rule of West Prussia transferred to Poland, with the exception of the town Danzig and its immediate surrounding region. Danzig becomes a free city.
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