Category: Biography

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Biography

Helen

[Helen was] born in Wayne, Michigan on December 6, 1901. She was the youngest of 8 children of Albert & Frances (nee Urban) Morock. Believe he [Albert] used to work at one of the Catholic churches as a janitor, but later the family moved to the country and he got a job in Detroit at a foundry, coming home only on weekends on the urban car.

They [the Morocks] had a dog named “Trip.” When he would hear Albert whistling when walking from the urban car stop, he would run to meet him. This dog, Trip, hated the dog across the road. He belonged to the Harness’s (?). When the Morock kids would see the dog across the road outside, they would tell Trip in the house — there’s Rocky, and Trip would “go crazy.”

When Helen was 6 years old, her father died of pneumonia. Grandma’s [Helen’s] father (Albert) was ill. Someone was moving and despite people telling him to stay home, he helped. He died shortly after of pneumonia. Frances & her children remained on the farm. They lived off the land they farmed. They were very poor. In the spring & fall, the farmers in the area would go from farm to farm planting & harvesting. Like to come to Frances Morock’s farm; they said she put on a good meal. (The kids liked it too — they got a good meal also!)

Helen was educated in a one room schoolhouse through the eighth grade. Later the family moved to Medbury(?) Ave in Detroit. At 15 she worked in a noodle factory. Bad working conditions. Mice used to run over the noodles. One time Helen cut her finger and some blood got on the noodles. The boss just rinsed the blood off & packaged the noodles.

Before her marriage, she and Aunt Cel worked at Dodge’s on Joe Campau in Hamtramck  in the printing department. They used to walk to a store where they made candy at lunch hour and devour lots of candy and peanuts. Their mother would be angry many times because they weren’t hungry at supper time.

When young women, people thought Cel and Helen were twins.

When Helen was around 8 years old, she & her sisters were walking home from school. Her sisters noticed she wasn’t with them. They back-tracked and found she had fallen {illegible}

When Grandma [Helen] was about 8 or 9, she and her mother were at a neighbor’s when a storm came up. They started home quickly. The wind was blowing so hard they had to hold on to the fence as they tried to walk.

When they got home Grandma’s [Helen’s] mother told her to go upstairs and close the windows. She did, but she was one frightened little girl. Guess this is the reason Grandma always lit a vigil light and made the sign of the cross when a thunder and lightning or a wind storm was in progress.

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Funny tidbits

One time a girl at work brought in some cheesecake cupcakes as a peace offering. It was so good I [Dorothy] got the recipe and took a batch out to the family. I told Grandpa [Florent] that it was a custard and we had been eating it. My turkey of a nephew Tom asked me what was in the cupcakes and I tried to be vague about it, but he kept pressing me for an answer, and I, stupidly, told him the cupcakes contained cream cheese. Grandpa never ate them again.

One Christmas your Grandpa [Florent] and I [Dorothy] were driving to your Mom [Lorraine] & Dad’s [Edward’s]. I had the desserts, I had placed a cherry pie on the floor in the back of the driver’s seat.

At Utica and 14 Mile a guy in a car made a left hand turn right in front of me. Don’t know why he couldn’t have waited; our 2 cars were the only ones there.

Well, we didn’t have any cherry pie for dinner because I had to slam on the breaks and the pie slid under the driver’s seat and I had cherry pie all around my feet.

My grandpa’s [Eduard’s] house had a porch with windows on two sides of the house, near the back door was a swing fastened to the porch ceiling by two chains. One day Aunt Martha & someone else were in the swing and one of the chains broke. No one was hurt. We laughed so hard about this; Aunt Martha had to wash her underpants because she wet them.

When this was happening, my dad [Florent] + Uncle Joe [Morock] were picking up a boyhood friend of my dad’s, Father Joe Duquette, a very funny man.

After we got through laughing about the swing, we decided to fasten the swing + wait for the men to return. We wanted to face where the guys would sit in it. Well, they sat in it and we giggled and giggled, waiting for it to fall. The guys asked us why we were giggling so we finally had to tell them because their weight wasn’t enough to break the chain. We were disappointed!

The only place to wash at my Grandpa’s was the kitchen sink. One time, your Grandma [Helen] told your dad [Edward] to wash his hands. He wasn’t moving so Grandma told him again. No movement. My Aunt Len [Magdaleine], who was severely retarded and couldn’t speak clearly, was also in the kitchen. She walked over to your dad, grabbed him by the ear and took him over to the sink. Your dad was sure surprised and we all had a good laugh.

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Biography

Florent

Born in Beveren, Belgium on January 22, 1900. In Belgium, the people living closer to France are called Flemish and the part of Belgium near the Netherlands are called the Walloons. The Flemish think they are superior. I believe there is still agitation between the two – both want their dialect to be the language of the country.

[He] came to the USA at the age of five with his parents Eduard & Marie, his very retarded sister Magdaleine (often called Len or Leneka) who was born on 3/18/01, and his half-sister Alice de Cauer.

Marie did not care for it here so she and the children returned to Belgium. Because she was not treated well by the family in Belgium, she and the children returned to the United States when Florent (Grandpa’s given name) was seven years old.

They settled in a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan called Republic. A lot of settlers in Republic were from Belgium, Sweden, Norway and Finland. (No doubt they like the cold and snow like the homeland.)

Florent like to ski and bobsled with his buddies when he was young. His father had a garden in the summer; on his lunch hour during garden season (when school was in session), Florent would have to deliver vegetables to his father’s customers.

Iron ore mining was the main industry in Republic and surrounding area.

When Florent was in grade school, he would be asked to sit with newcomers arriving from Belgium and teach them the 3 R’s [reading, ‘righting, ‘rithmetic] until the children would learn the English language.

Florent graduated from Republic High School.

After WWI work slackened in the mines and only one member of a family could work in the mines at that time. When he was 18 Florent decided to come down to Detroit to work in the factory. He started at Packards. Was also on their baseball team.

After Grandpa [Florent] came to Detroit, he was not with Belgium people. Years later I asked him to say something in Belgium [sic] and he couldn’t remember anything.

Some time later he got into Ford Motor Company’s school and was taught tool and die making and subsequently got a job with Ford’s in River Rouge.

[He] used to take the Baker street car from the east side of Detroit all the way out to the Rouge plant.

Florent met Helen Morock at the Arcadia Ballroom on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Years later we (your dad [Edward] and I [Dorothy]) were told that the first time he saw Helen, he said to himself that she was the girl he wanted to marry.

Grandpa [Florent] and I [Dorothy] moved to Eastpointe on October 1, 1978. On Dec. 15, 1979 I put him in the hospital. He might have had a slight stroke before he went to the hospital. While in the hospital he had a massive stroke. It was touch & go for a while after that he could speak but he was mentally incompetent.

He had to be put in a nursing home where he stayed for 11 months.

In one of his lucid moments he said “You know they got my number” and I said “yes, but they’ve got to call it.” He agreed. Right after Christmas he was put in the hospital where he passed away on December 31, 1980.

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Florent’s accident

In December 1941, Grandpa [Florent] was delivering milk with his horse and wagon. It was 7:30AM and still dark. Although he had a lantern on the back of his wagon, a young man drove into the back of the wagon which caused many cases of milk to fall on Grandpa. At that time milk and cream were in glass bottles + in wooden case. 

Grandpa went to a doctor who took care of people who worked for the creamery. He (the doctor) didn’t have any x-rays taken, although Grandpa kept complaining about shortness of breath. Grandpa went back to work a few days later. 

About six weeks later, Grandpa had terrible pain in his back above the waist on the right side. Our family doctor sent Grandpa to the hospital, thinking he had a kidney problem.

After x-rays, the doctor asked Grandpa if he had been in an accident recently. Then he told about the ramming of his wagon. 

They found 2 broken ribs which had festered. This poison settled in Grandpa’s right hip socket or the hip bone (I forget which). (This was caused because he been lifting the heavy cases of milk while his ribs were broken).

Grandpa had 2 or 3 operations, the first one unsuccessful. After his last operation, he had to wear a leg brace.

Grandpa became very bitter after the surgery. He enjoyed working outdoors with his horse and wagon and now he was able to get around only with the aid of crutches.  He was no longer able to work at a job outside our home.

He was going to sue the Creamery (because the doctor did not have x-rays taken) but becuase he had accepted insurance benefits on his company policy, the lawyer said he would not have a case.

I [Dorothy] was in the tenth grade at the time; it was during WWII. I got a job at F. W. Woolworth as a salesgirl. At that time, each counter had a salesgirl and cash register. I started at 35 cents an hour. I worked there through my senior year. Gave Grandma [Helen] some money each pay (rest paid for my schooling) which she saved to buy me a Bulova watch for my graduation.

When Grandpa was in the hospital, Grandma went to the hospital twice a day, everyday, always stopping at St. Anthonys church for a visit and prayer.

I firmly believe the power of prayer kept Grandma going. This was very trying times – Grandpa hurt, little money coming in and two children in school.

Grandma told us it wasn’t until she was a grown woman that she started praying in English – she was taught to pray in Polish.

Grandpa finally got rid of the brace on his leg.

Our home on Sheridan was not too far from Gratiot and Van Dyke. Many items were hard to get during the war. Many times during [World] War II Grandpa would walk (on crutches) and wait in line so he could get a pair of nylon stockings at the Cunningham Drugstore. (Nylon hose came out just before the war). My first pair of nylons lasted me one year. They were much stronger hose at that time. Grandpa also waited in line for a pack of cigarettes.  Sometimes the clerks at Cunningham’s would let Grandpa know when they were going to get hard-to-get items and he would be one of the first in line.

Right after WWII, our landlord sold the home we were renting and we had to move. Housing was very difficult to find and with Grandpa not working, it was more difficult. 

During Grandpa’s illness many priests used to bring the Holy Eucharist to Grandpa and also stop and visit Grandma + Grandpa. One these was Father Joe Lapinski, through his efforts we got into a temporary housing project on Iowa Street (near Davison and Van Dyke). We lived there until 1954 when had to move because they were going to tear down the buildings.

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Growing up

Helen Morock and Florent (Helen’s family and friends called him “Van”) Van Langenhoven were married on June 10, 1924. Cecilia Morock and Eugene Rassette were maid of honor and best man. Gene was a friend from the Upper Peninsula.

They lived with Grandma [Frances] Morock and Uncle Joe Morock (a bachelor) for a few years after their marriage at 6442 Sheridan Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. I [Dororthy] believe both Aunt Dorothy and your dad — your dad was named after both Grandpa’s: Edward Albert — were born at this address, delivered by Doctor Burgess who was our family doctor until his untimely death. One of his patients with pneumonia vomited on him and he died shortly after.

Detroit - 1930s
A map of Detroit, circa 1930. Many places mentioned are around 23-N

We then moved to an upper flat on Baldwin Avenue. It was here that your dad and I got the measels. Your dad was about 1½ years old. As young as I was I can still see the wicker buggy he would be in. He was very ill and moaned and moaned. My cousin Isabelle helped Grandma [Helen] at this time. 

We then moved some dumpy house on Duncan and I went to Trumble school for about half a year. Then Grandpa and Granma bought a house on Wisner (off Van Dyke Avenue, near Forest Lawn Cemetary). I went to Holy Name School.

Then along came the depression. Grandpa was laid off of his tool and die making job at Ford’s, probably about 1931. Since he was off work, Grandpa and Grandma decided to go see our Grandfather [Eduard] Van Langenhoven in Republic, Michigan. It was a two-day drive, some of it on gravel roads; and you had to take the ferry to get to the Upper Peninsula. I think we went with Aunt Martha, Uncle Joe, and Ruth.

Grandpa [Florent] told our neighbor that, should he get a telegram to come back to work, to let us know immediately. The telegram came, but somehow the neighbor never let us know and Grandpa lost his job at Ford’s.

I [Dorothy] graduated from St Anthony High School. Your dad [Edward] quit St Anthony’s in the 10th grade and went to Aero Mechanics School at Detroit City airport. He quit there in the 11th grade, much to the distress of Grandma [Helen] and Grandpa [Florent]. Your dad did not graduate from high school. Years later when he was laid off at Chrysler’s, he had a hard time finding a job, even delivering bread, because he didn’t have a diploma.

Grandma prayed + prayed whether she and Grandpa should buy a home, which they decided to do. They cashed in Grandpa’s Travelers Insurance policy and unknown to no one but Grandpa, Grandma and me, Aunt Cel lent the rest of the money to Grandpa and Grandma at one-half percent interest! (May she rest in peace!)

In 1952 a friend of ours (Dora Priddle) was going to quit her job selling magazines over the phone. She asked Grandpa if he would be interested in doing this from our home. He took over her job and gained many new customers. Won quite a few prizes in selling contest. (What a God-send that job was!) Grandpa did quite well financially until about 1970 and then the publishers started sending notices directly to readers so by the time the salespeople called, many had already renewed their prescription[sic].

In 1965 Grandma had surgery for a prolapsed bladder. The day after surgery her stomach swelled up terribly. Two weeks later she had exploratory surgery; they discovered cancer of the ovary.

For two years Grandma was given chemotherapy (most experimentally) She would take them every week. (Thanks to Isabelle Wood (my cousin) she got a ride to Grace Hospital’s Darling Center.) I still remember the doctor’s name, Dr. Melvin Reed. Grandma thought the world of him.

After a series of injections she would become immune to these drugs and have to start on another. 

Her tummy would swell making her look like a very pregnant woman. This fluid would have to be drained from her tummy, which was very painful (about every 4-6 months)

On Dec 15, 1966 she entered Grace Hospital where she was to have a new drug. It was a powerful one so they wanted to her to be at the hospital a few days after the injection, Grandma developed a blood clot and was in serious condition. From that point on, her condition got better but then started to deteriorate. Grandpa and I could see her slipping away a little more each day.

On Feb 20, 1967 at approximately 6:30PM, Grandma’s soul slipped away from Earth and entered Heaven.

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Stories touched by the war

Your Grandma [Helen] was an excellent baker. Her pie crusts, made with lard, were great. After WWII she purchased lard several times and it was terrible, so she started to use Spry (we preferred it instead of Crisco). It took her quite a while to get adjusted to the use of Spry in making pie crusts, but she mastered it!

During WWII our upstairs neighbor, Mrs. Young, was preparing a meal with her pressure cooker. Something went wrong and the cover blew through the kitchen ceiling and the pot dropped to the bottom of the stove; of course, making a big hole. She had to get a permit or whatever they called it, from the rationing board to get a new stove. Luckily no one was hurt.

We had ration books for meat, canned food, butter and dairy products. Each family had so many stamps per month.

Clothing (that is, decent clothing) was hard to get. We had to wear lisle stockings (saved our nylon’s for “good”). They were heavy stockings and wrinkled badly. Some dresses and blouses were made of rayon material, which was of very poor quality. Even today I cannot buy the rayon, thinking how awful it was back then!

When the war ended, we all went down to Gratiot and Sheridan and everybody was happy and kissing anyone near them.

Right after WWII, our landlord sold the home we were renting and we had to move. Housing was very difficult to find and with Grandpa not working, it was more difficult. 

During World War II your dad [Edward] wanted to join the Marines; but because of his age he had to have Grandpa’s [Florent’s] signature, which Grandpa would not do. In 1945 your dad was inducted into the US Army and served one year in the Philippines. Remember your dad telling the story of a sergeant throwing a book at your dad, saying “Keep this machine running.”

After getting out of the service Ed got a job at the factory at Chrysler’s. He wanted to get a car; much to the chagrin of Grandma [Helen], Grandpa and me [Dorothy], he bought an 8 passenger Chrysler to $850. A real gas guzzler! Sold it soon after your mom [Lorianne] and dad were married. Can remember the story of your mom having to push this monster of a car when it got stuck in the snow in Connecticut.

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Visiting Republic

When your dad [Edward] and I [Dorothy] were kids and we all would go up to Republic to visit our grandpa [Eduard], Uncle Joe [Morock], Aunt Martha and Ruth would go along. Grandpa and Uncle Joe would go fishing every day and every day our big meal at near noon would be fresh sautéed fish. Delicious!

Our appetites were so ravenous when we were there, we would eat cereal and then toast bread on top of the wood burning stove. It tasted so good! I can remember one breakfast I had 5 slices of toast. Aunt Martha hollered at us and told us to get out of the kitchen that day. Saying she and Grandma [Frances?] were getting dinner ready and we were still eating breakfast.

One year Uncle Joe, Aunt Martha, Ruth + Uncle Henry, Aunt Martha and their four girls plus Grandma [Frances] Morock all went up to Republic. Of course, our main meal was fish. One day baloney sandwiches were put on a big plate and placed on the table where the kids were seated. We were told to wait until given the word to eat. When we were given the word, you never saw anything disappear so fast! 

Grandma Morock was a heavy-set woman who wore long dresses which she sewed together by hand with tiny stitching without {illegible}.

{illegible} across the road from my Grandpa’s [Eduard], there is a picture of her there. {illegible} her dress looks like a balloon.

One year Uncle Joe, Aunt Martha, and Ruth accompanied our family to Republic. There were 7 of us in a 4-door 1938 Chrysler. We kids took turns sitting on a small chair in the back. We weren’t too far from my Grandpa’s [Eduard’s] on a gravel road when a tire blew. I remember our Aunt Martha saying “hold it Joe.” The car went out of control and rolled over about 3 times, hitting a huge rock. When the rolling was done, the car was on its side. One of us was standing on Ruth and Len [Magdaleine]. Amazingly none of us were seriously hurt. Grandma [Frances? Helen?] had some skin burns from rubbing on the upholstery. We found Uncle Joe’s rimless glasses in the grass. The car was totaled. People couldn’t believe no one was seriously hurt or killed.

1938 Chrysler Imperial Touring Sedan

A car stopped and a man offered to take the women and kids to my Grandpa’s. Uncle Joe and my dad [Florent] stayed with the car. When we arrived at my Grandpa’s, the man hesitatingly gave us his business card. He sold tombstones!

I believe that was the time Uncle Joe’s insurance agent neglected to renew his auto insurance so he had no insurance.

Grandpa [Florent] and Uncle Joe had to buy a used car — a 2-door Chevrolet. Talk about being packed in that car like sardines! Needless to say, that vacation was not the best.

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Biography Meta

Hello!

Inspired by Aunt Dorothy’s writing, I’ve tried to make an area where we can share stories about our family. Some silly, some serious, some embellished, but all full of the love that is the fabric of our family.

Many of the stories I have to put up here are transcribed from Aunt Dorothy’s hand-written stories given to her nieces and nephews. When transcribing, we tried to name the people mentioned in the story by relation, but some are more challenging than others; you’ll find a few question marks where we weren’t quite sure. You’ll also see a few places where we just couldn’t make out the words written on the page. We kept as much as we could possibly read.

There are also two Edwards in these stories – one is the grandson of the other. Because it quickly gets confusing, I’ve used the Dutch spelling of the name (Eduard) for the man born in Belgium in the late 1870’s who ultimately became the grandfather and namesake of the man born in Detroit in the 1920’s. This is simply to keep these two Edward Van Langenhovens as separate individuals in writing; there was no spelling difference in reality.