[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.
