A Girl Grows In Old Chicago

About the Book

This book is dedicated to Dr. Jack Ledbetter, poet, teacher and friend. Dr. Ledbetter is professor of English Literature emeritus at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, California.

About the Author

My Cook County birth certificate says I was born, Marguerite Eugenie Bartodziej, one of eleven children born to Frank and Esther.   My dad was a truck driver. Dad shortened our name to Barth after the eighth child was born because he wanted to put his name on the side of his first owned truck, and Bartodziej was too long.  Remember when telephone operators had a switchboard in their living rooms, and you had to ring them to get a line and the street lights were gas that had to be lit by a lamplighter? Anyway, I’m glad I’ve lived long enough to write this book with a computer.

Paul Lindau, Beaver Dam, WI...Illustrator .  I’m a preacher, son of a preacher and an artist mother and unlike  the author of this book, I grew up and lived my whole life in small towns. I was one of those kids who doodled on my school papers and am happy for any opportunity to draw