tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4361177862439594723.post3178798428416141757..comments2015-10-13T12:33:39.726-07:00Comments on As Long As They Are Remembered: The Babbs Switch School FireDebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14133236228952504852noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4361177862439594723.post-66246197326730824722014-10-12T21:59:01.879-07:002014-10-12T21:59:01.879-07:00Oh my, small world isn't it? Thanks for sharin...Oh my, small world isn't it? Thanks for sharing your family's story with me. For a while our family's lives touched each other's. And though we don't know each other your grandmother and aunts almost certainly met my dad and my sister-in-law's father Orville. <br /><br />Families were close in the 40s and 50s. Orville and my Dad and Hall Jr were in business together when I was a child, and we lived together in the same house. The household included in-laws and sometimes friends and old folks who had no other place to go. No one got paid for taking care of them either. It was done out of kindness and because no one would have tolerated seeing an old soldier or widow homeless, or living in a room alone when they could be included in a family. <br /><br />I can't help thinking America was a better place when we weren't so blinded by dollar signs and obsessed about making sure anyone who gets help "deserves" regular meals and a roof over their head. We just assumed everyone deserved the dignity of of love and care, whether they were a child, disabled, old, sick, or just down on their luck.<br />I think we had the right idea, but we were revolutionaries. <br />Debhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14133236228952504852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4361177862439594723.post-72601346280298553332014-10-12T20:52:39.803-07:002014-10-12T20:52:39.803-07:00My grandmother had four sisters injured in this fi...My grandmother had four sisters injured in this fire. One, Ethel Hill, was not expected to survive, but she did. Tragically, 10 years later, her youngest sister, Ruthie, who was not in the Babbs Switch fire, was killed crossing the street in the evening of Christmas Day in California where the family had moved to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com