Medford, MA
Medford, Massachusetts isn't much to look at. A small suburb of Boston, Medford's history, as most of the rest of Massachusetts, dates back to the 1600s. It was incorperated as a city in 1892. It was bustling and industrious then, a center for building clipper ships, and they had a number of factories producing tile and brick. By the 1920s, some of these industries had slackened. Certainly, clipper ships were no longer in production. But there was still enough industry there to draw a family that had come on hard luck in nearby Hyde Park.Phoebe Mae and Cleo Short moved their family of five daughters -- Virginia, Dorothea, Elizabeth, Eleanora and Muriel, to Medford in the late '20s. Things may have been better there, but then the stock market crash hit. The family got even deeper in debt, and eventually began to head into bankruptcy. In 1930, Cleo disappeared. They found only a suicide note and his car near a local bridge. Phoebe Mae was on her own. She took odd jobs to support her family. Our story concerns the middle daughter, called Betty or Bette by her family. She had little interest in school, but loved going to the movies, where she escaped the poverty and shame of her homelife. Naturally, she dreamed of being a part of that world.
It was easy to see her succeeding at such aspirations. Betty was a natural beauty, with her heart shaped face and pale blue eyes. She began to dye her hair a more dramatic black as a teenager. It was about this time that Cleo Short resurfaced. He had been living in California and wished to rejoin his family. Phoebe forbid it. He kept up a relationship with his girls through letters.
posted by kuaptic. @ 3:01 PM
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