After the tragedy of 1907, Vi Burgan was ready to begin again. She lived with her grandmother Agnes and Aunt Annie, and Dad stayed there when he could. After a few years in another neighborhood school, she began at School # 50, on Gorsuch Avenue in Homestead. There was no parish school at the time, so Vi joined the other local public school kids in this fourth grade photograph. It would appear that it was taken on a cold day, and children's clothing tells an interesting part of the story. Some are dressed stylishly, while others look like the children who just got off the boat in Locust Point. Vi is dressed like the little lace curtain Irish girl that she was, complete with long hair that had grown back after her bout with typhoid fever a few years earlier. Have you spotted her, front left?
Vi's mini autobiography tells of how The Irish Matriarch and Aunt Annie had lunch ready for her each day, and then would go take their nap afterwards. This was a great time for her to sneak to the public library for a new book. She was allowed to borrow one book at a time, and Vi read voraciously. On Saturdays, she would pretend to be one of the kids that were too young to get a library card, and listen to the local librarian read to a gathering of younger kids; at least until she got caught!
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