Crazy Kids

Crazy Kids
Originally uploaded by HerrWeave.

Born to an Ingham County horse-raising family, he was a 22-year-old trolley car conductor, a direct descendent of President John Adams. She was a 20-year-old Irish-American laundress. They met on the trolley and fell in love. She was engaged to another man...he pleaded with her repeatedly, finally convincing her to break it off.

In ten years, he'll help her give birth to their fourth child, put on his hat, walk out the door and they'll never see him again. She'll be saddled with four kids, no real job and they'll be plunged into abject poverty on the dusty plains of South Dakota.

Ladies and gentlemen, my great-grandparents, Frank Pratt and May Hughes.