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A forgotten headline. A crowded dock. A father who turns back to a sinking ship and pulls a family friend through a porthole. In this episode, we follow the Rabe family—Fred, Delia, Grace, and Kenneth—from a terrifying morning on the Chicago River into the decades that followed, when work, service, and community stitched their lives into something livable again. We open the archive, and listen as Grace and Kenneth share their memories of that day, 84 years later.

Grace becomes a skilled comptometer operator at Western Electric, part of a large, highly trained cohort of women whose precision work kept the company running long before electronics took over. Kenneth rises through the company and never boards a pleasure boat without remembering the river. Fred advances to department manager, yet even after a 1999 article documented his rescue of family friend Anna Johnson, the act was never acknowledged. It’s another example of how an Eastland story can surface clearly in the record yet fade again, even when it should have been carried forward. Their obituaries turn out to be maps—Telephone Pioneers chapters, Eastern Star ties, addresses that trace moves across neighborhoods and seasons of service. Those details show how survivors rebuilt meaning through hands-on volunteer work, fraternal lodges, and a workplace culture that blended pride with mutual aid.

Resources:

• Northlake Herald-Journal (IL), December 1, 1999 — “Eastland Disaster All But Forgotten,” by Jennifer Giustino.

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• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
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