First

First, 52 Ancestors 2019

I was the first in my father’s family to graduate from high school. I was also the first to graduate from college. The only reason for this was my amazing, supportive family. My dad, Earl Moore lost both his parents at the age of 5 and 6 years of age. He had older siblings, but they were hardly able to support themselves let alone take on him and his 8-year-old sister. My grandfather was a Mason in Fernwood Lodge in Philadelphia and so they were sent to the Pennsylvania Masonic Children’s Home in Elizabethtown, PA. Orphanages were usually bleak places in the 1920s, but this home was a good place to be. The facilities were beautiful with nutritious food. There were music lessons, sports, and education in Elizabethtown’s public schools. He would have been educated through high school and even some possibility of college. But even a wonderful orphanage is still an orphanage, so he could leave at 16-yrs-old. He went to live with his sister and work took the place of school. His parents didn’t go to high school. His father, my grandfather lost his father at 5-yrs-old and went to a children’s home until his mother remarried several years later.

I was blessed with terrific parents. They valued education. They were interactive with me, teaching me all kinds of things. They encouraged, told me I was smart, and I could achieve. While many teens in my town had afterschool jobs, they forbid me to work. Instead they wanted me to take academic courses, play sports and be a Girl Scout. All these things enabled me to graduate from high school and go to college. They also instilled a sense of volunteerism. Something I’ve done all my life. So, while I may have been the first in my father’s line its is totally due to their support and nurture.

#First

#52 Ancestors 2019

#Earl Moore

#Arlene Baker