You might remember reading a post about Grandpa’s girlfriend before Grandma in “Grandpa’s Girlfriend.” I noticed a later entry in the Memory Book where he was asked if his mother liked Grandma. He wrote that she never liked any girls he dated, but that she “accepted” Grandma. As well she should. By then, Cora, Grandpa’s mother, was dying (the spindle cell cancer that was in her death certificate that I posted the other day) and he was devoting his life to taking care of her. He didn’t have a job at the time. When he married Grandma, she not only helped him take care of his mother, but she worked full-time as a teacher, as well, that first year.
Another person that was important to Grandpa was the person he identified in the Memory Book as his best friend: Clarence Pettiford. He wrote, “Clarence Pettiford had good values and was nice to be around.” When I was a little girl and Grandpa was still living in the same neighborhood–and had his Sunoco Station there, too–Clarence also still lived in the neighborhood.
The way I knew Clarence was that Grandma and I would walk “uptown” to the downtown bank with the service station deposits–or take the bus if the weather was rainy or too hot. We would always stop and visit the man I thought was the most important banker in the elegant bank at the corner of Burdick and Michigan. He was known to me as “Mr. Pettiford,” and he was always so very nice to me. I thought he was such a fine gentleman in both the way he acted and his tall distinguished appearance. When I got older, it was a little surprising to me to learn that he was in charge of security, rather than the head banker.
Grandpa wasn’t able to attend high school because he was blind in one eye, and it caused him a lot of distress. But Clarence did attend Kalamazoo Central High School, and I was able to find a photo of him in the yearbook. I apologize for the quality of the photos–they are from the Delphian and not the best quality.
This photo comes from this page in the 1932 yearbook:
You can see that Clarence was quite the athlete. Grandpa also loved sports, but he would get sick from following the ball because of his bad eye. You can read what happened to his eye here. Clarence was about 3 years younger than Grandpa, but maybe the nearest boy who wasn’t a relative. Grandpa had about 7 boy cousins who lived nearby, but I imagine it was hard to be an only child and hang around with 7 boy cousins who were all brothers.
Back to Clarence: he lettered in football in 1930. He must have been 19 at the time. And in 1932, he must have been 21. The age is a little off, I know, but there might have been reasons that we don’t know. My other grandfather, for instance, immigrated from Europe when he was fourteen, and he was still playing football and declaiming in Glee Club for his high school when he was 21.
In this page, Clarence is the manager of the intramural team:
Oh my, did you read what it says about the Intramural Team? It’s for boys not talented enough for varsity or the reserve team. Yikes. Did they have to spell it out like that?
This blog post is a little tribute to the memory of Clarence Pettiford, a talented gentleman.
The Family Kalamazoo 
How diverse and integrated was Kalamazoo back then? And how interesting that in those times your grandfather’s best friend was African American. It would be interesting to know whether Clarence faced much racism in Kalamazoo and whether your grandfather experienced anything negative as a result of being his friend.
I can’t really say about the integration other than that Clarence and my grand-father grew up in the same neighborhood and obviously Clarence played on the same football team as the white boys at KCHS. I have noticed some white families living on the north side of Kalamazoo back in those days, but by the time I was a teen, it was mainly black families on the north side. It would be interesting to learn so much more!
Yes, I’d be interested in knowing what the percentage of white versus black was and how Clarence’s family ended up in Kalamazoo. But I’ve got my own fish to fry! It’s tempting to go and look though…. 🙂
It IS tempting! Too bad I am so overloaded with work right now!
What a great article about your grandfather’s friend. I have wanted o learn more about a friend of my grandfather’s too, but all i know is his nickname. My aunt doesn’t remember him. Later, this month I am going to attend a family reunion, so maybe I will discoer new tid bits while I am there.
Ann Marie, I hope you can pick up a new clue, if not the whole name. Sometimes it is an accumulation of little clues that lead to the person, as you know. Good luck!
I love this post about Mr. Pettiford! Wonderful, wonderful…I do declare Luanne you find the most interesting people to write about…
I wish I could take credit for the people, but they are just available to my researching haha. Mrs. Pettiford (this is in the future which is now in the distant past), long after Clarence’s death, ended up living next door to the gardener and moi when our son was a baby. How is that for a coincidence? That was in Portage, which is south of Kalamazoo. I believe she was in the beginnings of Alzheimers at the time, but we did get to visit her in her living room with our new baby.I don’t remember ever meeting their kids.
Wow – now that’s a coincidence about your living next door to Mrs. Pettiford. Double wow.
Isn’t it?! She was nothing like he was, but then by the time I really knew her I think she was already beginning to suffer from, perhaps, alzheimers.
I love this Luanne. I especially love that you believed he was in charge. So sweet and speaks to his distinguished manner.
He seemed like the most important person at the big bank to me! And he walked through the lobby in his suit as if he owned the place, but he was actually making sure all was well.
I love the innocence of children’s perspectives. They are scarily accurate at the heart of the issue even when the details may be off. You could argue he was the most important person there.
Yes, I can definitely argue that :)!!!
What a nice story to share. Sharing stories like that both with your family and on a blog really brings our family histories alive.
I love to recreate the story, as much as I can, of as many individuals as possible.
The tribute is lovely. Clarence Pettiford sounds like a very interesting person. I also clicked on the link and read the post about how your grandfather lost his eye. It’s so scary how quickly something like that can happen. I bet his mother felt very guilty. I can’t begin to imagine how I’d feel if something like that had happened to one of my children.
The accident with Grandpa’s eye did cast a bit of a pall over our family, at least to my mind. I was told about it many times, and I felt bad for him, plus it changed his eye color in that one eye. Then glaucoma took his vision in the other eye eventually, but there was a surgery that repaired vision in that eye, at least to an extent. I wish I remembered the details of all that.
Clarence Pettiford was my grandfather. I happened to see this pic and was like that’s my grandpa. He passed away when I was 6. I loved him so much. I remember always going down to the bank to see him at work.
Thank you so much for letting me know. I hope you enjoyed what I wrote about him. He was such a kind and elegant presence in my life when I was little. I knew he was a friend of my grandparents, but until I found that Grandpa had written that he was his best friend I didn’t realize it!