Dorothy Anker Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Dorothy Anker 9
Q. Now tell me about the clubs. What kind of clubs were these? Like
our country club in America?
A. No, they were not that fancy. They were just pure tennis clubs.
You went there for tennis, for competition. You got your lessons there
and you had certain tournaments, sometimes within the club, sometimes
with some other clubs together. And I think the only thing you could get
there was refreshment but not elegant foods.
Q. Not meals really. Jusr snack$.
A. Not really meals. Snacks, yes.
Q. Then you've played tennis all your life?
A. Yes, I started when I was about ten or eleven years old.
Q. Do you still play?
A. Yes, I still play.
Q. Good.
A. But we also had one parr which was a ll food garden, just apples,
pears, and berries, cherries, whatever you had these.
Q. Then there must have been a lot of home canning. Did you can these
fruits?
A. Yes, my mother canned them, some of it.
Q. Did you have brothers and sisters?
A. I had a brorher who is two and a half years older than I am.
Q. And is he in this country?
A. Ja, he is in this country. As a matter of fact, he came first to
Springfield. This was the reason why we came to Springfield.
Q. I do want to hear about your coming but I think maybe it's time to
go back. Because you mentioned to me that it was your mother who really
flrst interested you in photography. That she was a photographer. How
did she happen to get interested in it?
A. My mother had a camera probably from tho time my brother was horn
and she kind of recorded his growth and later on my growth. And when we
lived In this home she had a little darkroom. And here when I was about
fifteen, by that time I had my own camera, and she showed me how to
develop the film and make prints. After 1 had graduated from the Lyceum
in Kaenigsberg, my father wanted to send me ta one of these finishing
schools, either in England or Switzerland to learn more languages, more
literature, get more art appreciation. But through a friend of mine who
had entered another school of photography, I thought it would be a
lovely thing to do to rake up photography. It may be the job which
Dorothy Anker Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield