They say that both of my parents lost their jobs and were evicted because they couldn’t pay the rent.
I don’t know if he really told me to sell the kids or if he posted a sign to get help.
After the article appeared in the newspaper
People started helping me with jobs or money.
Not such a happy ending
Two years later, in 1950, my father left home.
My mom is dating someone else
The kids were abandoned.
Two were adopted and two were sold for $2 ($22 at current prices).
The baby who was in the mother’s womb at the time the photo was taken was also adopted.
————-
It’s so sad.
The above photo was taken in 1948 in Chicago, United States. It shows four siblings and their mother at the entrance to their house. In front of them is a gigantic sign saying: “4 children for sale inquire within.”
As it happens, the photo was real and the children were indeed on sale. Their parents, Ray (forty) and Lucille (twenty-four) Chalifoux were both unemployed and poverty-stricken. They were facing eviction from their apartment for not paying the rent.
It’s possible that the sign “4 children for sale” was just a cry for help. Once the newspapers around the country published the story, help actually came in the form of job offers, apartments, and money.
Nobody really knows what happened in the following two years. However, in 1950, father Ray left and the family fell apart. Mother Lucille began dating a man who didn’t want anything to do with the children, therefore she gave them away.
Lana was adopted, RaeAnn and Milton were sold for $2 (around $22 in today’s value), and Sue Ellen was adopted. Bedford, who was still in his mother’s womb at the time the photo had been taken in 1948, was adopted as well