Tuesday, September 1, 1925
Fair, Hot
A lovely day with a good breeze but Gilbert’s asthma still hung on and he didn’t go to work. I put in a big day ironing when I wasn’t scrubbing boys. They built a fire and undertook to cook their dinner, but their wood was too green and did nothing but smoke and they got quite dirty. Took about 2 hours to scrub them all up. Dale went to Mama’s and down town.
(Sounds like more fun in the backyard for the boys, and then baths for everyone. I can’t really tell from the diaries how often they bathed. I would guess not every day, but not just once a week, more like whenever they got dirty.
I found on Google Books a book written in 1922, which might have been typical of the books Grandma had if she had any books to guide her in raising her children. It is “The Healthy Child From Two to Seven” by Francis Hamilton MacCarthy, M.D. There is a section on gardening with children and one one playing, in which the author compares raising children to growing plants! There is also a section on colds and how to keep your children from catching a cold. And, there is a section on bathing children. I am sure there is a lot of interest in the book, and it might help us understand more about how Grandma raised her children. It is downloadable for offline reading.)
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If the atmosphere was already heavy that wood smoke must have added even more particulates to the air - poor Gilbert!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people used books for advice on childrearing at that time? People in the twenties took pride in being modern and efficient, but many of them would have had large, extended families living nearby, with plenty of relatives offering conflicting opinions on the right way to do everything. Maybe a book written by a doctor could be used to deflect unwanted advice!
I just found this blog today. Thank you so much for posting and sharing your Grandmother's journal. It is absolutely fascinating to read! I'm looking forward to catching up on all the back entries you have up.
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