Ruth Campbell Smith 1925-27 Diaries

My grandmother, Ruth Campbell Smith (1892 - 1972) kept a diary for many years. I am posting her entries from 1925 - 1927 in this blog. Her family included sons Dale (1916 - 2004), Dick (1918 - 1971), Albert (1920 - 1979), and Ned (1923 - 1976), and later daughters Marjorie (1925 - 2010) and Eleanor (1929 - 2011). Her husband was Gilbert (1889 - 1937) and they lived in Indianapolis. I hope you enjoy this glimpse of what it was like to be a housewife and mother in the 1920's.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Tuesday, September 29, 1925

Tuesday, September 29, 1925
Fair

Nothing much doing except I felt awfully bum. Albert has a cold and is awfully cross. He had a fit when I want to get him ready for Kindergarten, but loves it after he goes. I wish he weren’t so tempestuous. I have been putting quinine and Vaseline on his thumb to keep him from sucking it, but he seems to like it, and is more determined to suck it than ever.

(“Nothing much doing” means no baby yet. Albert is 5 and ½ at this point. I’ve posted before what he grew up to be… a Jesuit priest.)

2 comments:

Anonymous10:37 AM, September 29, 2006
My husband was a dentist and hih philosophy was to not FORCE a child to stop sucking his thumb. Crooked teeth are easier to fix than a broken phyche. Albert was the sensitive one in the family and my champion. He would give he his last dime if I asked for it. As I understand, he was the one who named me when I was born,
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Annie in Austin7:06 PM, September 29, 2006
Reformed thumbsucker here - no one picked on me too much and I got over it, but some kids weren't that lucky. In the late fifties one popular 'cure' was a kind of nail polish with hot pepper extract in it. I never heard of the quinine and vaseline mix.

Eleanor, what a nice memory, to be named by your big brother! I wonder if he heard it in a book or a movie?
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