Tuesday, January 19, 1926
Foggy
Albert was so pale and irritable this morning and didn’t want to go to kindergarten so I didn’t insist. Thought I would let him stay home and doctor him up. I don’t like for him to be this way. I guess it is just cold. I went to the attic and invoiced a couple of boxes and found eleven waists that have lost their pants that Ned can wear with his little suspender pants and look cute, too. I will be glad to have them worn out. Intended all day to get at Ned’s other wool pants but was kept busy otherwise.
(Aunt Marjorie wrote, "If the waists (shirts) had 'lost their pants' I suppose the pants had originally buttoned onto the shirts, like the 'panty-waists' I wore when I was little (underwear). I was told that Grandpa thought it was not good for children to have tight clothes around the waist - elastic - therefore buttons were used to hold the pants on."
That attic was a small room that ran under the eaves on one side of the upstairs. It was a scary, dark, dusty place, from what I remember. We were afraid as kids to go in there when we visited. There was always that long, coffin-shaped box in there...
For those who have been reading for awhile, remember that last spring (1925) Albert was very sick with "glandular fever". Apparently, Grandma's father, a physician, spent a lot of time researching Albert's symptoms trying to come up with something to cure him. At least one person who was reading the diary entries last spring wrote a comment asking if Albert survived, he seemed so sick. I think readers were afraid they would read one day that he had died. I promise, he did survive these childhood illnesses.)
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Do any of the other sisters remember lying on the big bed in the upstairs bedroom speculating on what was hiding in that attic? Or did I dream that? All the other little rooms under the eaves were so cozy and interesting to explore. Watching my own kids go into "explore/creative mode" and knowing the destructive wake it leaves, I often wonder how we so successfully explored all the nooks and crannies in Grandma's house without leaving it a wreck? How did we do that?
ReplyDeleteAnother thought....Albert had such heart/valve problems as an adult. Wonder if some of these child illnesses left him with undiagnosed heart problems?
ReplyDeleteI think the long coffen shaped box was an old traveling trunk. If you went into that attic you had to be careful as it didn't have a floor. One mistep & you could end up falling into the rooms below.
ReplyDeleteThree of my brotherrs died in their 50's - Albert had heart problems, Dick had a couple of debilitating strokes, & chatterbox Ned died of lung cancer. The oldest one, Dale, died at 87 of heart problems. Looking back, I wonder if the old sooty coal furnace had a part in their adult health problems. Mother converted to gas furnace after WW2
I'm here again from the UK!
ReplyDeleteHello all!