Saturday, March 17, 2007

Wednesday, March 17, 1926

Wednesday, March 17, 1926
Warmer

Ned and Marjorie both had fever and were real sick. Expected them to break out with measles, but as they didn’t guess the cause is just a heavy cold. Must get at it. It makes me sick to think of them ailing. When they get sick I get panicky. I was trying to clean the bathroom and the kitchen floor but two roofing men and Mrs. Collins came and talked and talked and with Ned’s peal of “hold me” I didn’t get done till 5:30 then I got supper and washed the flannels after supper while Daddy herded the kiddies.

(Aunt Marjorie wrote, "So it wasn't measles. If you thought the attic was scary (because I wrote earlier that I did!), I always thought the basement was! So she had to finish washing in the creepy basement at night? The "flannels" must have been pajamas & night gowns - maybe diapers made of outing flannel. No "pampers" in those days!

I hate when "day time chores" extend into the evening, too. And I remember only once or twice looking into the basement, maybe once going down in it, so I don't recall much about it. I do remember that under the stairs, there were some shelves that were full of glass jars. Many were canning jars, I think, and others were just jars from food she had purchased. Grandma did not throw anything away that she might use later.)

3 comments:

  1. I never liked the basement either. It was a partial basement under the living room & dining room. But there was a big hole in the inside wall. I think someone thought they could dig under the rest of the house and then have a bigger basement. But that hole was scary because all kinds of monsters could come out.

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  2. I remember going into the basement with Mom when they were cleaning out Grandma's home. There were tons and tons of canning jars still with food in them. Wonder how old they were?

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  3. Since food preparation is rarely mentioned in these posts, I wonder what they ate. Perhaps it was the canned foods from the basement? Funny, how today all the blogs about food and its preparation are so popular. It seems that is all we talk about, yet 90 years ago there was little to no mention about food. One of the reasons I came to this spot was to learn more about daily life of a woman in the 1920s. This one has shown lots of ironing, washing, and some cleaning. There sure isn't any meal ideas for the novel I am working on.

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