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.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Saturday, May 1, 1926

Saturday, May 1, 1926
Hot

Marjorie gets her breath so hard, is cross, can’t sleep and does not take her bottle. Ned got up too with an awful cold a little feverish, etc. But after breakfast he went outdoors and sat in the warm sunshine all day watching the boys and by evening his cold seemed to be gone. We all changed to summer underwear. Ned tore his new brown pants.

(I would guess that today most people don't have different summer underwear from what they wear in the winter time. But back then it was probably a necessity to stay warm in a house heated with a coal furnace.

Eleanor wrote, "I wonder if some of their problems were allergies? Ned did suffer from hayfever... I remember the change to summer socks and how good the air felt on my legs after wearing long socks all winter.

And just like in 1926, today in 2007, it will also be hot.)