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Snow Cream

This diary¹ entry intrigued me:

1929 Thursday January 10

Nice day. Roads were drifted full again. LAS met here today. Not very large crowd but not so bad for the roads. Took in over $5. Snow started to blow about 4:30 and had another blizzard all night again. The wind blew just terrible. Francis, Ruth, and Oscar were here and spent the eve. We made ice cream and played cards. Jack Nolte died this noon. Mama is better.

The new year really wreaked havoc on the midwest in 1929. The diary entries for the first two weeks of the year consistently Continue reading →

Medicinal Magic

I’ve been fighting a sore throat, usually the first sign that I’m coming down with a cold. Which got me wondering about Rose and what she would do in my circumstances.

Enter Vicks.

My grandfather—the original Harold—thought Vicks VaporRub could cure anything.

And why not? When it was first marketed just after the turn of the century, when Grandpa Harold was a young boy, it was sold as “Vicks Magic Croup Salve.”

Now, who can argue with magic??? Continue reading →

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Button Up Your Overcoat

While that’s good advice for a January in the northern hemisphere, this post is not a commentary on winter weather. Rather, I’ve been thinking about popular music that Rose might hum while she works, and Button Up Your Overcoat jumped out of the Wikipedia list of tunes made popular in 1929.

This song was first recorded by Ruth Etting in 1928 but was made famous by Helen Kane’s 1929 recording. Don’t recognize the name Helen Kane? Continue reading →

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Happy New Year

For a while, it looked like Harold and Rose might go to a local dance to celebrate the close of 1929. But, in the end, they decided on a quiet evening at home. (Harold was pleased by this decision, as he really is not the best dancer.) So, they dialed in this radio special—ending, of course, with Auld Lang Syne—to herald in their 1930.

No matter how you’ve decided to celebrate the end of 2016, we (Harold, Rose, and I) wish you the best for 2017. Happy New Year!

Deck the Halls

… with boughs of holly / fa la la la la / la la la la¹

My house has been decorated for Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure who decided this was the time to be Christmas-ed, but it is always the day my daughter insists upon. One year, though, we were in the middle of a kitchen remodel. For the longest time, it looked like we would never decorate. But then, Christmas Eve Day, my cabinets were installed while my mother and daughter and I put up the tree and ornaments.

It was the best Christmas.

Rose isn’t in the middle of a renovation and yet Continue reading →

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Finding just the right gift

Charlie let the silk float over his fingertips, trying not to imagine the contours of Rose’s leg as the stocking slid past calf and thigh. Damn! He was supposed to be helping Harold find a Christmas gift for Rose, not coveting the man’s wife.

Hanlon’s was a smallish store, but they offered a good variety of merchandise. Surely there was something less… personal…

“Did you find something, Charlie? What’s that?”

Charlie dropped the hosiery as if on fire. “Ahhh…” he stammered. “Just the perfect gift for a man to give his wife.” He pointed to the display, not daring to touch the elegant gossamer again lest Harold notice the wanton lust on his face.

Harold’s eyes, however, were riveted to the display ad. “‘Holeproof silk hose with Paris clox.’ A dollar ninety-five? Geez, Charlie, I can’t afford that.”

That didn’t stop him from exploring the silken heaven for himself, though, and Charlie watched as the look on Harold’s face changed from sensible farmer to starry-eyed husband.

If the man didn’t already have Rose, Charlie’d feel sorry for him.

Poor Harold. Continue reading →