This Sunday is Easter. So I was looking for Easter hats for Rose. [As an aside, don’t you wish hats would come back in vogue? All those frilly Easter hats, especially from the 40s, look like so much fun.]
But, back to the matter at hand… As I was saying, I was looking for Easter hats, perusing the Sears Catalog when a phrase I saw as I whizzed through pages stopped me in my tracks. Continue reading “A tub what?”
Harold finds this hysterical. But then, humor was much simpler in 1930. Continue reading A little cow humor
Rose has been feeling a tad sympathetic with all those on the receiving end of this late winter / early spring snowstorm. She knows just how that feels… Continue reading “B is for…”
Pardon me while I get maudlin…
Yesterday, I read this in the 1930 diary I have: Had 16 little piglets today, but the old mother laid on 4 and killed them.
This made me sad. Especially if you’ve seen the cute piglet pictures I posted here. But it also got me thinking about how common death is, especially on a farm. And especially in the 1930s.
Well, it’s not a giant leap from cute piggies dying to human mortality… Continue reading “On Death”
One of the tools in a writer’s arsenal to develop a fictional character is the Character A-Z exercise, where, beginning with the letter A and working your way through to Z, you write from the character’s POV (point of view) about whatever topic comes to mind for the letter at hand. Because, there comes a time when research has to stop and you just have to get into the character’s head to see what makes them tick.
Rose and I are embarking on just such a journey. Care to come along? Continue reading “A is for…”
Forgive me for the Skynyrd earworm.
I have this wonderful reference book, Never Done: A History of American Housework, that I’ve been reading. In the chapter “Fetch a Pail of Water,” the author talks about all the things for which our ancestors had to haul water to accomplish. When I came to the part about baths, I stopped. It seemed like way too much work! Continue reading “Can’t you smell that smell”
Feb 15, 1930
Nice day. Got colder in PM and eve and snowed some. Twenty below about 8AM but warmed up a lot during the day. Rex Ward’s house burned about 10AM and Mon and the boys went up there. They saved the things that were downstairs but lost what was upstairs and down cellar. The folks got back here about 11 and then we went up home for dinner and spent the PM. Snowed quite a little in the night.
from The Diaries of Lottie Price, 1914-1986
Until today, I had never considered that Rose might worry about fire. So I started looking for information on fire trucks and firefighting in the 1920s.
Let’s just say that Rose’s best hope is to not have a fire. (Well, that would be true of all of us, wouldn’t it? 🙂 )
Lido Hat
Price: $1.95
Description Charming face looks its best under the chic silhouetted lines of this model. Suave lines copied from a high-priced import, in a pleasingly soft, good quality wool felt. Shaped in low helmet fashion at sides; close-cropped at back for utmost coat-collar ease. The soft-rolling, graduated brim is clipped in two-tab effect at side and edged with finely plaited grosgrain ribbon matching the band with cut loop ends. Double-ended rhinestone pins flash from tabs.
This lovely Lido¹ hat was Continue reading “Oh, Harold. I must have a Lido hat!”
I ran across this article in a rural newspaper published on this day in 1930: Harry Hansen … had the misfortune to lose the thumb of his right hand Wednesday afternoon when his hand was caught in a corn sheller. Mr. Hansen was helping with corn shelling … when the accident occurred.
The article really disturbed me because Harold is doing this exact same thing—shelling corn—over the winter months. I had no idea Continue reading “Boy Loses Thumb”
Rose has a little story to tell us. About Gorgeous George. Get a cup of coffee (or whatever your favorite beverage might be) then sit down and enjoy!
Continue reading “Gorgeous George”
