Category: MR Historical Context

Depression, Historical Fiction, House and Home, Moonlight & Roses, MR Domestic Life, MR Historical Context, MR Snips, Snip

The Dirty Work of Illumination

We take lighting for granted.

The sun goes down; we flip a switch. Instant illumination. Sure, sometimes the power goes off and we have to “rough it.” Candles or hurricane lamps for a few hours, a couple of days, sometimes longer if you live on the Gulf Coast and it’s hurricane season (there’s a reason they’re called hurricane lamps).

And while urban America was almost completely electrified (eek! that sounds painful) by 1929, it would be well into the mid-30s, and even the early 40s, before electric power found its way to the farms.

So poor Rose

Continue reading “The Dirty Work of Illumination”

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Entertainment, MR Historical Context, MR Traditions & Leisure, Prohibition

Cheers!

Memorial Day weekend is upon us. And chances are your plans involve an adult beverage. Or two. If that’s the case, how about taking a moment or two to thank the resourceful bootleggers of the 1920s for the cocktail that you’re mixing. After all, it’s because of them, and the fact that their alcohol was often sub-par and bitter, that cocktails became trendy in the … Continue reading Cheers!

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MR Historical Context, Prohibition

Engine Boring Displacem… zzzzz

Oh. Sorry. I dozed off there.

Maybe that should be Boring Engine instead of Engine Boring? Research takes you down some interesting rabbit holes (like this little tidbit about housework and good posture) and some not so exciting ones. Engine boring displacement, in case you weren’t sure, falls into the latter. (Unless you’re into NASCAR.)

But, when writing about bootlegging, and your main character is a crack mechanic, it just makes sense Continue reading “Engine Boring Displacem… zzzzz”

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Depression, Entertainment, Historical Fiction, Moonlight & Roses, MR Historical Context, MR Snips, MR Traditions & Leisure, Snip

Boogie Shoes

Yikes! That’s not from the 1930s!!!

And yet, that first line expresses Harold’s sentiments perfectly.

In the late twenties and early thirties, there seemed to be two main pastimes: dancing and going to the pictures (and even the picture shows featured dancing). Practically every little town hosted a Friday or Saturday night dance… in the armory, in a barn, at a local church, wherever space allowed.

Imagine how that would be for a fella with two left feet! Especially since Rose loves to dance. Poor Harold. Even the “simple” dances of the era–foxtrot, waltz, castle walk–were challenging. But that didn’t stop him. If dancing was what Rose wanted, well… Continue reading “Boogie Shoes”

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Depression, MR Historical Context, Prohibition

By any other name

Not to put too fine a spin on it, but, there’s a lot of jargon for illegal alcohol during Prohibition: hooch, horse liniment, coffin varnish, gigglewater (no, JK Rowling did not invent this term), brown plaid, busthead, moonshine, panther piss, skee, rot gut, white lightening… Well, you get the picture.

One thing they have in common, though, is their danger. Continue reading “By any other name”

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Depression, Historical Fiction, Moonlight & Roses, MR Historical Context, News, Prohibition

Too Close to Home

How’s that for a headline? ‘SCARFACE AL’ SURRENDERS On March 21, 1930, this headline topped most newspapers. After all, Al Capone was “Public Enemy Number 1”. Not that there weren’t other big name gangsters: Bugsy Siegel (New York), Nucky Johnson (New Jersey), Harry Rosen (Philly)… And the one that worried Rose (and Harold) the most: Tom Dennison. Poor Harold. He has gotten himself mixed up with … Continue reading Too Close to Home

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Depression, Farming, Historical Fiction, House and Home, Moonlight & Roses, MR Domestic Life, MR Historical Context

On Death

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”

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