Throwback Thursday: Baby on a Chair

Here's my caption:
"If I can keep you looking at my legs, maybe you won't notice my bald head."

What's yours? Feel free to leave it in the comments below.

Memory Monday: Dishwashing

My Great-grandmother Becker

Dish Washing Made a Pleasure

I keep reading from this book and see so-o-o many differences between my life and those who came before me. The following is from a 1913 book titled Things My Mother Used to Make. My maternal grandmother would have been about ten when this book was written. I’m not sure my great-grandmother really took pleasure in washing dishes for her large family.

Dish Washing Made a Pleasure, p. 104

First of all, remove all refuse from the dishes. Place them near the sink, large plates at the bottom, then the smaller ones, then saucers. Have a large pan full of very hot water. Make a good soap suds by using a soap shaker. Wash the tumblers and all glassware first, and wipe at once. Use a handle dish cloth (which can be bought for five cents), for these, as the water will be too hot for the hands. Wash the silver next. Have a large pan, in which to place the clean dishes, cups and bowls first. When all are washed pour over them boiling or very hot water, and wipe quickly. Pans and kettles come last. Always have a cake of sand soap or a can of cleaning powder, for scouring the pie plates and bottoms of kettles. It is very little work to keep baking tins and kitchen utensils in good condition, if washed perfectly clean each time they are used.

Wash the dish towels, at least once every day, and never use them for anything else. With clean hot water, clean towels, and plenty of soap dishwashing is made easy.

If you live in New England, your sink will be in front of a window. Be sure and plant just out­side of this window nasturtiums, a bed of pansies, morning glories and for fall flowers, salvia. These bright blossoms will add to your pleasure while washing dishes.

            I guess I’m missing something that make the above a pleasure. For us, we just  swipe anything left on the plates, then use the dishwasher (the electric one, not my husband). Afterwards, he puts them back in the cabinet. Now that’s a pleasure.

Throwback Thursday: Women Walking

Here's my caption:
"Just keep walking. Don't let him know we're checking to see if he's still home."

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: Great Aunt Era and the Loss of Family History

Vera and Era

GREAT-AUNT ERA AND THE LOSS OF FAMILY HISTORY

I think one of my saddest family interviews was with my husband’s great-aunt Era.  She was in her mid-90s when I interviewed her. Her lifetime had been filled with so many events—WWI, Pearl Harbor, the end of WWII, the first moon walk,  the Kennedy assassination, long dresses to mini-skirts to women wearing pants (which she did), and so very many more. We wanted to record what it was like to live through those events. Unfortunately, her answer to so many of my questions was, “That was so long ago. I just don’t remember any more.”  She was the twin sister to my husband’s grandmother and the last of her generation.  Now all that family history is lost.

           Our videotapes hold a wealth of family history—stories of happy and sad times, memories of those long gone, keys to why certain people turned out the way they have.  They are links tying our past to our future.

            Interesting tidbit about Great-aunt Era and her twin sister, Vera—my husband’s grandmother: On one of our visits to see them, we brought a cake to celebrate their birthday. The cake had two old ladies in rocking chairs piped in icing on the top and the wording “Happy 80^th Birthday” in-between the two chairs. Well, this caused a big discussion between the two ladies. Even though they agreed on the month and day of their birthday (December 12^th), they disagreed vigorously about the year. Vera said 1898 and Era said 1897. They both held their position as the right one. Well, through our genealogy research, we know that 1897 is correct. The family figures that since Grandmother married a man born in early 1898, she stated that she was born in 1898 so she would be younger than him. Oh well, I guess the lesson I take from this—even a hundred years ago, women were vain about their age.

Throwback Thursday: Toddler and Infant in Carriage

Here's my caption:
"Look, Ma! He followed me home. Can I keep him?"

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: My Grandmother and Videotaping

Grandma Koehn

MY GRANDMOTHER AND VIDEOTAPING

Several years ago, my grandmother was at our house for supper. With her getting older, we wanted to capture some of her memories to pass down to our children.

We wanted it to be a casual time, not an interview situation.  Well, we set the camcorder up at the side of the dining table, focused on her. Now you have to understand that my grandmother could barely see; she literally could only see a couple of inches in front of her face.  As we ate supper that night, we got her to talking about the “old days,” about when she grew up and the early years of her marriage, about the different work that she had done, and the children she had raised, about the dust bowl days and the depression years. 

It was all very interesting, and after supper, when we told her what we had done, my grandmother insisted on seeing herself on tape.  So we put it in the VCR player, put her chair right next to the TV, and watched her as she sat about two or three inches from the screen.

She had a lot of fun seeing herself, and we have had a lot of enjoyment, both from watching her watch herself and looking at the tapes ourselves through the years.

Try and preserve the memories of your family. They are priceless and will bring the past alive for future generations.

Throwback Thursday: Woman with Tennis Racket

Here's my caption:
"Aren't I the cutest?"

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.