Memory Monday: Libraries

My great-grandfather's school picture

One of my best memories of grade school in Texas was the small libraries we had in each room. These mini-libraries consisted of only one or two shelves, but what fun I had reading the books. Each year during the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grades, I’d check out The Boxcar Children, along with a whole bunch of biographies (I still remember the one about Dolly Madison).

My great-grandfather was born in 1852. I’m not sure where he went to school, but I’m pretty sure it was a one-room school. Also, I don’t know if they had any library books the children could check out and read. But I found an interesting tidbit about libraries in public schools shortly before he was born.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES.-The number of public libraries in the United States, in 1849, as reported to the regents of the Smithsonian Institute, was 182; of which 43 contained over 10,000 volumes each, nine over 20,000, and only two over 50,000. The number of volumes in all these libraries is 1,294,000. Only France has a larger number of public libraries, 241; but in the number of volumes, we are sur­passed by Germany, which has 5,500,000; France, 5,000,000; Great Britain, 2,500,000; and even Russia, 1,500,000. The library of Congress is rated at 45,000 volumes, and is one of the most select and THE -----FAMILY CHRISTIAN ALMANAC, 1850

I hope my great-grandfather had the opportunity to read books that took him away to far and adventuresome places.

Throwback Thursday: Child Sucking Their Thumb

Here's my caption:
Tasty thumb?

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

Memory Monday: Homemaker's Advice

My Daddy

HOMEMAKER’S ADVICE FROM MY GRANDMOTHER’S DAY

            I love to look at old books from the 19^th and early 20^th century, and recently came across a book from 1913 titled Things My Mother Used to Make. This book came out a little while after my grandparents married in 1910.

            Following is some of the things my grandmother might have done while she was married. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1926 when my dad was only nine years old, so I never got to know her.

Homemade Shortening

Do not throw away small pieces of fat from pork, lamb or steak. Put them on the stove, in a skillet or agate dish and cook them till there is nothing left, but scraps. Then pare a potato, wash clean, cut into thin slices and cook in the fat for a half hour to clarify it. Strain through a cloth. This will be good to fry doughnuts in and for all purposes, where shortening is needed, except for pie crust.

Pieces of fat, not fit for shortening can be saved in some old utensil and made into kitchen soap.  pg. 88.

To Try out Lard

If you want good sweet lard, buy from your butcher, leaf lard. Skin carefully, cut into small pieces and put it into a kettle or sauce pan. Pour in a half-cupful of water, to prevent burning, and cook slowly, until there is nothing left but scraps. Remove the scraps with a skimmer, salt it a little, and strain through a clean cloth, into tin pails. Be sure not to scorch it. p. 90.

How to Keep Eggs

In the summer, when eggs are cheap, buy a sufficient number of freshly laid ones to last through the winter.

Take one part of liquid glass, and nine parts of cold water which has been boiled, and mix thoroughly.

Put the eggs into a stone crock, and pour over them this mixture, having it come an inch above the eggs. The eggs will keep six months, if they are perfectly fresh when packed and will have no taste, as when put into lime water. p. 90.

To Remove Disagreeable Odors from the House

Sprinkle fresh ground coffee, on a shovel of hot coals, or burn sugar on the shovel. This is an old-fashioned disinfectant, still good. p. 91

To Lengthen the Life of a Broom

Your broom will last much longer and be made tough and pliable, by dipping for a minute or two, in a pail of boiling suds, once a week. A carpet will wear longer if swept with a broom treated in this way. Leave your broom bottom side up, or hang it. p. 91

When I read things like this about how women in the early 20^th century did things, it helps me to see the grandmother I never knew and draws me a little closer to her when I read how she might have done things.

Most of the books I have used in this blog can be found at Google Books Advanced Search. If you are interested in seeing more from these books, go there and spend wonderful hours seeing how those who came before us lived.

Throwback Thursday: Girls Up High

Here's my caption:
"Oh, you big strong boys, can you help us down, please?"

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

Memory Monday: Our Family's Past and Future

The locket my father-in-law gave to my mother-in-law after WWII

OUR FAMILY’S PAST AND OUR FUTURE

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.

                        My daughter and my husband both love family history.  Recently they got together and, using the computer sites that list genealogical information, they traced different branches of my husband’s family back to Scotland in the 1200’s.  Of course, some of my great-uncles-in-law had already written a book on the family from the present back to the time that the first Creager came to the New World. (The family, at that time, spelled their name Krieger—which means “warrior” in German).

My aunts on my mother’s side have also traced back their family history.  They have documentation showing that their grandparents “came over on the boat” when they were only 2 and 3 years old.  (The Koehns and the Beckers were part of the great Mennonite migration that had moved from Prussia to Russia under Catherine the Great, and later migrated back across Europe to Ellis Island and on to Kansas.)  My mother told me when she was a little girl, “My mother would not let us use any of the “Dutch” words; we could only speak in English.”

            Family reunions are another way to learn about and exchange little bits of family history.  When my mother was living, every 2-3 years, we hosted a family reunion for my mother’s side of the family.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, (second, third, fourth cousins) came.  They came from all over the United States, and there was even an uncle who was working as a hospital administrator in the Middle East. Everywhere, family was sharing with family.  Stories were exchanged, old memories shared with the younger generation, old traditions were followed, new traditions started.  I had an aunt who makes a point of bringing up family history when her small great nieces (and great-great nieces) were around; she said that was how she learned of her roots.

The family records will not end with this generation either.  In my daughter’s wedding bouquet, we wove the chain of the heart locket that her granddaddy gave to her grandmother when he came home after World War II (it still contains the pictures that my mother-in-law put in years ago of her husband and son).  Waiting future generations in our safety deposit box, we have the tatted baby cap that both my children wore home from the hospital when they were born.  The little lace hat was made by their great-grandmother for her grandfather when he was a baby (he was born in 1920).  It was made from sewing thread and had yellowed with age now, but still a thing of beauty to those who love to link the past to the future.

Like I said before, our house has become the collection place for family “things”.  We have my husband’s great-grandparents’ marriage certificate, his parents’ love letters from WWII, my great great-grandmother’s crock jar, my grandmother’s wooden rocking chair (I plan to rock my grandchildren in it), the little pitcher collection my grandmother-in-law collected during WWII, and so many other family treasures.  They are glimpse of times gone by; of where we came from, and sometimes of where we are going. And we treasure them all.

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.