A great success and a missed party

Fri., March 1, 1935 - Gave our play at the south school tonite.  Building was packed.  Took in $25 and cleared about $18.  Could have sold more pie and ice cream.
Sat., March 2, 1935 - Slept late this morning.  Annie and kids here this afternoon.  Was invited to a shower for Edna N. but too tired to go.  Stopped to see Mayme on way down town tonite.
Sun., March 3, 1935 - To S.S. and church.  Rained this afternoon and evening.  Howard took me to Goodlings tonite.

Using an inflation calculator, I quickly determined (or rather it was determined for me by one click) that $18 equates to approximately $320 today.  Not bad, not bad.

Grandma must have been really, really tired to pass up a shower.  It seems like something she would normally go to.  I do not know if it was a bridal or baby shower, but for some reason I am thinking baby showers as such are a more recent phenomenon*.  So, I will pretend for the purposes of this blog post that it was a bridal shower.

My good buddy Wikipedia tells me:

"A bridal shower is a gift-giving party held for a bride-to-be in anticipation of her wedding.  The custom originated in the 1890s and is today most common in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  The history of the custom is rooted not necessarily for the provision of goods for the upcoming matrimonial home, but to provide goods and financial assistance to ensure the wedding may take place."

The first part of that I knew, the last I did not.

Also, from Wikipedia:

"The custom of the bridal shower is said to have grown out of earlier dowry practises, when a poor woman's family might not have the money to provide a dowry for her, or when a father refused to give his daughter her dowry because he did not approve of the marriage.  In such situations, friends of the woman would gather together and bring gifts that would compensate for the dowry and allow her to marry the man of her choice.

A related custom practiced in medieval England was the Bride Ale.  This was a feast held before the wedding day, at which the bride made beer and sold it to the guests at a high price."

And paraphrasing part of the article:  the term "shower" may derive from the custom in Victorian times for the presents to be put inside a parasol, which when opened would "shower" the bride-to-be with gifts.

*Yep, I was correct.  "The modern baby shower started after WWII during the baby boom era and evolved with the consumer ideology of 1950s and 1960s.  In other words it served an economic function by providing the mother-to-be with material goods that lessened the financial burden of infant care."