A couple of mix-ups

November 16, 1932 - Got to school later than usual this morning.  Miss Sewell and Loren Agler visited the last period this afternoon.  I'm surely glad that's over.  I got a ride home with Earl Miller.  Early to bed this evening for me.  Mr. C. H. Walker's birthday.
November 17, 1932 - Rode to school with Mr. Walker this morning.  Nurnbergs came over this evening for ice cream. The neighbors (Maas, F. Jochens, C. Jochens, A. Walker, Rev. Schmitt) surprised Mrs. Walker for her birthday tonite.  Thought at first they meant to chaviari Bob and wife, we even had them hid on the stairs. The young folks played games upstairs in the girls' room.  Mrs. C. H. Walker's birthday, Mary Kahler birthday.
November 18, 1932 - I was so tired this morning.  The weatherman tried to give us a blizzard this p.m. but failed.  We went to Wittlers tonite for 6:30 dinner.  Played dominoes and ate candy afterward. Had a good time.

I got mixed up, as did the folks back in 1932.  As I was typing, I saw that Grandma had Mr. Walker's birthday on the 16th, but then was writing about Mrs. Walker's birthday on the 17th.  As I finished, I see that she was correct -- obviously their birthdays were a day apart, and apparently no one celebrated for Mr. Walker.  Then I kept reading and the surprise party had everyone fooled it seems.

Here is some information you may not know about dominoes.  From wikipedia:

     Dominoes (or dominos) is a game played with rectangular "domino" tiles. The domino gaming pieces make up a domino set, sometimes called a deck or pack. The traditional Sino-European domino set consists of 28 dominoes, colloquially nicknamed bones, cards, tiles, tickets, stones, or spinners. Each domino is a rectangular tile with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called pips, nips, or dobs) or is blank. The backs of the dominoes in a set are indistinguishable, either blank or having some common design. A domino set is a generic gaming device, similar to playing cards or dice, in that a variety of games can be played with a set.

     The earliest mention of dominoes is from Song dynasty China, found in the text Former Events in Wulin. Dominoes first appeared in Italy during the 18th century, and although it is unknown how Chinese dominoes developed into the modern game, it is speculated that Italian missionaries in China may have brought the game to Europe.

     The name "domino" is from the resemblance to a kind of hood worn during the Venice carnival.

And there you have it.

Wait, smoking?

November 13, 1932 - Alex, Lloyd and Mayme came at 7:30.  I hadn't expected them until 9:30.  We left Winside about 9:00.  Had a flat tire before we got to Wayne.  We had dinner at Correctionville, Iowa.  We went on to Cushing, which is about 40 miles east of Sioux City.  Lloyd went to see about basing a filling station there.  We drove around in S.C. on our way home.  Got to Walkers in time for supper, went to church in eve.  Louis M. took me home.  [There is a small newspaper clipping taped to the diary page.  Here it is, misspellings and all:  Misses Marion Anderson and Mayme Hall, Allen Brune and Lloyd Voss motored to Cushing, Ia., Sunday on business.]
November 14, 1932 - Rather chilly in the school house this morning.  Kids playing in sand table all the time.  The 5 & 6 Reading Class is going to start making Robinson Crusoe's home in connection with the story.  Mike went back to P. Schurich's today.  Listed to the radio this evening.
November 15, 1932 - Got a ride to school with Mr. Walker.  We kids went to Nurnbergs tonite to the shower for Bob and Louise.  In the mock wedding Charlotte was the preacher; Evie, bridesmaid; Helen, best man; Mote, groom; Minnie, ring bearer; George and Arnold N., train bearers; myself, bride.  They danced, played cards and smoked!  I had quite a good time.

I see with her exclamation point that Grandma was as horrified by the smoking as I was!  (Well, maybe she wasn't, but she did use that particular punctuation for one reason or another.)

I never had to, nor voluntarily read Robinson Crusoe.  I am thinking I probably should, right after A Lantern in Her Hand.

I haven't heard of a mock wedding at a shower, but it makes some sense.  I understand that back in that time, couples generally didn't plan a big to-do in advance.  They went and quietly got married with their witnesses in tow and then had showers and celebrations with family later.  So, since most everyone missed the ceremony, perhaps the mock wedding was part of how they did things then.  I can see where it would be pretty fun.

Another Iversen sighting and a recipe

November 10, 1932 - Not quite so windy today as yesterday.  Little snow flurries every once in a while.  Got a ride to school with Bud and home with Earl Miller.  Mike came home today.  Jack Kemp birthday.
November 11, 1932 - Ray came after me tonite.  He nailed up the holes in the foundation.  I went to Rebekah Lodge tonite.  After lodge I went to the Armistice dance at Carroll with Iversens.  We had a good time although there wasn't a very large crowd.  (Got sand for sand table today.)
November 12, 1932 - Went to Wayne on the train with Alma L.  Went to see Miss Sewell and Aunt Mildred.  We just about missed the train coming home, had to run for it.  Ray and I were all ready to go to a dance at Uncle Hans' tonite when Willie came and said it was called off.  Ola and Annie, Aunt Lena, Edwin, Florence F. came up and we played Michigan and had lunch.

Does anyone know who Willie is in this instance?  I don't recall a Willie in any of Grandma's previous diary entries.

I was going to resurrect the Sunday recipe posts I did when I first started this way back when with a post yesterday.  But I ended up feeling lousy due to a stomach bug and didn't post at all.  So, here it is Monday and I'm doing a recipe anyway.  I asked Mom for Grandma's recipe book some time ago for a Christmas present project that didn't pan out as I would have liked.  But I still have the book and will find something.

Since it is still sort of zucchini season, here's the recipe Grandma used for zucchini bread.  Her note says she got the recipe from Mom.

Zucchini Nut Bread

3 eggs, beaten
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. salad oil
2 c. grated zucchini
3 c. flour
1 t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cloves
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1/2 c. nuts, optional.

Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil and zucchini together.  Add the dry ingredients and mix.  Add nuts*.  Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or more.  Makes 2 loaves. Freezes well.

*Grandma didn't indicate when to add the nuts exactly, but I'm guessing after everything else is mixed based on previous baking experience.

I do not have the knowledge of trains to tell if the photo is something like the train Grandma would have taken between Wayne and Winside, but it is a train photo nonetheless.

A new president

November 7, 1932 - I've been sleepy and tired all day.  Mike left this morning to help Paul S. pick corn.  Listened to the radio awhile this evening and then went to bed early.
November 8, 1932 - Got a ride with Bud to school.  We had an election this afternoon and Roosevelt won.  Got a ride home with Earl Miller tonite. He said Miss Sewell visited him today.  I can expect her any time within the next week. Listened to election returns until 9:00.  It sounds as if Roosevelt is winning over Hoover.
November 9, 1932 - Snowed a little this morning.  Roosevelt is our next president.  Worked on Pilgrim posters this afternoon after recess.  Marie and Charlotte N. came over tonite. We girls played Rook.  Bob was married yesterday to Louise Appel.  They came to Hoskins last nite.

I wonder if Grandma had to listen to the election returns very long.  I took a peek online, and Roosevelt won easily over Hoover, 472 electoral votes v. 59 electoral votes.  Roosevelt carried 42 states to Hoover's 6, there being only 48 states at the time.

Who is Bob that married Louise, if anyone knows?

Off to the picture show

November 4, 1932 - Finished the exams and got all the papers corrected.  Mayme and Lloyd came after me about 8 o'clock.  We went home right away.  Walkers cashed my check for me today at Norfolk.
November 5, 1932 - I washed my hair and Mayme finger-waved it.  Also washed out my clothes.  We went down to the library this evening and I got some books.  We stopped in at Schellenberg's to see Florence but she wasn't home.
November 6, 1932 - I went to S.S. but Mayme didn't.  She came to church with Mom and Ray.  An adult class was confirmed and we took the Lord's Supper.  We went to see F.S. this p.m.  Tonite I went with Mayme and Lloyd to the Granada.  We saw Bing Crosby in "The Big Broadcast."  Peggy Jean Francis birthday.

Courtesy of wikipedia, here is the story of The Big Broadcast:

     Radio-singer Bing Crosby is not very serious about his career. His chronic tardiness and his affair with the notorious Mona Lowe (Sharon Lynn) has become an issue at station WADX. After Mona cheats on him, the despondent singer meets Texas oil man Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin), who has also been wronged by a woman.

     Soon after, Anita Rogers (Leila Hyams), the former fiancée of McWhinney, falls in love with Crosby. Meanwhile, station manager George Burns is plagued by the addled conversation of his stenographer, Gracie Allen and eventually loses the radio station. McWhinney buys the station in order to help out Crosby and Anita, whom he still loves. McWhinney comes up with the idea of putting on a "big broadcast" of stars to pull the station out of debt.

     Mona returns on the scene and threatens the budding romance between Crosby and Anita, as well as the station's upcoming big broadcast. McWhinney tries to find a phonograph record to replace the absent Crosby, and ends up impersonating Crosby on the air. The singer returns and takes the microphone in mid-song. Crosby, who actually has been feigning irresponsibility to bring McWhinney and Anita together, succeeds both in reuniting the former lovers and in taming Mona.

Is it just me, or does neither of the guys in the movie poster look like Bing Crosby?

I am not surprised

November 1, 1932 - We went to League at Schmidts tonite.  We handed in our day's wages this evening.  Played some new games.  "A good time was had by all."  Ella Mann birthday.
November 2, 1932 - Cold and windy.  I went to Hoskins to prayer meeting with Evie this evening.  Stopped at Simon Strate's and got my check.
November 3, 1932 - Started the examinations this morning.  I have all the papers of today's corrected.  Schmidt's, Wittler's and Fritz Maas were here this evening for a committee meeting.

I am not at all surprised that Grandma corrected the day's exam papers that same day.  Me?  I didn't get that gene, but instead a procrastinator gene, which showed up quite a lot in my 20's.  I'd like to think I am better now; not completely cured, but better.

The remark about handing in our day's wages, would that be a League tithing sort of thing?

The photo is of Hoskins from 1912.

Halloween for real

October 29, 1932 - Washed my clothes this morning.  Mom made a jumper for me today.  Went down town this evening and got a library book.  Talked to Alma awhile.
October 30, 1932 - To S.S. and church this a.m.  After dinner Ray and I went to Mayme's.  Mayme, Lloyd, Lee, K.C., Ray and I played Rook.  We had supper, talked awhile and then Ray brought me to Walkers.  Leona Koepke and Verne Frink birthday.
October 31, 1932 - This is Halloween.  The kids were busy today talking about last Friday.  I got a ride to school this morning with Earl Miller and home this evening with the Nurnberg girls.  The new grates and lining were put in the stove over the weekend.  Marjorie Misfeldt birthday.

Someone in the know will have to tell me if the library Grandma is talking about was housed in the auditorium in 1932.  I have no memory of hearing of any other location, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.  I have fond memories of the little library in the auditorium.  I likely wasn't their best customer, but I went often enough.  I am all for newer technology and e-books.  In fact, I read that there is in increase in young adult reading due to tablets making it more fun and cool, I suppose, than physically going to a library.  There is something satisfying in going to a building of books, however.  I like to walk the fiction aisles and pick books at random that I know nothing about.  I have read some excellent stories and discovered new authors that way that I may not have heard about otherwise.

Halloween party

October 26, 1932 - Frances was at school again.  Mrs. Dedlow visited this afternoon.  Anna Scheurich and Betty Ann were here for supper this evening.  They had been here all day.
October 27, 1932 - Frances at school again.  Lena and Edna Nieman visited this afternoon.  I was surely surprised to see them.  They took me home after school.
October 28, 1932 - Windy all day.  Mom came with Ola's car about 12:30.  She took us all over to Dist. 21.  Frances went along, too.  We had a good time.  I went to Rebekah meeting tonite.  After the meeting Ray was to take me to Hoskins to meet Mayme.  I was going to spend the weekend with her.  He didn't do it because he was too tired.

If Grandma was overly upset with her brother, she doesn't say so here.  Maybe she gave Mayme an earful.  He seems to have been a good brother on other occasions, so he must have been really tired.

Bess Streeter Aldrich

October 23, 1932 - I taught Mrs. Wieble's S.S. class for her this morning.  We read and played pinochle this afternoon.  Ray brought me back to Walker's this evening.  I went to church with them.
October 24, 1932 - Cloudy and cold.  Frances Schultz, a cousin of the Nurnberg's, visited school all day today.  I reread "A Lantern in Her Hand' tonite.
October 25, 1932 - Frances was at school again.  I got a ride this morning with Earl Miller.  Gave the sandtable its second and last coat of paint this morning.  We also got our new books this noon. The mailman left them at the schoolhouse.  Fred Maas, Eleanor Brune birthdays.

I live embarrassingly close to Elmwood and have yet to visit her house there.  For shame.  Also, I was pretty sure I read this same book, but when I read the synopsis, it didn't sound familiar.  I'll have to take another look-see to be sure.  Here is the biography from Ms. Aldrich's website:

Bess Streeter Aldrich (1881-1954) Elmwood

Bess Streeter Aldrich was one of Nebraska's most widely read and enjoyed authors. Her writing career spanned forty-some years, during which she published over 160 short stories and articles, nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, and one omnibus. In her work, she emphasized family values and recorded accurately Midwest pioneering history. One of her books, Miss Bishop, was made into the movie, Cheers for Miss Bishop; and her short story, "The Silent Stars Go By," became the television show, The Gift of Love, starring Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury. Aldrich also served as a writer and consultant in Hollywood for Paramount Pictures.

Bess Genevra Streeter was born February 17, 1881, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the last of eight children born to James and Mary Streeter. Bess graduated in 1901 from Iowa State Normal School, now known as the University of Northern Iowa, and taught for four years. She returned to Cedar Falls and worked as Assistant Supervisor at her alma mater, receiving an advanced degree in 1906. She married Charles Sweetzer Aldrich the following year.

 Charles Aldrich had graduated with a law degree from Iowa State University and had been one of the youngest captains in the Spanish-American War. Following the war, he served for years as a U.S. Commissioner in Alaska.

 In 1909 the Aldriches and Bess's sister and brother-in-law, Clara and John Cobb, bought the American Exchange Bank in Elmwood, Nebraska, and moved there with the Aldrich's two-month old daughter, Bess's widowed mother, and the Cobbs. Elmwood would become the locale, by whatever name she called it, of her many short stories, and it would also be the setting for some of her books.

 Aldrich had won her first writing prize at fourteen and another at seventeen, having been writing stories since childhood. However, for two years after the family moved to Elmwood, Aldrich was too busy with local activities to write. Then in 1911 she saw a fiction contest announcement in the Ladies Home Journal and wrote a story in a few afternoons while the baby napped. Her story was one of six chosen from among some two thousand entries. From that time on, Aldrich wrote whenever she could find a moment between caring for her growing family and her household chores. Indeed, she commented that, in the early days, many a story was liberally sprinkled with dishwater as she jotted down words or ideas while she worked. Aldrich's first book, Mother Mason, a compilation of short stories, was published in 1924.

 In May 1925, shortly before her second book, Rim of the Prairie was published, Charles Aldrich died of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Bess a widow with four children ranging from four to sixteen. Her writing now became the means of family support; with her pen she put all the children through college.

 Aldrich's short stories were as eagerly sought and read as her novels, and she became one of the best paid magazine writers of the time. Her work appeared in such magazines as The American, Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, and McCall's. Aldrich also wrote several pieces on the art of writing, and these were published in The Writer.

 In 1934, Aldrich was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Nebraska, and in 1949 she received the Iowa Authors Outstanding Contributions to Literature Award. She was posthumously inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1973.


 Aldrich moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1945 to be near her daughter and her daughter's family and did comparatively little writing thereafter. Bess Streeter Aldrich died in 1954 at the age of 73 and is buried beside her husband in the Elmwood Cemetery. Her legacy of books and stories remains, however, continuing to fulfill her hope that as future generations read her work they will understand the joys, the struggles, and the strengths that were all a part of pioneering in the Midwest.

Ironing

October 20, 1932 - The wind was so strong last nite that it blew the schoolhouse door open.  So the building was quite cold when I got there.
October 21, 1932 - Warm again.  Ray came to school at recess.  He read in the car until school was out.  Then we went to Norfolk.  We went to Behmer's, Jochens' and Strate's for my order.  Mom, Ray and I played pinochle this evening.
October 22, 1932 - Washed my hair, finger-waved it and washed my silks this morning.  Mom ironed this a.m. and I finished it this p.m.  Rained and drizzled all day.

All-day ironing -- that's something that doesn't happen much any more, I'd wager.  I think I have mentioned previously in a post or two that I remember both Grandmas ironing (or maybe I only mentioned washing with the wringer washer . . . ).  I can see the sprinkler top on a Mountain Dew bottle, I believe it was -- green in any event.  I got to help sprinkle clothes every now and then.  The clothes were then folded just so and rolled up and put all together in a heavy plastic bag to sit before they were ironed.  I was trusted to iron Grandpa's handkerchiefs sometimes -- folded precisely in half, twice.