A little while ago I found this account written by my mother about her life when she was little growing up on a farm. I am posting it today in honor of my grandmother for Mother's Day. She was truly an amazing woman. She died 12 years before I was born and I look forward to meeting her one day. She was a inspiration to me in her hard work, love of her family, her home and love for God. I am in awe of all she did in just one week! Without further ado, here is the account that my mother wrote:
I was born in Aurora, Nebraska on July 15, 1929 at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I weighed 11 lbs. I was born at home, my mother was 41 and my father was 45. I was the youngest of 9 children, 4 brothers and 4 sisters. Their ages were 17, 15, 13, 11, 10, 8, 7, 5 when I was born. My parents were farmers. My first 7 years during the depression years on a 160 acre farm. Both of my parents worked very hard, most of the time 18 hours a day. My mother never owned a vacuum sweeper, automatic washer and dryer, hot water heater, inside toilet or electric appliances. We had a small electric plant that had enough power to run 2 electric lights and the radio. My mother cooked and canned 1000's of quarts of food on a wood stove.
The chores were done first thing and took about an hour to do. The 20 pigs and 100 chickens, the sheep and the horses were fed and given water. Our 6 cows were fed and milked. The milk was put into a separator and hand turned until all the cream was taken out. The milk separator had to be taken apart and washed each day. The cream was put in a clean metal milk can, the skim milk was given to the pigs, calves and chickens. The cream was made into butter to sell to the creamery in town. A couple of gallons of whole milk was brought to the house for drinking, cooking and making cheese. My father and 4 brothers would do these outside chores while Mother and the girls would be preparing breakfast. Every morning they would make pancakes or french toast or biscuits or fried mush. They also would fry a couple pounds of bacon, ham or sausage and then a couple dozen eggs and then they would make a milk gravy of the fryings. Eight lunches were packed for those in school. The year I was born, 3 of the kids went to high school in town and 4 were in the one room country school. The dishes were all washed, rinsed and dried and put away. At 7 o'clock they all left for school.
Monday was wash day. My mother made her own soap several times a year. The morning started about 4:30. The water for the laundry was pumped into a pail and carried to the wash house and put into the large 30 gal iron kettle that was built on the wood stove. A fire must be started under it to heat it. A fire was started in the cook stove with corn cobs. They brought in a large basket of cobs from the cob house. Then 2 large rinse tubs were filled with water to rinse the clothes. The clothes were gathered from the bedrooms and through out the house. The clothes were washed with a ringer washing machine. Three loads consisted of sheets, pillow cases and table clothes, 2 loads were under ware, socks and tea towels, 3 loads were towels and light colored aprons, blouses, dresses and night gowns, 2 loads were dark colored dresses and shirts and 3 loads were overalls, rag rugs, sweaters and jackets. All this wash took about 5 hours. After each step of washing and 2 rinses the clothes had to be put through the ringer. They were rinsed twice to get the strong lye soap out. The wash was then hung outside on lines to dry or hung up in the wash house in the winter. Most of the bedding was put right back on the beds after ironing. Us kids slept 3 in a bed in the winter as we were able to keep warm that way. We each had a towel for bathing. We dried the towels behind the wood stove after bathing so they were used several times before they were washed. We had roller towels for the the kitchen. It was a wood frame with a dowel that came out to put the towel on and this was changed each day. We all had several aprons that usually matched the dress, white ones with lace for dress up times. We usually had 2 nice print dresses and then older or hand me downs for chores. When the clothes were dry, they were sprinkled with water and rolled up tight and put into baskets to be ironed the next day.
Tuesday was ironing and baking day. Most everything had to be ironed because it was cotton material and really wrinkled. They used heavy flat irons that were heated on the stove. The larger items like table clothes were ironed under the small items. Killing 2 birds with one stone. Most things were ironed lightly, like collars, upper fronts of shirts and pant legs of the overalls. The only things carefully ironed were the nice print dresses, aprons, blouses and men and boys dress shirts. Mom would have about 20 things that required careful ironing. Ironing was about a six hour job, if done by one person. Baking was started every Tuesday and Friday morning. The bread was put to rising, enough for 12 loaves and a large pan of buns.
By 5 o'clock in the evening the family was all home. The girls would help take care of the little ones and help mother prepare the dinner. Most of the time we had meat, potatoes, vegetables, cottage cheese, preserves, salad, bread, milk to drink and dessert. We had a lot of puddings as this was my father's favorite dessert. Mother made bread pudding, chocolate pudding, custard and rice pudding. She also would make pound cake. She would make a clear vanilla sauce or thickened fruit to go over the pound cake. We usually had pie on Sunday. Mother and the girls would then do up all the dishes. The boys would help Father with the chores as the animals had to be fed and the cows milked in the evening. Each day around noon mother would go out to the hen house and gather eggs. She would also churn the butter a couple times a week. In the Fall they would butcher 4 hogs, 2 beef and 50 chickens. They raised a garden every year. They had 6 cherry trees, several mulberry trees, a strawberry patch. They also grew cantaloupe, watermelon and ruhbarb. In the summer time Mama worked a lot in the garden and canning. The girls did most of the house work. The boys did the chores and helped Father with the farming. The younger boys helped Mama in the garden.
Wednesday was mending and sewing day. She had a treadle sewing machine that she made to sew by pushing a pedal with her feet, that turned a wheel and made the needle to sew. Mother made all the girls dresses and summer aprons and under ware and the boys shirts and boxer shorts. This also was a day that she would make cheese and churn her butter and get the eggs ready for market.
Thursday was market day. She sold her eggs and butter in town. With this she made enough money to buy coffee, flavorings, salt, seasonings, dried fruit, bananas, candy, oatmeal, and cold cereal (once a week we had cold cereal with our breakfast). She also bought notions for sewing. My father would have the wheat we grew milled into flour and put into 100 lbs sacks. He also bought 100 lb sacks of sugar. Once a year they would buy 3 or 4 bushels of apples, 50 lbs of raisons and 50 lbs of prunes. Once a year they would buy each child 2 pairs of long under ware, 3 pairs of socks, 2 pair of bib overalls for the boys and one pair of shoes. This would cost about $50. You may think this was a pretty good price for 9 kids but these were depression years and money was scarce.
Friday was baking day again. Mother made 12 loaves of bread, 24 cinnamon rolls, and 3 dozen doughnuts on this day.
Saturday was house cleaning day. The girls would help to clean the house. Keep in mind no electric appliances like vacuum sweepers etc.
Sunday after breakfast and chores were done, we all went to church. After our mid day dinner and the dishes were done, Mama and Father would go to bed and take a long nap and the children could read or play. After the chores were done in the evening, Mama would play the piano and we would all sing. The week day evenings after the work was done, Papa would read the newspaper and the children would do their homework for an hour. Mama would help them and then she would play the piano for a little while and then everyone would go to bed at 8:30.
