Comments On Article: The Diary Of Sarah February 28, Through March 26, 1932.

If you would like to share your comments for article The Diary of Sarah February 28, through March 26, 1932. , this is where to do it! 

Click the Reply To This Topic button below to post yours.

I find it interesting she appears to write at the end of the day instead of the beginning as a to do list.  I should try that. Maybe I'll fee like my day was more productive knowing what I did.  I always wanted chickens, but we have horses and I no longer want chickens. LOL.  I have enough although chickens are more useful.  My mom ironed a lot. I ironed - enough to the point I don't buy anything that requires it. although I'd like to iron the top section of my top sheet, but with a king bed, it's a LOT to manage.  I used to sew much of my clothes between 18-30 then I got away from it. I tried to take it up again when I had my daughter, but I had truly forgotten everything; I couldn't even read a pattern anymore when it used to be second nature.  I'm thinking of taking it up again though for household items, not clothing.  I'm interested in knowing if you'll be posting what you're doing about the 50's & 60's and your home; what you'll be doing for that!  I have many memories of the early 60's being quite young. My dad always wore a hat!  And I was always fond of the 50's.  Everyone dressed so nice.

I am amazed at all that Sarah gets done. I work from home and it seems like I am always behind in everything and it's just my husband and me. We moved to a small farm in June of last year and then I had a hip replacement. This will be the first year here that we will have a garden and plant some fruit trees. We are also getting some chicks. We've had a garden and chickens before, but this is our first time here. We are looking forward to it. I'm hoping to get into a routine regarding the home and farm chores so that it flows more. 

Thank you, GDonna for typing up the diary the way that you are and for the inspiration that you are to us all.

Carol

Grandma Donna wrote,  Ann E, yes, I will be posting about what I will be doing about the 50's and 60's.  I am enjoying thinking about it all.  I had planned to stay on the great depression study so this is quite a sudden change in course for me but anytime we change it is an exciting time.  I am looking forward to this change and living this simple life with a resemblance of the the time between 1947ish to 1965ish.  Long ago changes came slow and actually the late 1930s, 40s and 50s were quite similar other than colors of paint, clothing and some new appliances.  Ladies hem lines went up and down, 

Carol S, it sounds like you are on a new adventure too.  thank you for your kind words.  I hope your garden and fruit trees will bring you good harvests.  :)

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO GDONNA, WE APPRECIATE YOU, THINK OF YOU OFTEN, PRAY FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY . 

HAVE ALWAYS LOVED READING OLD DIARIES LATE 1800'S HOMESTEADERS AND SUCH.

I FINALLY FOUND A RECIPE FOR SOURDOUGH STARTER...I'VE ONLY BEEN WORKING ON IT OFF AND ON FOR 20 YEARS OR SO..LOL ALSO A PERFECT BREAD RECIPE FOR ONE LOAF..AND CREPES...I TRY TO COOK FROM SCRATCH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE..

I HAVE RAISED CHICKENS FOR ABOUT 8 YEARS NOW...LAST YEAR WAS MY FIRST TIME WITH ROOSTERS.  I WANTED TO INCUBATE MY OWN CHICKS..BUT ROOSTERS ARE MEAN!!!!! I HAVE ONE ROOSTER LEFT AND PUT 9 EGGS TO INCUBATE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY..I COULD ONLY COLLECT 3 OR 4 CLEAN FIRM EGGS A DAY WITH STRONG SHELL.THEY ARE COMING ALONG JUST FINE..AFTER THEY HATCH I WILL BE GETTING ANOTHER COLLECTION TOGETHER..HOPEFULLY MORE..IT ONLY TAKES 21 DAYS FROM EGG TO CHICK..DEPENDS ON HOW MANY I CAN AFFORD TO FEED.

THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING..READING THESE DIARIES GROUNDS ME IN SOME WAY..THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT HAVE LIVED THE WAY I TRY TO LIVE..ENCOURAGES ME NOT GIVE UP.

I'm really enjoying Sarah's diary entries, and I'm looking forward to more posts.  Whatever you decide sounds good to me because I enjoy anything and everything you write!  I learn so much either way.  I love history and genealogy especially, so I feel like kindred spirits.

Anyway, what I think I'm learning from Sarah is that yes, she is busy, but I don't think it's more than most of us do.  I think we need to give ourselves more credit.  I do admire how consistent she is and also with how she spreads out her tasks over the week.  She also seems to do the bulk of her major cleaning on Fridays & Saturdays, but the rest of the week appears to be normal "daily tasks," meal prep, and her news.

Routine I noticed:

Sunday - Church

Mondays - Sarah  does washing.

Fridays - Sarah  cleans the porches & "especial" clean of the bedroom.

Saturdays - Sarah does her big baking, and "especial" clean of the living room & kitchen.

These seem to be very consistent.  She also does ironing/mending/sewing, but that seems to float, usually around Tuesday or Wednesday.  Then there's the visiting, working on other projects that come up, etc.

So, what I'm learning from this is that if I want a consistently clean home, I need a consistent schedule (with wriggle room of course).

So fun!

Donna, thanks so much for continuing to post the diary entries for Sarah.  Like others, I enjoy reading old diaries.  I especially enjoyed the diaries of Rose and Emma, even though the entries were significantly shorter.  I lived the majority of my marriage in rural Iowa and it was fun getting to "picture" it as it was in years past.  Many thanks again. 

Grandma Donna wrote, Z T, thank you for your comment and letting me know that you enjoy the diaries, without feedback I do not know, and this helps me to continue on.. 

Personally I learn a lot from Sarah's diary and you are right about when we can sit back and read, we can see a pattern that will possibly help a lot of us.  You saying that it made me remember my mother's pattern during the 1950's and knowing that my mother's patterns reflected her life through the twenties, thirties and forties when she was growing up and becoming an adult.  We were always doing deep household cleaning on Saturdays, there was no playing with friends until Saturday chores were done.  The house got a very (as Sarah would say) especial clean up on Saturday. My mother was in the kitchen baking and cooking away on this day too.  She baked and prepared food on Saturday for the week ahead and prepared part of Sundays meal.  Monday and Tuesday was washday and ironing and that shows me that we do need to think ahead and do things to make time to do these other important jobs.  

I will enjoy getting more 50s organized and I hope you all will enjoy reading the rest of Sarah's diary. :)

Thank you Gayle H, your comment came in as I was writing a response and did not see this. I am glad you enjoy the diaries too.  It really does give us a good mental picture. :)

Reading this diary reinforces the need to think ahead and have a schedule for the home...I like the reminder. It seems that so often the home gets forgotten while everything else gets priority. Too often in our family's life things outside the home got taken care of and the home got the leftovers. Nowadays I've been stressing that home comes first. If we planned to clean out the garage for example then no we're not running out somewhere because it sounds more fun. 

I find it interesting Sarah was often up late.

Grandma Donna, do you have diaries from Sarah written before 1930?  I ask because I wonder how much of what she does has more to do with being a farm family, especially before "modern times" and less to do with the depression.  The few farm families that I have known in my life always brought in some income through an outside job, usually the spouse. So it makes sense to me that they would be taking goods into town to sell or trade, and that she had a side job writing for the local newspaper (or so I think!), probably doing the social news that was so common in small town newspapers of that time period.  I do get a sense of being really hard workers, and having daily and seasonal routines,  but I am not getting a sense of how the depression years might be affecting them.   It is a good  study on being self reliant, in any time period. 

I am late to comment, but I am fine with whatever time period you chose to talk about, and I always appreciate your "simple living" posts the most. Those posts are the backbone of whatever time period you have studied.  Thank you so much for continuing your blog!  It really is an oasis of calm for me!

Grandma Donna wrote, Debbie in PA, it is never too late to comment on any post.  I do not have any other diaries from Sarah, I wish I did.  We know that she went back to find the 1900 diary out of her box to find a death date of a child.  I have family members to tell me that they did not feel the depression as many people did because they lived on a farm and times were hard and hard work on a farm anyway.  We are learning this is true.  One of my family members told me once that they did not have much meat and that a cake or sweet would be a very special treat.  It all depended on where one lived for sure.  My mother experienced hunger during the great depression and they would eat a simple biscuit ( similar to scone but not sweet).  Good days there would be cold butter to put on the biscuit.  My neighbor Naomi, several years passed away now, told me years ago that her mother was the only one around them that had a pressure canner and had it not been for that canner they probably would not have had food.  People would bring jars and food and pay her by letter her keep part of the food they grew to can their food for them.  

This has been one of the difficult parts of studying any era, it all depended on where someone lived, rural or city or town, village or community.  The one common thing I have found so far is community closeness and visiting one another which they would say called or calling on Mr. so and so.  That was how they knew of everyone was doing okay.  During the flu pandemic of 1918 to 1921. People would take soup or food and leave it outside the door of a family that was sick.  We recently did this with a neighbor with Covid.  We purchased a thick Styrofoam cooler and put it on their porch and took meals and put it in the cooler and knocked on their door to know to check the cooler. This kept animals away from the food and kept the food at a good temperature.  

We can try at least to resemble these things from the past to show others what to do. 

I'm still in the process of reading this month, but I don't think she sleeps much!

I'm very late on catching up on all the posts. I like the idea of moving forward into other decades as well. My grandparents were always talking about those decades and to quote them "Those were good times". Insert a big smile with that from them. I'm excited to see what else we can learn. Most of my family made it through hard times during the great depression just fine because they owned their homes, were sensible and some lived on farms which had everything they needed. I sure do miss how people checked on each other. I recently asked in our text thread for our church ladies if anyone wanted to come over to our place for smores around the campfire and only 1 said yes. I couldn't believe it that no one wants to go anywhere and visit anymore. I'm quite jealous of sorts when I read the diaries of how often they all call on each other. Grandma Donna your always in our prayers and thoughts. We're thankful for everything that Charles and you have done with these studies and living the way you do. It helps us to know and to change our life the way we want to and whats comfortable too.