WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PONY CLUB CHILDREN BLOG

From time to time, I will be updating my "What Happened to the Pony Club Children" blog. My latest posting about the Knight "twins" can be found at the following link:
http://ponyclubchildren.blogspot.com/

FAREWELL FOR NOW

Greetings to you all,

With sad regret, I have decided that for the time being, I will not be making any new posts on this blog. I have been very busy (overly so) since I began work on The Farmer's Wife Quilt book in May of 2007, and I  simply need to slow down my life. How long will this break last? Weeks, months, years? I don't know!! But I hope to be back posting again someday. Thank you all for your support and kind words.

P.S. I will continue to answer any email questions that you have. Good-bye for now...

God bless you,
Laurie

 

CAMPING ON THE FARM--1926

Apparently in times past, not every Girl Scout was a part of a "Troop." This article was written for the many "Lone Girl Scouts" living in 1926.

Every Lone Scout will, I hope, take her younger sister or older brother or neighbor, or visiting cousin, out this summer to spend at least one day "in camp," in some lovely spot not too far from home--probably right on the farm, but seemingly very far away.

Those who have already had the delightful experience of camping out for a day or more by a lake or river, or in the mountains, or down by the creek in a corner of the orchard (away from the house), will never forget the rich flavor of a crust of toasted bread, or the tantalizing smell of bacon cooked on a sharpened stick over hot coals!

I look back with great satisfaction upon the memory of days spent on grandmother's farm. We youngsters used to cook out-of-doors a great deal. Almost always we went down to one certain pasture where there was a lovely elm tree and a creek.

My grandmother always had plenty of tomatoes ripening in a row on the kitchen window sill. The dish we prepared most frequently was stewed tomatoes. We skinned and quartered the tomatoes, brought them to a boil, and then stirred in, for thickening, a little milk and flour mixed into a thin paste, some salt and pepper. When done we served them on toast. Buttered toast, if you please. Our bread was home-made and was toasted on sharpened, forked sticks before the fire. Sometimes we spread the bread with butter before we toasted it. This made it toast delightfully brown and taste particularly delicious.

 

I wonder if any of you have tried anything like this? A fork, spoon and cup, a small frying pan or a quart-sized stewing pan, and a pocket knife, are all the equipment you really need. You, too, can cook tomatoes, or you can toast bacon on peeled green sticks and scramble or fry eggs. If you are quite ambitious, you can try pancakes, with brown sugar syrup. It doesn't matter what meal you go out to cook. Simple dishes are best any way.

As far as I am concerned, I still think there is nothing on earth more fun than getting up when everything is dusky and dewy, and going off to cook a breakfast of bacon and eggs as the sun rises. Do try that sometime. Again, try gathering your equipment and food supplies together for a noon meal. Make a list the night before. See if you can get everything all ready before you start off so you won't have to go back for a single thing. Check with your list in hand. Then, leave the house promptly at ten o'clock and go down into the orchard by the creek for the day. Plan where you are going to put your things so they won't get messy. Here is a nice stump, or there a flat rock that will do for a table. Plan to gather your wood, build your fire, set your "table" and get your lunch ready by twelve o'clock.

After your fire has been going steadily for several minutes, put your skillet on with two or three strips of bacon in it. When the grease is melted out, lift out the bacon and drop in your eggs. Baste the eggs with the sizzling bacon grease. That will make them turn white on the top. I leave it to you to judge when a perfectly good fried egg is done, and to finish it by serving it on toast or making an egg sandwich.

After lunch, clean every dish and pot, and prepare to leave no trace of your occupation behind you. Burn all fruit or vegetable skins or papers in your fireplace. Girl Scouts are clean campers. Before you leave, see that your fire is positively out. One spark left might cause inestimable damage.

Now, lie down awhile on your back and watch the clouds go by. What shapes are they? Have you ever read any poems about clouds? How many colors do you see about you? Any birds? Walk over to the top of a knoll for a lovely view, if possible. Wade a bit, if the brook is shallow. Look closely at a handful of wet sand. What is it like? Model a little skillet or a bird out of clay, if your soil is clayey.

When it comes four o'clock, gather up your equipment and start home. Arrive home by four-thirty and put your equipment away in a suitable place, all clean and ready for next time.

MAKING MONEY WITH CHILD BOARDERS--1931

We live on a small farm, and I had tried various ways of money making, none too successful. While we usually had plenty of vegetables, chickens, fruit, and milk for our own use, and some to spare, we found no steady market for our surplus, and were often obliged to bring back our produce from the little town near home.

Last summer, my sister-in-law, who lives in a good-sized town, was telling me how disappointed she was at not being able to visit her parents in a distant city. It was not advisable to take her three step-children, and if she left them at home, she would have to pay some one to look after them, and leave her house to the mercies of an extravagant cook. Suddenly an idea popped into my head.

"Judy," I said, "would you like for me to board the children for a month? Then you can go."

I can't begin to tell you how delighted she was. She left on her visit, satisfied that the children were well cared for.

In this way our surplus of farm produce was taken up. The expense was nearly nothing, the work being the thing. True there were times when my nerves would get ragged at the racket those three children made, added to my own two.

The farm furnished most of their amusement. An occasional trip to town was provided for them, but they seemed to care very little for that. The old pasture was an excellent place for Indian forts, and many were the battles fought there. A ride on the old mare or wading in the brook was fun enough.

There was no coaxing of finicky appetites when mealtime came. All did full justice to the meal, usually consisting of vegetables, fried chicken, green salads, desserts of fresh fruits, or often ice cream, made from our generous supply of milk, leaving plenty to drink.

The night before they were to leave, the littlest one laid his head against my arm, as we sat in the swing.

"Auntie," he said, "I've been to the mountains, and to the seashore, but this is the best place of all."

I have had several mothers ask me to take their children while they go away for a vacation this summer, and I'm laying my plans to have "children boarders" most of the season. A little advertising would help, but I have not found it necessary. I charge $5.00 a week for each child. This gives me a good profit, paying me for my trouble. It also pays the mothers. They don't have to worry over the clothes problem, or taking children to expensive resorts, or staying at home with them.

A genuine love for children, patience to settle the little difficulties that have to be settled, the right amount of bedtime stories in reserve, and this venture will be a success.

This post has been shared with Simple Lives Thursday.

YOUR NEW NEIGHBORS; IOWA, MARCH 1928

Early spring is moving time in the Midwest and all of us will have new folks in our communities.

Last year the Bryants moved in down the road a mile, but at first the roads were bad. By the time the roads were good, I was spending my time quietly at home awaiting the arrival of our new son. After that I hated to take four small boys to visit at the house of a stranger. She might not like children.

Later we heard they were attending the public dances which, in our community, are not desirable social affairs, and we thought perhaps we wouldn't care to know them.

This winter my husband traded work with Mr. Bryant, and I finally made my belated get-acquainted visit.

I found Mrs. Bryant a friendly, busy person. She likes children and never minds how much little folks play at her house. She and I like ever so many of the same things--sewing, reading, new recipes, psychology, visiting and not gossiping.

I learned that, in the community they came from, the whole family went to dances. When they found out the type of dances we have here, they stayed at home.

Already we are on the way to one of those rare "mutual benefit" friendships; it is my fault we wasted all these months.

This year I am going to call on all the new neighbors as soon as they are settled and no excuse.

A HOUSEKEEPING PLAN IN 1907; by Aunt Hannah

First, for the day's routine:

1. Before leaving your room in the morning open the bed and the windows.
2. Light the kitchen fire; put the breakfast to cook, fill teakettle with water, and place on kitchen table the things needed to prepare breakfast.
3. Sweep the sitting room.
4. Set breakfast table, make coffee and finish and serve breakfast.
5. Clear away breakfast, sweep dining room and kitchen and wash dishes.
6. Dust sitting room and dining room.
7. Make the beds and put sleeping rooms in order.
8. Do any special work, baking, ironing, washing or cleaning.
9. Prepare the noon meal.

When washing is to be done the boiler should be put over the fire before sitting down to breakfast, and the dusting and sleeping rooms may be left until after the washing is finished. Do not try to make washday cleaning day also, which is liable to greatly overtax the strength of the average housekeeper; wipe up the floor on washday with as little labor as possible, and give it a thorough cleaning on some other less trying day.

The Latest Fashions in 1907

The routine, which can be easily followed by the average housekeeper, will result in a well kept, orderly home, and leave the afternoons free for sewing, mending, shopping, visiting, reading and resting. The care of little children will, however, often overturn all plans, and the housewife must then just do the best she can. At our house the regular days for special work are: Monday, putting house to rights after the Sunday rest, getting the washing together and putting the most soiled articles to soak; Tuesday, washing; Wednesday, baking; Thursday, ironing; Friday, cleaning; Saturday, baking.

 As children grow old enough, teach them to open the beds and windows before leaving their room, and assign each such share of the household tasks as they are capable of assisting with or doing alone.

The Well-Dressed Girl in 1907

Very little tots, of two and three years, may learn to pick up and put away their playthings, to assist in clearing away the table, doing the dishes, and may sweep up with their own little brooms any litter they make in their play.

The mother should be queen of the home, but if she has no system her sovereignty will be unhappy and troubled, and her subjects will be restless and quarrelsome if she does not learn to rule them wisely and firmly, though lovingly.

This post has been shared at Simple Lives Thursday.

MY HOME, SOUTH DAKOTA, 1934

My home: four walls of an ugly and old-fashioned farmhouse. A group of buildings in need of paint and repairs. A scraggly grove of trees that has suffered from the drought and a lawn invaded by thistles.

My home: Within these four walls I have known childbirth and child-death, sickness, worry, and hardship. Disappointment and frustration make bodily weariness doubly hard to bear.

My home: It is all of these, but oh! so much more. It is a shelter from the elements, from the heat of summer and the snow and cold of winter. It is a refuge from the unkind world. It is a sure haven in this time of chaos.

My home: Though I rebel because I am a prisoner here, I would not be free for anything in the world. Though sometimes the drudgery and monotony are hard to bear, I would not leave them if I could. Here I am necessary to three whom I love. Here I know I am loved and needed. Here I can be utterly myself, free from pretensions and subterfuges.

My home: It is sweet to hear my children laugh and play. There is still the romance in waiting for Daddy to come in from the field. There is deep content in having someone to quarrel with, to love, to take care of, to scold, and to forgive. There is still joy in a freshly-scrubbed floor, the smell of a freshly-baked apple pie, the crackle of the fire in the funny old heating stove.

It is the best place on earth to me--my home.

QUILTING IN THE 1910s & 1930s

The evolution of craft patterns in The Farmer's Wife magazine is quite interesting. The 1920s saw almost exclusively crochet patterns until the very late 1920s. In the 1930s, many of you will not be surprised to know that quilting became much more popular, and the magazine published at least four separate quilt pattern booklets during that time. What did surprise me though, was the quilting patterns that were published in the 1910s. The first set of pictures below are of patterns published in 1913, all in black and white. At the bottom of this post are patterns printed in color in 1934. Sometime in the future, I will post some pages from the 1930s Farmer's Wife quilt booklets.

The following letter was printed in the 1913 issue:

My young daughter was not strong and the doctor prescribed sleeping in the fresh air, so she had her cot moved out on the porch and when it began to get cool and a quilt became necessary my inspiration came. We had plenty of nice, sweet hay, and I knew that hay was warm, so, why not a comforter of hay? I had never seen one, but I experimented, and this is the way I did it: I got enough dark blue flannelette for the covering, cutting it a little wider than the cot it was to cover. First I sewed across one end, down one side and then across the other end; then quilted across from side to side making the distances about twenty inches. Through the open side the hay was then packed in smoothly and evenly, and the remaining side sewed up. My daughter declared that this quilt was warmer than two or three blankets, and lighter. When the hay became limp, the quilt was hung out in the sun, and it soon became as crisp as if fresh. After the hay became worn and thin from constant use. I took it all out and refilled the quilt with fresh hay. With such a filling at hand there is no excuse for the farmer's wife to go without plenty of good light covering. Mrs. R.

THE GOOD EARTH; by "Driven Back to Eden," Ohio; 1934

Four years ago my husband was an office man, holding a position that to us seemed as solid as the rock of Gibraltar itself. The "rock" was sandstone, I guess, for when the waters of the depression ran steadily over it, it wore gradually to nothingness.

So here we are with our two kiddies, an aged grandfather, ourselves, two hundred baby chicks, a cow with the grandest "hat posts" on her back side, a half dozen hens, and a shepherd pup; living in a little shack on a few acres of poor land, trying to raise our food. Seems easy, does it not? However, we are finding it a hard struggle, with no income at all, and all our nest egg gone. After the pay check twice a month and city conveniences, it is rather bewildering, and now and then we get frightened.

This is the black part of the picture. But the black is only the frame that serves to show off the picture to better advantage. Before, I used to watch my husband's weary form start each morning to hitch-hike from a small town to the near-by city, knowing that he would tramp the streets all day searching for work, and that he would come home at night discouraged, weary, and worn out, not from hard work, but from daily watching his family drop deeper and deeper into the pit of the unfortunate. Now he gets up in the morning, eager for the work of the day. Through the summer, when evening came, and the milk was bottled and cooled, we went arm in arm to our garden, to glory in the rows of green lovely vines and plants. Every new row was hailed with delight, and each tomato counted as soon as it formed on the stalks. The whole family went into raptures over each new thing that pushed its way up.

No longer do we sit beside our radio, and by the light of electric lamps, have a game of bridge or listen to our favorite program, for ours is rather a primitive farm with no luxuries; but instead, no beautiful sunset ever escapes us, each lovely moon is watched, and at night when we have earned our rest, we fall asleep with happy visions of the next day. Best of all, we are strong and healthy now from our rugged outdoor life. The Good Earth has meant much to us.

LET'S STACK THE DISHES!, GAYLE WHITE; 1926

Have you read about the Iowa lady who claims to be the champion dishwasher? With all the pride of an Olympic hero, she avers [to declare positively] that for thirty-four years she has done her dishes promptly after every meal.

How much the poor dear has missed by not learning the art of stacking the dishes and saving them for later! Now, honestly, wouldn't you be ashamed to admit that you had such bossy old dishes? That they let them run you? So much can be lost in the way of accomplishment, health and happiness by allowing any task to tyrannize over one.

It often proves a real saving of time and gas to accompany the husband on one of his hurry-up trips to town and do the family shopping rather than make an extra trip, even though the dishes must sit. Although you do not need to buy, the ride may do you good, give you a new slant on life and renewed vigor. Perhaps when the car goes it will be a good chance for you to make that long-promised call on your new neighbor or have a delightful visit with your old friend.

Front Side of Small Antique
Cardboard Needle Holder

It means so much in the way of accomplishment to do work when the spirit moves you. On certain days I just love to sew. At such time, if my family meal is not too large, I stack up all the dishes and just sew. On such days I sew well.

At other times, I will obey the call of the out-of-doors. On bright, blue October days I will hie [to go quickly] me out into the sunshine to rake the yard, dig up the cannas or plant tulips. Dishes can be done when the shadows are falling and I am the gainer in every way.

Then there are those stifling summer days when after rushing through work all morning, dinner is finally stowed away and dishwashing looms up. Have you not then had a very real attack of dishwasher's colic, when it seemed as though that job were the last straw? Of course, you could make yourself do them but at the cost of feeling fagged all the rest of the afternoon. An hour's rest immediately after dinner would put you in good trim for the rest of the day's work. Indeed, doctors tell us it is actually necessary to good health.

Reverse Side of the
Needle Holder--Measures
2.5" x 5"

Perhaps reading rests you. If so, proceed to get a new line of thought. What does it matter if some one calls and the dishes are unwashed? Don't apologize! Your reading should at least enable you to talk intelligently about other things than neighborhood scandal.

Live your life to suit your own needs instead of on the basis of what other people will think.