Aunt Anna's Sweet Sixteen/Seventeen Diary

I am rushing to get the twins birthdays in the mail and getting ready for my herbal apprentice to arrive for garden help.
Digging for more Rapp writings we found Aunt Anna's Diary. She talks about how much fun her friends are and how "swell" her junior year of high school is turning out to be. Although the circumstances of her life are not ideal at that time she is making the best of everything. Her mother and big sister,(my mother) have died. Her father and new bride are living in Rochester, In. and Fort Wayne, but she is boarding with people in Burket to finish out her high school career.
I may change some punctuation and spelling but that is all. Starting with the January 1, 1941 she has filled almost all the pages of that year. ":
Dear Diary, Resolutions I have made; Do not swear, Do not speak bad about others. Lose weight. Got up at 7:15. School. Husted's father died. I am teaching shorthand this week. Went to basketball practice. Bob Dugly was here and we played cards and had fun. Wanda E. was down . Messed around with "Corny Dorany" Saw Count. To bed 12:00."
At that time she is boarding with the Erwin or Ewert family -helping with house work and child care.
Some of her friends have funny names and some of the things they do are typical but interesting.
I will write some of the more interesting later.

Early August

It is hot, hot, hot today so it reminds me of August, not July. I danced in the park at the concert last night ( with a partner) in the cool of the evening. Lots of couples got up and danced when they saw us. After some non-dancers came up to us and said how much they enjoyed watching us dance. It was a fun finish to July's first Friday celebration.
I was looking through some Rapp letters Count gave me a couple of years ago, yesterday. That is when I came across this neat little post card written by my mother, Mary Rapp Anglin, to her mom and dad who were on a fishing trip. The card was addressed % G.W. Wise, Arbutus Lake in Michigan. It was dated exactly one week before I was born.
In very small and straight script she wrote:
Dear Folks, the boys are getting ready for market today. Us girls have 2 hired hands to get dinner for. I canned some pickles and plumbs for you yesterday and went to the Doctor in the afternoon.Dr. Baum sent for me. I guess he (there is a word missing here)that it was all over with. Ina Mae and Anna are feeling frisky. Wayne is about O.K. again and Kaye Donn's cold is a little better this morning. Glad to hear you are getting lots of fish to eat-wish we had some here. There is an ice cream social at the church tonight. The kids are all going. Ina Mae and Anna said tell you to have a good time and don't worry about anything. Let us hear from you. Lots of love, Mary

Hangin' on to June by my garden caked fingernails

So much has sent June skidding past . My only remaining aunt ," the Countess" of the Rapp family, gravely ill, has made me think a great deal of family and memories. Her mother, Minnie. died relatively young - partly of overweight and overwork. They went to the church down the road which was the church my great, great grandfather founded out in Millwood. This was most certainly where my father met my mother. Anyway, my maternal Gramma Minnie belonged to the same Ladies Aid Society that my paternal gramma Grace belonged to for many years. I don't remember Gramma Minnie but Gramma Grace was my guide and my rock through many of life's trials.
One of the fun things I remember about some of the summer days I stayed with her and Daddy Wash at the farm was the Ladies Aid Society meeting. There were many but the one I remember most was in June when I was ten or eleven. The ladies had decided to stage a "mock wedding" and Gramma Grace had volunteered to host it at her house. I was given responsibility for getting the decorations and music around. The funny part was that the entire wedding party and guests were ladies ( is that the opposite of drag?). The ladies portraying guys-groom, best man, minister were wearing someone's best suit; there were roars of laughter when they appeared in the parlor. I think I found the veil (lace curtain) for the bride. The decorations were white paper streamers and bells. There were plenty of roses for the bride's bouquet. I picked from several bushes. My favorite was a double powder puff pink located immediately off the front porch . They perfumed the entire house. Music was contemporary for the day; "Because"and "Always". It was a formidable task keeping the wedding party and the guests in line because they were all laughing so hard it was like they were on drugs or something . You can be sure that was an impossibility!!!!

June was for Anglin family strawberry festivals

There were many memorable times spent on the Anglin family farm when I was a child. June stands out in my mind as especially fun because of all the work/fun activities. There was a large strawberry patch just south of the old grape arbor It was easily accessible from the side of the gently sloping front yard. Straw was applied and reapplied to keep berries clean. Birds were discouraged - although I do not remember how. When the strawberries were right at their flavor peak . Aunts, uncles and cousins were called in to pick, clean and hull. While the strawberries were being prepared, Grandma Grace would get out her tried and trusty rich shortcake recipe. Several batches were put into the jumbo sized oven at the exact right time. The result was nothing like the little sponge cake cups we experience now in the grocery store right next to the old tired ,sometimes tasteless strawberries.
A couple of the aunts would have been stirring up ice cream to be distributed between three or four huge hand crank freezers. there was a running argument about which ice cream (always vanilla) recipe was best -the one made with eggs and cooked like a custard first or the one made with rennet, a natural thickener. I won't tell where rennet comes from. Once in a while they would use both.
Then the men were called in and things got real interesting. There would be an unspoken challenge to get the first freezer finished. Of course Uncle Dal would usually win because he was the first to hook up the crank to the jacked up wheel of his car. The bung hole on the freezer had to be watched closely to make sure the salt did not plug it and cause the water to get onto the lid which could ruin that freezer of ice cream.
Since I was the only one staying over most nights breakfast would be strawberries and melted ice cream on my cereal. YUM!!!!

Rain, Rain Go Away

But don't forget us in July, please. My friend and dance/ gardening partner was sweet enough to take me out to the Boathouse for lunch ,today, after I helped him find some references to the property he just bought, in the basement of the courthouse. He estimates the property went from the Indians to speculators to the Bixler family, through several owners after the Bixlers and now back to the Indians =Rainwater. Although I have found very few Rainwaters in this country who could claim ties to native Americans, I won't burst his bubble.
We celebrated Easter all day yesterday with a little nap in the middle. Hersh (Rainwater) made it in for the big ham event about 6:30 p.m. Son, Chris Long, did most of the food after being up into the wee hours of the night with band job and church.
Uncke Jack Anglin was very happy in church yesterday because his kids and cousin Dave Anglin from Fort Wayne were there and stayed for dinner.
I was out to see Count last week and she told me more about life on the farm where she grew to a teen. The upstairs "dorm style " room was never finished beyond the studs. The boys- Wayne, Herm and Doyle slept on one side of the big chimney and the girls -Mary, Count and Anna on the other side until you know, PUBERTY. Then a small civilized room was made up for the girls downstairs. Count could draw a detailed chart of exact placement of every room in that house right now Talking about it seems to bring her comfort.

Garden time for Count

I went to see Aunt Count at Grace villiage today. We talked a little bit about farm gardening when she was a little girl. Between grousing about the too smokey "BBQ ribs" they served her for lunch and the "interfering activities lady"she almost waxed poetic about her 8 year old hours weeding the carrots and beets. She allowed that the very best carrots are the ones you pull out of the sandy soil, wipe off on your dress and chow down right there. This was so satisfying because these were the very vegetables where she and Anna poked holes in the newly prepared area and dropped seeds just weeks before. Sometimes her dad took excess produce and fresh dressed chickens to the farmer's market in South Bend. The night before she would hold the comb on the head of the chicken and drag the entire chicken up on a prepared board for execution. EEOOW!! She didn't have to pluck the feathers ( a really stinky job). Then they had to get up about four in the morning. No stop for a fast food breakfast on the way up . One trip she remembered: the old truck was runnin' OK but about half way there on 19 the windshield just fell right out onto the road. Count was born on the farm in 1920. They moved to Burket and opened a grocery store without benefit of a market study and sure enough it folded within a short time. The only thing I remember about that store was the time K and I were toddlers and Count and Anna who were late teens taking care of us for the afternoon. They decided to have a little fun watching us try to eat peanut butter. They opened a new jar and sat us up on the counter. then they insisted that we each eat a huge spoonful of the thick gooooooy stuff. It is a wonder we didn't choke to death. I know I gagged. Teens can be stupid- watch 'em.

New and old times

I had a well rounded day starting with some yoga and pilates exercising , went to lunch with a friend then drove out to see Aunt Count. She was just waking and glad to see me . I read her some stuff and then she asked if I could bring in the big Rapp family picture so she could tell me about some of the relatives that lived ever so close to the her dad's farm so I will have more to say about that later if I can find the picture.
Grace called to tell me that the Dr. said that she has shingles. I hope the meds take care of it.
I talked to my daughter Cecily to get permission to copy an essay that she wrote when she was seven or eight. Here it is: Titled MY DOG BITE
I was walking with my girlfriend (no names so to protect the inocent) when she usherd me into the neibor house. I didnt know they even had a dog, but presto before I knew it the dog had jumped up on me and scratched me. I sat down on the couch and the dog, named RASTISS, jumped up and licked me very hard. one of the boys called him away and he went immediately.
Mrs. X as I will call her, called me over to look at my scratches, I didnt think he did anything but scratch me. We soon left and I showed my girlfriend what he did to my back. She was alarmed and said it was bleeding. She took me home and her mother put aniseptic on it. Soon the Mr. came and said it was a mere nip and took me home.
Mother was upset because it broke the skin, but thought it was alright. Later when she was examining it carefully she got worried because it was a hole. Dad was mad because he did not hear about it until 10:00 because we forgot. The next day I had to get a tetanus shot. If the dog was a stray I would half to get 21 rabies shots. But it was a house dog. They half to keep it pened up regardless as a state law, and if it gets sick or dies of rabies within ten days I will at least have 5 rabies shots. I'm sure looking foreword to NO more dog bites. THE END