Marge Anglin Gast ...continued

Wash day was something to behold. Can you imagine all the shirts, sheets,pants, socks ect.to be washed? It's good that baths were Sat. night. That may have cut down on towels. Can you think how many towels a family of ten would go through today? The sturdy Matag with the loud motor served G.G. very well and I am sure she thanked God for it. Not everyone had that luxury.It took all day to do the wash, hoping winds would dry it. The items to be ironed would be sprinkled, rolled and put in a large basket, to be ironed on Tuesday. People took pride in how the clothes were hung, making sure that items were sorted, hung in groups, ect. Blankets were washed later and rugs and so-called rags were last. At long last some of the soapy water was used to scrub the stone house.

Marge Anglin Gast wrote Anglin farm memories.

The weather we are in for this next week is almost as bad as the worst winter weather here because I will have to spend most of the time in the house. I can get out early in the morning and late in the evening to walk and water. I am thankful, because in deep winter I can't even do that, so here's to this simmering summer.
I found an essay that my cousin, Marge, wrote back in 2000. It is very important Anglin reflections that I wanted to copy here before but had accidently buried in a stack of papers.
Here is the first installment:
TO ALL OF YOU WHO PROUDLY RECALL EXPERIENCES ON THE FARM WHICH STILL STANDS, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT PLEASURE WE MAY HAVE IN STORE FOR US. By Marge Anglin Gast

D.W. & G.G
I guess there is no place to start, but summer is here and I will tell you how G.G (Grandma Grace) tried to keep me cool, likely also to keep me quiet or better yet asleep. She hung wet sheets over the screen facing the North, and if I would lay on the floor, perhaps a slight breeze would do the trick. The Anglins were floor sleepers and THE BOYS could be instantly asleep or instantly awake at D. W.'s (Daddy Wash) demand.

Thrashing day was a big event on the farm and I am sure G.G. did not need any help from me. Everything about threshing was big. Big machines, big meals, big aprons, big men with big appetites. The fellowship of the days toil surely must have kindled lasting friendships. Being a kid and spoiled what fun to get in the bins and have a rush of grain flow around me. Oh that you could have had that experience. That smell of rye and wheat, so fresh you had to eat some of it on the spot.

When I think of the many fun yet simple games we played I am reduced to tears. Only THE BOYS (two now) can fill you in on Goulah??? which was played north of the barn. Inside games were hide the thimble and fist-off. For more dangerous action we swung on a large rope from the east side of the barn way out the door!

Putting hay in the barn was work, but it seemed like fun to me. Talk about smells , hay is so wonderful. Actually I did not do any work except dusting, which I still hate. I was allowed to scrape some casing on butchering day but I had instructions on how to do it chisled in my brain.
Butchering day did have some excitment, but I hated killing the animal. Yet I had no trouble eating the good fried side meat. I was never bothered about killing chickens for Sunday dinner . It had to be done and I don't care for live ones. .....to be continued.

Summer in full swing

There is a Blues and Bar-B-Q fest in the park tonight. Don't know if my date will actually come.
He has said he would in the past and absolutely forgotten the words. Very un-Glen like . It's brutal out there at this age. Seems I thought the same thing as a teen. Oh well , now, I just want to dance.
I taught a lot of lanky teen boys to dance in my early teen years. After I met my college boy, that stopped. He put up with a lot of teen hops and rainbow dances just to please me. Later we would go to Rochester to see the Big Bands still touring the country. We danced to Stan Kenton, some band that claimed to be the Glenn Miller band, and Ray Anthony who sounded like the real Glenn Miller Band. That was a special night. It was beautiful there at The Colonial Gardens on Lake Manatau.
The front of the building had white pillars all the way across. The lake side of the building had a pillar supported balcony that spanned it. I think it was when they were playing " Moonlight Serenade" that Glen escorted me out to see the moon's reflection on the water. Yes that is where he popped the question -down on one knee. Too perfect, I know but that was the way it was. I don't even think he knew that that is where my father purposed to my mother while listening to Hoagy Carmichael's " Stardust".
You can quit gaggin' - that is enough of the Long side for now

Aunt Anna's Sweet Sixteen/Seventeen Diary cont.

A reoccurring theme is that the family always wants Anna to come visit awhile . I am sure it is partly out of the goodness of their heart but also because she is such a good worker. Here is her entry for her 17th birthday(May 26): Monday My Birthday-17 Dear Diary, up at 9:00 ate did dishes. Painted in the bathroom, Blue and White. Got dinner (what we would call lunch) ate, did dishes. Proceeded with painting. Ate supper did dishes. Received present from Aunt Mae, an Uncle Sam bandana. Pretty. I went to the show. "That night in Rio" Don Ameche, Alice Faye, Carman Miranda. Very good. More laughs. To bed 11:30.
She did get a job that summer keeping house in a vacation cottage on Hudson lake over by New Carlyle, In. They must have been friends of the family because they treated her like family although she was working nonstop for them and got paid. Probably not much.

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!!!!