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Vintage Daze is moving to a new virtual address.
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We’re in the process of moving the content from this blog over to the new one. You’re all the greatest. I hope to see you at the new page!
Love you all,
Trisha Faye
Here’s a TBT (Throw Back Thursday) of another sort.
It’s not my memories. I wasn’t around yet. It’s a good reminder of how many small things we take for granted today. The broom’s worn out? We just pick up another one on our next shopping trip. If we remember.
Life wasn’t always so easy.
BRUSHES AND BROOMS (Excerpt from Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Volume III, by Rita Van Amber)
During the 1930’s and 40’s when I was growing up on a farm in central Mississippi we made our own brooms. Broom straw, a type of tall grass, grew in large clumps on the hillsides around that part of the country. When it became dry in the fall we collected some by twisting clumps of it off until we had a big handful. The lower part of the clump was bound around with a long strip of old inner tube. (We never had a car, so I don’t know where the inner tube came from.) The tops of the straw had small tendrils of softer fiber, which was the part that swept the wooden boards comprising our floors. We made several of these brooms every fall so we would have enough to last until the next fall.
Memory of Doris Dolph, Schofield, Wisconsin
Flora Cardwell Luper wrote in her diary at the end of every day. Every day. Faithfully. Religiously. Sometimes not a lot. Sometimes undecipherable. But what she left in her 5 year diary is a little slice of her life.
Flora wrote often of her family: Her husband, Al, her daughters Marge and Dot, her sons Wade and Thord – and especially of her grandson, Stug.
Here are a few entries, as she started a new diary in January 1948, one she’d consistently fill with entries for five years, until the end of 1952. Through her eyes, she leaves an imprint of Fayetteville, Springdale and northwest Arkansas from over 60 years ago.
January 1, 1948 Alice was home, but not James. Cold & snowing today. Al went to work. Burl stopped for Margie, Stug & I to eat N.Y. dinner with them.
January 2, 1948 Donna Mae ____ took Margie & Virginia to a show in Springdale. Stug stayed with Al & I. He was good. Letter from Dot.
January 3, 1948 Sent Melba Margie M. dresses. She made her one, Marg one. Margie bought them a new dress. Melba made them.
January 4, 1948 Locker cost $12.50. $6 for wrapping the beef. Jan 8 went to W.M.U. at the church. Stug & Marg & I went down on the bus.
January 5, 1948 Al, Harold, Carrol killed the black calf to nite. Hung up one hind qt. Up the rest in a locker $12.50. Stug has a cold. Bless him.
January 6, 1948 Sure having good eats. The calf fine. Margie & I wash & iron. Getting ready for Thord when he comes up after her to go to Ft. Smith in the truck.
January 7, 1948 Wash & iron as usual. Grandad comes up to see Margie about in a wk. Edwin called from Miami & talked to Margie from Joy.
I hope you enjoyed this step back in time.
In honor of my visit to Taylor County, Iowa a year ago, here’s a short story about some Amana rag balls that I found in an antique store in Bedford. The story is a fictional account, to honor the women and girls that would have sat wrapping rag balls and weaving rugs so many years ago.
The story is one of eight from my book, Wash on Monday.
Enjoy!
Amana Rag Balls, Middle Amana, Iowa, 1890
“Aber Vater, muss ich das?” But Father, do I have to? Elsie Ackerman asked, a pout on her face.
“Ja, meine Tochter.” Yes, my daughter, he replied. “You know that the Council of Brethren assigns jobs to everyone in the community. Once you turn fourteen, your schooling is over and you have a job assigned, like we all do.”
“But I don’t want to work in the kitchens. I don’t like to cook and bake all day. And sewing and mending all day isn’t fun either.”
“What you want to do meine Tochter is not the concern of the Council. Their concern is what’s best for the colonies. Most young girls are assigned to the kitchen, the gardens, or the laundry. And with winter approaching, there is little need for help in the gardens right now.”
“I can’t help it the winters here are so cold and snowy that we can’t garden.”
“It’s very mild here. I was a young boy when the Ebenezer Society moved here from Buffalo, New York. Now, that was a place that has a winter. This here is merely a pouf of snow compared to what I grew up with. May I remind you that you’re lucky that I’m in a pleasant mood this evening, or there would be harsh consequences for you speaking back to me in this manner?”
“Es tut mir leid, Vater.” I’m sorry, Father,” a contrite Elsie replied. “It’s just that the thought of working in one of the kitchens to serve three meals and two snacks a day to everyone just sounds like so much cooking. You wouldn’t think we’d need to have fifty kitchens going. Couldn’t I go to work at the mills with you? Working with the blue print cottons would be much more exciting.”
“No. The mills are no place for a young girl. Neither the cotton mill nor the woolen mill. The work there is hard and strenuous. You’ve never been inside where the heat and the smells from the dye vat fill the air with their fumes.”
“Vater, there are some women that work in the woolen mills.”
“No, even if the Council allowed it, I would not allow my daughter to be subjected to a life of this type of labor.”
Elsie’s mother, Emma, entered the small front room, wiping her hands on the dish cloth tucked into her indigo apron waistband. “Carl, let the girl head for bed now, if her studies are completed. The bell will be ringing early in the morning.”
“Off with you then. Gute Nacht, Liebes,” he said, patting Elsie on the top of her blond braided head.
True to her mother’s word, the bell tolling from the village tower rang long before the sun rose. After breakfast, cooked by the women of the community – a task that Elsie did not want to emulate, she headed off for the school house. She dreaded when her school days would come to an end on her upcoming fourteenth birthday.
On her way to worship service that day, Elsie walked slowly around Lily Lake on the way to the small white chapel where services were held in Middle Amana. Each of the seven villages had its own church located in the center. These were simple structures, reflecting the simplicity of the German immigrants that had come to this new country in search of a place to practice their religion free from persecution. The plain brick or stone buildings were void of the flashy stained glass windows and high steeples that many of the other churches in America displayed.
The history of the colonies, starting in Germany’s villages in 1714, was well known to the 1800 residents of the seven Amana colonies. The religious movement call Pietism had many followers that banded together in a common belief of faith renewal through reflection, prayer and Bible study. They believed that God, through the Holy Spirit, inspired individuals to speak. This gift of inspiration, or prophecy was the foundation for the group that became known as the Community of True Inspiration.
When persecution continued, Christian Metz led the community to a new home in a new world, looking for religious freedom, much as the first American colonists were searching for. They pooled their resources and bought 5,000 acres near Buffalo, New York. As the community grew and adopted a constitution and formalized communal way of life, they needed more farmland to support them.
A move to Iowa in 1855 gave them the land they needed to grow and flourish.
While well known to everyone, as this community history was passed down through the years, none of this mattered to Elsie. She was conflicted about not wanting to do the work she feared the elders would designate as her job.
During the quiet worship service, Elsie offered up prayers for a solution to her dilemma. Please Lord, let there be another job for me that’s not in the kitchens. I don’t want to be selfish. You know my heart. But the thought of standing behind a hot stove all day long does not bring joy to my heart. She didn’t know if her quiet pleas were heard, but her heart was eased.
The month passed quickly. Too quickly. Elsie repeated her prayer daily. At the many worship services throughout the week, and at times in between too.
After her fourteenth birthday, she was called to the Council of Brethren. The elders sat, clearly outnumbering her, with stern countenances.
Elsie sat in her seat, hands clasped in her lap in nervousness, yet her head held high in defiance of the meek attitude she knew the Council expected.
“You’re of age now to work for the community I understand,” the elder said, peering over the top of his spectacles.
“Yes, Herr Klein, I am.”
“We have no need of help in this garden at this time of year. And the laundry positions are well filled. Typically we would assign you work in one of the many kitchens in the community.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s been made apparent to me,” at which he glanced at Elsie’s father sitting beside her, “that you don’t wish to work in the kitchens.”
“No, sir. I was not looking forward to that assignment.”
“You do realize that the work everyone in the community provides – everyone – is for the best of the community as a whole and not for the individual person. That is how we have been able to provide so well for each other and thrive as the Amana colonies.”
“Yes, sir. I understand that.” Elsie’s lip trembled, but she refused to give the elders the satisfaction of seeing her cry upon getting assignment she did not want.
Herr Klein’s look softened as he gazed into her eyes. “However, I do believe we can come to a satisfactory agreement in this unusual situation. As favor grows with our well made goods, especially the calico and woolen fabrics, more people come from around the area to shop at our establishments. We are in need of a larger supply of household items to sell. Our woven rugs are quite popular and our stock needs replenished with more expediency. Instead of the kitchens, I believe we can assign you to Fraeulein Helga, to aide her with her rug weaving and learn the skill yourself.”
A smile spread across Elsie’s face, from ear to ear as her head bobbed up and down. “Oh yes, Herr Klein. That is an assignment I am most excited about. I know some basics already … and I can help with anything Fraeulein Helga needs … and I can be there at first light tomorrow … and I …”
The Elder held his hand in the air, with an unusual smile on his face. The other members of the Council glanced at him with mixed looks of puzzlement and astonishment. He was acting out of character with this unexpected wavering of tradition. “Settle down little one. You can begin your apprenticeship at Fraeulein’s next week, the day after the Sabbath.”
“Yes sir, I will. And I’ll be the best helper she’s ever had. And I’ll learn and I’ll help the community by making many fine rugs with good craftsmanship and care.”
“I’m sure you will little one. Tonight at worship you may want to offer an extra thanks to our Lord for this opportunity, and also for the fine loving father you have, who was willing to intercede with the Council on your behalf.”
Elsie enjoyed her apprentice work with Fraeulein Helga. At first she wrapped many calico strips into rag balls, readying them for the weaving process. Over time, the elder weaver began teaching Elsie, who became a proficient weaver of her own right. Thousands of rag rugs were created under Elsie’s steady and patient mastery of the loom, until the community voted to disband its communal society in 1932. Elsie lived out the rest of her life in Amana, in a house overflowing with indigo rag balls and her woven creations.
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The history of the seven Amana Colonies and their origins in Germany, to Buffalo, to Iowa is true. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965, hundreds of thousands of visitors a year visit this Iowa area where the community thrived from 1855 to 1932.
Was there an Elsie, a Herr Klein, or a Fraeulein Helga? Maybe not specifically by those names nor in those roles. However, fourteen year old girls were assigned work in the gardens, the laundry or the kitchens. Most 14 year old boys were designated work on the farm, in the craft shops, or were sent to college to be trained as teachers, doctors and dentists.
The Amana Calico Mill was built in 1861. It grew from one building to eight buildings at its height of production in the 1890’s. At its peak, the mill produced up to 4500 yards per day. The British naval blockade during World War I interrupted the import of the German dyes used in the calico production. Not able to maintain the quality of the product they wanted, the community closed the factory. Today two buildings remain, the fire and printing houses, which are used by the Amana Furniture Shop.
And passing through time, remnants of this period of history remain. These three rag balls were discovered in an antique store in Bedford, Iowa on my journey there in 2014. (Now I wish I would have purchased the rest of them.)
Originally, fabric was purchased from the south and shipped to the Print Works, where it was then dyed and processed into “blue print”. Yardage was sold locally and further out by salesman traveling the countryside with sample books. Some calico was cut into strips, wrapped into rag balls and used to make rag rugs. These balls were recently found in an attic in Amana. From there they ended up in an antique shop in Bedford, where I found them. I brought them back to Texas with me, as an Iowa treasure and remembrance of a special trip.
Who cut them into strips? Whose hands touched these, as they worked with the cottons and rag rugs? How did they get stashed in an attic to sit for eighty to a hundred years? These answers we’ll never know. The people have long passed on before us, taking the mysteries of their lives with them. We can see and hold the rag balls they once touched, and only imagine a fictional story of the women or people behind these pieces of the past.
VINTAGE DAZE
A HOBO, A TRAMP, AND A BUM
A hobo, a tramp, and a bum walked into a bar…Sorry, that’s as far as the joke goes. There is no punchline. To most of us the three terms are interchangeable. They’re one and the same.
They’re not. Among many things in life that look similar from afar, there are varying degrees to these wandering men we associate with days long gone.
According to Wikipedia, “A hobo is a migratory worker or homeless vagabond—especially one who is penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States around 1890. Unlike “tramps“, who work only when they are forced to, and “bums“, who do not work at all, “hobos” are traveling workers.”
Hobos were not uncommon since the turn of the century. With the Great Depression in the early 1930’s, hobos proliferated across the country. While growing up a small child, I enjoyed hearing my Grandpa Jones talk of the days when he ‘rode the rails’ looking for work and eating cold cans of pork and beans.
In Britt, Iowa, there is a Hobo Museum. Check out their webpage here for lots of great photographs, symbols the hobos used, a Hobo Cemetery, and information on this piece of our past. http://www.hobo.com/home.html
These men from long ago even had a Hobo Code. (From their website)
An ethical code was created by Tourist Union #63 during its 1889 National Hobo Convention in St. Louis Missouri. This code was voted upon as a concrete set of laws to govern the Nation-wide Hobo Body; it reads this way:
Now there’s another place on my growing list of places to visit. The Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa. Until then, I’ll just thank my Grandpa Jones for his stories of his hobo travels in the days before he became ‘Daddy’ and ‘Grandpa’.
VINTAGE DAZE – COLLECTIBLES ON THE CHEAP
You don’t have to be a millionaire to collect vintage items. It can be done on the cheap.
Okay, maybe having untold fortunes would make it easier. But where would be the thrill of the chase? Wouldn’t that hinder the delight of finding an affordable treasure?
The price of collectibles has risen over the years – as everything else has. However, there are still vintage items available for less than five or ten dollars.
POSTCARDS: One of my first collections was postcards. I explored antique stores from floor to ceiling, lusting after merchandise I couldn’t afford. I was a young mother of two boys and our young family lived a paycheck to paycheck existence. Almost everything was out of my nonexistent ‘antique’ budget. But postcards, for fifty cents or a dollar – I could afford those. Although they have also increased in price, especially the holiday cards, you can still purchase several for less than $10.
PHOTOGRAPHS: Old photographs are another favorite of mine. Prices vary, depending on the shop, where you’re at, and the condition of the photograph. These are not only memories of people long gone, but you’ll also discover snapshots of life in the past. All for the small price of anywhere from fifty cents to several dollars. Most antique stores have many to choose from. Making your selection will be the hardest part.
SHEET MUSIC: An abundance of vintage sheet music is stacked in antique stores across the nation. Many old pieces sell for less than $5, depending on age, condition, song, artist and artwork gracing the cover. Evenings with the family sitting around the piano went by the wayside after radio and television entered our lives. And now, in our technology age, except for the musicians amongst us, sheet music seems to be a piece of the past.
BUTTONS: Buttons, buttons, who has grandma’s buttons? Searching out old buttons can lead you on an interesting chase. Some of the finer specimens, such as hand painted porcelain or metal military buttons are more expensive. But most have prices on the lower end of the scale. A favorite find from my California hunting days was an old mason jar chock full of old buttons for $10. The ones I’ve found since were in the $20-$25 range. Individual button prices range anywhere from twenty five cents to several dollars.
VINTAGE LINENS: Handkerchiefs and dishtowels are easily found for less than $10. Occasionally you can find a tablecloth or embroidered dresser scarf, although they usually run more. I jumped for joy all the way home one day when I found a hand stitched Scandinavian styled tablecloth for only $10, all because it had a few minor stains on it. Another day, in another shop here in Texas, I spied a set of five embroidered dish towels with the ‘Wash on Monday’ theme, for $10.95. Yes, they live with me now.
Give it a try. Stop by your local antiques and collectibles store this weekend. Browse around. I think you’ll be surprised at what you see that needs a good home – with you. All for an affordable price, much cheaper than you think.
Comments or questions? Email Trisha at vintagedaze@trishafaye.com
— The photo shows my latest treasures from an antique store in Keller, Texas. I got two postcards and four photographs for $12. The postcard with the photo of the four people was $2. The Easter greetings postcard, postmarked 3/24/1921, was fifty cents. Both large photographs, Gladys M. Cleveland of Hamilton Montana and Uncle Richard (age 70) were $3 each. The two smaller photographs were $2 and $1.50.
Many factors influenced the quilts of the Depression and post-depression years.
Stock Market Crash 1929: The stock market crash of 1929 and the economic depression that followed through much of the 1930’s influenced the quilts of the time. The stock market crash, coupled with several years of drought, severe summer temperatures and the dust bowl storms of 1934 made this an era of survival. Families were losing their farms and homes by the thousands, and money was scarce, if available at all.
Worlds Fair Century of Progress: In 1933, this quiltmaking competition at the Chicago World’s Fair offered a grand prize of $1,000, plus $25 for regional winters. This generated interest in quilting, as times were lean and this chance to make money was welcomed.
Weekly Newspaper Columns: Newspapers carried regular columns with quilting patterns. The Kansas City Star began printing quilt patterns in 1926. In May 1933, the popular ‘Nancy Page Quilt Club’, by Florence LaGanke Harris, began a regular Tuesday Quilt Club, which featured pieced and appliquéd patterns to complete an entire quilt.
Fabrics: The wisdom of the time was “Use up, wear out, make do, or do without.” A scrap bag was common in most households. Salvageable pieces of worn out clothing were used for scraps to mend other clothes or piece into quilts. The fabric sacking used for feed, flour, sugar, seed, meal and salt bags began to be printed fabrics. This fabric was used for clothing, dish towels, diapers, nightgowns, underwear (according to my mother, to her dismay) and quilt pieces. Three feed sacks were needed to make a woman’s dress. Novelty sacks were often printed for dolls or aprons.
Colors: The pastels of the 1920’s began to get brighter and more intense. Dye colors began to get more reliable with newer methods. The number of colors used in prints began to increase. Contrasting color combinations were used more frequently.
Prints: Prints became busier with more colors added. Bright colors in contrasting combinations were popular. Prints became larger in scale than the prints of the 1920’s. Black accents began to be used as a design feature in the 1930’s.
Quilting Patterns: The most popular patterns are: Double Wedding Ring, Dresden Plate, Grandmother’s Flower Garden, Fans, Sunbonnet Sues, Yo-Yo’s and Redwork. Embroidery made a come-back. Appliqué with black buttonhole stitching around each piece was distinctive.
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Check out MEMORIES ON MUSLIN – the story of 30 quilt squares from Athelstan, Iowa in 1934.
Available as an electronic PDF file from the author for $3.99.
A print is available from the author for $5.99 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. (Email texastrishafaye@yahoo.com for details)
Available as an ebook at Amazon, for $3.99.
We leave traces of our lives behind us – sometimes in the most unusual ways.
Eighty years ago, the women and young girls of Athelstan, Iowa left pieces of themselves behind, stitched on muslin squares. In 1934, women in the community formed a quilting club. Quilt blocks with Sunbonnet Sue’s and Overall Bill’s were created and signed with their signature. The blocks were traded with one another and a few quilts were made.
Nellie Morris had other plans for her squares. She signed her block ‘From Mother, To Doris’ and added the year ‘1934’ in the bonnet. A set of 30 squares, 27 signed with names, went to Doris, most probably as a Christmas present, since it was in December.
Doris grew up. She married and had children. She and her husband grew older. And, the squares sat together in a stack. For the next 70 years, never stitched into a quilt.
After Doris’ death, the squares surfaced and they mystery of where these names originated from set the author on a search with the most wonderful results. The names were traced back to Athelstan and in 2014 the squares were donated to the Taylor County Historical Museum in Bedford, just a few miles from where they’d originated from 80 years earlier.
Join us on this journey as the squares, along with history of Athelstan, a small town sitting on the Iowa-Missouri border. Tidbits of 1934, such as prices, dust storms, Bonnie & Clyde, Shirley Temple and more are included, setting the background of the time when these squares were stitched. A brief history of depression-era quilts, the colors, and patterns used is included in this tribute to these Athelstan women.
Squares in this set of squares are from: Doris & Mother (Nellie and Doris Morris), Betty Balch, John Balch, Beverly Ruth Barnett, Dorothy Barnett, Darlene Booher, Leona Booher, Charls Bownes, Evelyn Bownes, Maxine Bownes, Minnie & Josie Bownes, Mrs. E.J. Bownes, Leona Mae Byrns, Jean Marie Carroll, Lelah Clark, Kate Fidler, Katie Kemery, Norma Gean Kemery, Rex Morris, Grace Murray, Georgia Older, Deliliah Rusco, Berneice Scott, Thelma Weaver, Dean Weese, and three unnamed people, anonymous to us forever.
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Available as an electronic PDF file from the author for $3.99.
A print is available from the author for $5.99 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. (Email texastrishafaye@yahoo.com for details)
Available as an ebook at Amazon, for $3.99.
Taylor Book of Recipes, 1928
It’s a tiny little thing, this small little cookbook that almost got lost in my ‘pile’.
A mere three inches across and four and a half inches tall, this cookbook from 1928 is chock full of recipes in its 88 pages.
Taylor Instrument Companies printed the cookbook to help promote its TAYLOR HOME SET, a three piece thermometer set consisting of an oven thermometer, a sugar meter for canning and preserving, and a candy thermometer for jelly and candymaking.
What I thought was interesting was that right in the middle of the ‘Hard Candies’ chapter, is a recipe for cough drops.
COUGH DROPS
2 cups water
½ oz. hoarhound herb
6 cups granulated sugar
½ cup strained honey
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon oil of anise
Boil the hoarhound in 1 cup of water for five minutes. Strain. Add the sugar, cream of tartar and the other cup of water. Boil to 295 degrees; then add the strained honey and let boil up once. Remove from fire, drop oil of anise in various parts of it. Blend with as little stirring as possible. Pour onto oil tin. Mark in squares when slightly cooled. Roll in powdered sugar.
The recipes for jelly making, baking and roasting were written by Nena Wilson Badenoch. The last few pages, Recipes for Deep-Fat-Frying, were written by Mrs. C. T. Bunnell.
Nena Wilson Badenoch was the author and coauthor of several other cookbooks. She also had an article in Good housekeeping: Volume 86, Number 3 (March 1928), entitled ‘A House to Grow Up In’. In 1938, she wrote a children’s book called ‘Go Home Puppy’.
Stay tuned for next week’s post, when we’ll be back to this cookbook, sharing some of the interesting fudge recipes in it.
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