You scoffed
Sam did not make much money until he became a partner in Lenoir Assoc. and then we moved to Laguna Beach.
We bought the house in Diablo a couple of months before Jane was born, We got Mr.Imrie down from 25.500 to 22.000. Even that was more than we could afford. We lived even more on the edge of disaster than we did when you were able to remember. I wish we had saved Sam's little black book so you could see for yourself.
Sam was the one who hired our cleaning woman when we lived in Burlingame. We had three children under four and I was very pregnant with Jane. You may say 'what poor planning' but we had been foiled by you for five years and as you know that clock keeps running. Life would have been sad if Jane had not put in her grand entrance a month after your fourth Birthday. (It just dawned on me that you are having your 64th birthday any day now) As it was, we had to be satisfied with four children for I was disconnected for medical reasons at the time of Jane's birth.
You thought I was nothing but a house wife sitting around eating bon bons all day. Far from the truth. I canned 365 qts of fruit every year when you all ate some kind of baby cerial. And we usually paid nothing for the fruit, for I watched when people had fruit trees and did not save their crop. The only fruit I paid for was apricots and I would have to drive up the Sacramento Valley to get a lug of those. I remember my brother Gunne was at our house and when he saw the kitchen as I was peeling fruit, processing it it in the blender and then canning it in the huge blue pot he said 'This is not a kitchen. It is a laboratory. I did not have to do apricots, for apples were always free, but apricots were your favorite so I tried to have 52 quarts of those each year.
When Anna was born we did not have a dryer and we had two children in diapers. A lot of time spent in the back yard hanging up diapers. Just before Martha was born we got a drier. I spent what ever free time I had painting the house. Not the outside. The house had stood empty for years and that is not good for a house.
. When Jane was born we bought a dishwasher.
4 comments:
I love it when I hear stories like this about my family. Turns out it is pretty much equally as interesting when it is someone else's family too. Thank you for sharing.
Is Gilbert scoffing? He must not have read all your blog or he would know better! You were such a hard worker.
Let him try having four children under four! I don't know how you did it!
Love
Keitha
Way to give it to the scoffer, dear Svensto!
Same for my Mom, no washer or dryer and no dishwasher. No help. It taught us all a different way of life. We know what being "green" means. Recycling everything, nothing to waste, passing the clothing from cousins to cousins....I have no memories of suffering thanks to my Mom who made everything look effortless. Just like you.
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