After the holidays settled down, Mother dropped off Grandma Inez’s Day Journal. So happy for this opportunity to share! This journal spans the course of the years beginning in 1929 to the early 1940’s. She didn’t fill in the whole journal, but I understand that. Life gets busy. To those who do journal writing, we sometimes feel a need to start over and she even states as much in the first entry I’m sharing today.
She was just 17 on Dec. 11, 1929 and was preparing for Christmas. I happen to know how much she enjoyed gift-giving at Christmastime. One gift from her that I cherish was a Children’s Bible Storybook. A giant book by the standards of those days, with wonderful color illustrations to let your eyes gaze on. I read and reread it countless times. And there were always little extras from the Ben Franklin dime store in Windsor, Missouri. That’s a memory for another day, but to those who remember the dime store days, you know what kind of doodads I’m referring to. Grandparents of today have the dollar stores for their trinkets. But the sights and scents of an old, small-town, mom and pop store will stick with you forever. Truly the Good Ol’ Days.

It’s so heartwarming to read her words. She was already a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse by this time and was certainly doting on her “kids”. Because of this entry, I had to do a little search on how long we’ve had paper plates to satisfy my curiosity. Turns out “The paper plate was invented by the German bookbinder Hermann Henschel in Luckenwalde in 1867.” from Wikipedia I’m sure it was a small luxury to have them for crafts back in those days. Makes her efforts for the parents’ gifts more meaningful in my opinion.
Gifts from the great outdoors in the garden will be plentiful this season! So stoked!
Cabbage Cauliflower Broccoli
One clipping today to finish off. Hope you enjoyed your visit and please know that your time here was appreciated!

I remember that (perhaps a similar) book and we had a Ben Franklin 5 & 10 in the town I grew up in. Great memories. The garden looks wonderful.
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Thanks! Our first attempt at cabbage and cauliflower. Beginners luck-ha!
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Your garden looks great! We just started getting our farm share again a few weeks ago and it’s been wonderful. Weekends In Maine
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That’s good to hear! Ready for the summer veggies too!
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Some wonderful memories in that journal. I imagine paper plate letter holders have gone the way of the dime store. That’s unfortunate, but it is progress. I guess. A good Sears catalog would have been a rock star early in this pandemic when toilet paper was scarce and everything was mail-order.
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Yes! Sears went out of business at the worst time!! Guess it’s good we’d already got past Holiday buying season. Can’t imagine the sad faces of children without toys to open up. Hopefully folks are planning ahead just in case there’s a next time.
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