Thursday, October 10th, 1935

“I have cooked dinner, ironed and scoured the kitchen.”

1930s kitchens are very different from 21st century kitchens. For starters, apparently every kitchen in Bernice’s time has an identical gigantic white enamel sink. I guess if you have to scour by hand, you need lots of room. In 2013, kitchen sinks are designed only for giving everything a brief rinse before it is loaded into an automatic dishwasher. Personally I find that to be inconvenient, because even 80 years later, scrubbing cookware by hand is often the best way to get it clean.

1930s kitchen, Flickr.com

Flickr.com

Flickr.com

Wednesday, October 9th, 1935

“This morning I cleaned house cooked dinner and shook peanuts. After dinner I washed.”

Peanuts again. To shake peanuts, what does that mean?

Wikimedia Commons

Tuesday, October 8th, 1935

“For this day I have shook peanuts.”

My goodness, the Handbook of Texas Online has a big article devoted to Peanut Culture:
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/afp01

Arachis hypogaea: Peanut

Wikimedia Commons

Monday, October 7th, 1935

“After I cleaned house I washed and picked cotton.”

On this Monday, housecleaning, laundry, and time spent in the cotton field. Is anyone listening to the World series on the radio today? Here’s the Time magazine for the week of October 7th, featuring Mickey Cochrane, player-manager of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers win the Series today in game 6 against the Cubs.

Sunday, October 6th, 1935

“I helped cook dinner, then got Dick ready to go to the doctor.”

Going to the doctor in the 1930s. The ad below is easy to make fun of in 2013, but frankly I have to wonder whether our modern ideas about medicine are entirely valid. Eighty years from now, will people be shaking their heads in disbelief at unsound early 21st century medical practices?

Flickr.com, 1930 Lucky Strike cigarettes advertisement

Saturday, October 5th, 1935

“I helped load some hay, cooked dinner, ironed and cleaned yards.”

A busy Saturday. Bernice, don’t you ever rest ?

Friday, October 4th, 1935

“After I cleaned the house, I went and picked cotton.”

TGIF! Housecleaning, followed by agricultural labor.

North of where Bernice lives, many rural people are suffering from the health effects of severe dust storms.
The Kansas State Board of Health is printing this report on October 4th, 1935:

http://ow.ly/ptWQx

Images from the Dust Bowl are awesome and horrifying. Bernice is probably feeling lucky to live in humid and fertile East Texas:

Thursday, October 3rd, 1935

“I have cut hay, cooked dinner, and washed.”

Is Bernice using a scythe to cut hay by hand? Such an ancient technology.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Wednesday, October 2nd, 1935

“I have cooked dinner and … picked green butterbeans. Went to have supper with Uncle John as it was his birthday.”

Here’s where the diary gets hard to read. A few pages have been damaged by time.
Are green butterbeans the same as Lima beans?

Tuesday, October 1st, 1935

“Just cooked dinner and picked peas again.”

Bernice’s life was filled with hard work, but she was fortunate to have a permanent address. Photographer Dorothea Lange captured the famous “Migrant Mother” image below in 1936, with the caption “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two.”