It will be fun!
"Old Home Town" by Rose Wilder Lane page 13:
"When necessity or some definite pleasure dictated such an excursion into public places, a lady prepared herself for it. She took her hair out of curled papers or curled it with an iron heated in the lamp-chimney,"
What's a lamp-chimney?
"She changed her shoes, adjusted hat and veil and put on at least her second best dress, and gloves. An hour or more was often consumed in getting ready to go uptown."
An hour or more?
"It was only 30 years ago that we first heard that woman's place was in the home. We are never aware of the present; each instant of living becomes perceptible only when it is passed, so that in a sense we do not live at all, but only remember living. And we are blind to conditions forming our lives, until those conditions are becoming part of the past. It was not seen that woman's place was in the home until she began to go out of it; the statement was a reply to an unspoken challenge, it was attempted resistance to irresistible change."
Huh, that's kind of like what's happening right now... 😉
"Until that time, woman's place had been in the home as a fish's place is in water. It is true there are flying fishes."
Lol!
"Women's Rights had been laughed at;"
Grrrr.
"Dr. Mary Walker, had, we heard, been permitted by a special act of Congress to wear pants,"
So glad those days are gone!
"And Mrs. Bloomer had given her name to a garment not mentioned in mixed company."
Whysoever not?
"(Though at that time, bloomers were not underwear; beneath our layers of petticoats, winter and summer, we wore union suits. Bloomers were a shameless form of divided skirts, worn by creatures unworthy the sacred name of woman, astride on bicycles.)"
👒🚲🍋⚖️🍰
Page 8 to 9:
"In Tory, people looked up to Papa and Mr. Baldwin. They were the only two men in the village who had much education. The church people and the patients went to them for advice and especially turned to them in time of trouble.
Papa never sent out bills. It was the custom among doctors. Papa thought this was right. " When people are sick and in trouble, they certainly don't want to be bothered about money," he would say. Like my father, Mr. Baldwin was willing to accept part of his meager pay in potatoes, corn and freshly made sausage."
I like that. Pay your bills with food!
I wonder how many other people would like it these days, haha!
"Gracie and I shone in their reflected glory. I was known as doc's little girl and Gracie was the preacher's daughter. We had many privileges on all of which we imposed."
A conscientiously self-examining narrator here!
"We crowded up behind Gracie's father at the graveside services at funerals. We ate at the first table at all church affairs. We chose our own seats in the school room."
They didn't need to have assigned seats at school because their dads were respected? Or because they were?
"Our presents were always the first ones taken off the big Christmas tree at church."
That sounds like a great privilege indeed!
"We hoisted the flag at the 4th of July picnics and, together, we had unveiled the one monument of the village."
They were the village's treasured daughters!
"We had been flower girls at various weddings and whether or not we were taking part, we were invited. And -- we sang duets.
Mama often reminded me that because everybody knew us, we must mine our p's and q's. But we were too busy minding other people's business to pay any attention to this."
There will be gossip.
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