(1992 Memoirs)
[The room after that [i.e. beyond the dining room] was the kitchen, which held her sewing machine at the window looking onto an alley. In the kitchen, the width of the house, next to her machine was the range, where a kettle was kept boiling and from which ashes were carried out in the back yard two or three times a week. Here was a large table, which when the leaves were up was plenty large enough to lay out pattern and cloth and cut the garment. On the wall opposite the window was a sink which had just one fawcet but only a drain to a pail under the sink. This when full was carefully carried to the back yard and dumped along with upstairs slops and ashes. In the woodshed was a pail where we pinkled before we went upstairs to bed.
October 7, 2012
October 6, 2012
Vitriol
(1992 Memoirs)
One time officers, knowing her habits, came to question her [Olga] but she knew nothing and shaking in her shoes stuck to it. There were two women in love with the one man. ... When they met on the Main Street, the wife dashed vitriol acid in the other's face, burning it and disfiguring her for life. But no -- Olga had not seen that. She had been in the next room, the dining room with the big mirror where customers "tried on."
One time officers, knowing her habits, came to question her [Olga] but she knew nothing and shaking in her shoes stuck to it. There were two women in love with the one man. ... When they met on the Main Street, the wife dashed vitriol acid in the other's face, burning it and disfiguring her for life. But no -- Olga had not seen that. She had been in the next room, the dining room with the big mirror where customers "tried on."
October 5, 2012
The sitting room
(1992 Memoirs)
I shall explain the [Ellman] house to you. You came up on a half-foot porch which ran across the front of the house, gray in color. You came in quickly and right before you was the narrow carpeted stairs taking you up. To the left was an old door to the living room (called the "sitting room," not the "parlor"), furnished with a couch, dark green, with a raised head but no back. A large rocker held us both when, behind lace curtains, we watched the crowds go by.
I shall explain the [Ellman] house to you. You came up on a half-foot porch which ran across the front of the house, gray in color. You came in quickly and right before you was the narrow carpeted stairs taking you up. To the left was an old door to the living room (called the "sitting room," not the "parlor"), furnished with a couch, dark green, with a raised head but no back. A large rocker held us both when, behind lace curtains, we watched the crowds go by.
October 4, 2012
Lace curtains
(1992 Memoirs)
Uncle Fred and Aunt Olga, brother and sister, kept house on Main Street [in Oconto WI], the little house that was home to all of them. The front porch was nearly on the street, with two windows on the left with lace curtains, at which Aunt Olga and I sat in the dark and watched the passing crowd. "Hump," Aunt Olga would mumble, "look at her dress, torn at the hem, and I just finished it yesterday. Hump." I knew she was an excellent sewer, accurate and painstaking, and charged little for her pains.
Uncle Fred and Aunt Olga, brother and sister, kept house on Main Street [in Oconto WI], the little house that was home to all of them. The front porch was nearly on the street, with two windows on the left with lace curtains, at which Aunt Olga and I sat in the dark and watched the passing crowd. "Hump," Aunt Olga would mumble, "look at her dress, torn at the hem, and I just finished it yesterday. Hump." I knew she was an excellent sewer, accurate and painstaking, and charged little for her pains.
October 3, 2012
Learning German
(1992 Memoirs)
Although everyone told me what a great advantage I had to learn German [in Oconto], I never realy learned it. [But well enough to play cards, first as a teenager, with old Mrs. Rueping, then as a young married, with Rosa Kay, her grandmother-in-law.]
Although everyone told me what a great advantage I had to learn German [in Oconto], I never realy learned it. [But well enough to play cards, first as a teenager, with old Mrs. Rueping, then as a young married, with Rosa Kay, her grandmother-in-law.]
October 2, 2012
Aunt Minn & Uncle Albert
(1992 Memoirs)
There were several Ellmans who came "off the boat" whom I never really got to know in Oconto. There were the Ellmans "across the river," Aunt Minn and Uncle Albert, who never spoke English well. Uncle did more so than Aunt Minn because he mingled more with those who did speak it, the storekeepers and the neighbors, but for us and his wife always the mother tongue. One evening Aunt Olga and I walked over to see them. For some reason a bucket of water stood near the door and he bumped into it, spilling half. He jumped and swore but not with such a virile tongue as Aunt Minn. Aunt Olga, who of course took it all in, explained it to me later, omitting the swearing but pointing out to me how upset both were.
There were several Ellmans who came "off the boat" whom I never really got to know in Oconto. There were the Ellmans "across the river," Aunt Minn and Uncle Albert, who never spoke English well. Uncle did more so than Aunt Minn because he mingled more with those who did speak it, the storekeepers and the neighbors, but for us and his wife always the mother tongue. One evening Aunt Olga and I walked over to see them. For some reason a bucket of water stood near the door and he bumped into it, spilling half. He jumped and swore but not with such a virile tongue as Aunt Minn. Aunt Olga, who of course took it all in, explained it to me later, omitting the swearing but pointing out to me how upset both were.
October 1, 2012
Norwegian housekeeper
(1992 Memoirs)
Before she [Minnie] gave up [housekeeping], she hired a number of housekeepers, one of which was an aged Norwegian with blond hair long and gray and worn on a roll at the top of the head, very insecure. We got along fairly well although she was too lonely for her family to stay long. When I explained something to her, she would say when at last she understood, "Oh, daj but ee ay." "Yes," I'd say, "That's what it is."
Before she [Minnie] gave up [housekeeping], she hired a number of housekeepers, one of which was an aged Norwegian with blond hair long and gray and worn on a roll at the top of the head, very insecure. We got along fairly well although she was too lonely for her family to stay long. When I explained something to her, she would say when at last she understood, "Oh, daj but ee ay." "Yes," I'd say, "That's what it is."
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