Grandma's Diary

  Today was my day to stay with Mom. I was supposed to be there at 9:55 this morning so Pop could be at work by 10:00. He called me before I got left to tell me to bring Steve along because Mom had fallen and he needed help to get her up.

  She had gotten out of bed and tried to head out the door before she was dressed this morning. He called to her to stop and he must have startled her because she sat right down on the floor and couldn't get back up again without help. So when we got there he had her all ready with his easy up method and we got her up with no problems.

  She sat in her chair without resisting and I gave her something to eat and then she promptly fell asleep in her chair. While she slept I threw in a load of laundry and got busy making some freezer meals.

  At some point I remembered that I had found a couple old diaries of Grandma Kropf's written in 1936 & 1956. I wanted to read them and find out how Grandma ran her life. I always admired how Grandma managed to get so much done and always had a clean orderly home. I opted to read the one from 1956 because the earlier one is written in pencil and since I already was having a headache I decided to spare my eyes today.

  I found out that my Grandma was a very busy women. She managed to get so much done in a day and they went to town so often I couldn't believe it! And everyday she would say it's been a very nice day. I assume she was refering to the weather but then again...maybe not.

  She painted almost every room in her house that year in the Spring of 1956. They had 44 lambs and lost 4 of them. They raised 154 broilers. Some they sold as fryers and some they kept for eggs. They took the eggs to town to sell. She mentioned going to town to do their trading.....not sure what that meant. It was fun to read about the cows that had calves and the cows all had names but the only one I remember now was Daisy. She mentioned the horse that had a colt and Uncle Lester's cow that had a calf.

   Barbara made a Rag Doll. I wonder which one that was. I always loved Grandma's dolls. Grandma always did laundry on Monday and Barbara ironed. They did Friday work and Saturday work. She didn't give a lot of detail of what that consisted of, but she scrubbed and waxed floors a lot more than I do. She mentioned making Potato Salad, Pies, Cookies and Cakes.

  Uncle Earl turned 5 years old that summer. Several times she mentioned someone who came to play with him I think one of them was named Paul but not sure if I'm remembering right. They had a lot of friends who dropped by and they went visiting often. I envy them all of their friends, it sounds like fun to have friends drop by like that. These visits often included Ice Cream and Popcorn.

   Grandpa had trouble with his back that Spring and so my parents came and my Dad planted his corn for him. He had a bad flu that year too and the kids all had the Mumps. Including Barbara and Earl. But Earl only had them on one side. She took the Doctor 6 dressed chickens. Not sure if that was appreciation or payment.

  I don't keep Diaries like Grandma did. I get way too bored with mundane everyday details. But I wondered how would my diary look if I did?  So let's see...What did I do today? If I was Grandma it would look like this.......

  Went to take care of Mom today. Did some laundry and made meals for the freezer (only she would call it a Locker) I made Chicken and Rice, Meatloaf and Corn, Chickenetti and mixed veggies, and some cornmeal Muffins using a White cakemix and a Cornbread mix. They were very good. Pop came back home at 2:00pm. Steve came and picked me up and then we and the kids ran to Richland Center (opps! I go to town too!) Went to Goodwill to look for a vest for Steve but ended up getting belts for the boys instead. When I got back home I took a nap.( Grandma never recorded doing that, She was a wonder woman :) ) Jay Kauffman came over to help Steve look at what's wrong with the Lawn Mower. It will need a new part. Then Steve and Jay had coffee. the kids and I cleaned up the house and then I cooked up the Tomatoes that had to be done.After supper of PBJ's and some Greek Yogurt I headed back to Mom's to help with her shower. Now I cleaned the kitchen and canned the Tomatos and wrote a blog post.


  If any of you family can add info to what you remember about 1956....please remember you can comment on these posts. I would love to hear your memories!