Wednesday, February 26, 1936 - Joyce's Perfume Bottle

 

"Jack is sick in bed with a cold.  I went to school today.  Joyce has got a perfume bottle and lets everyone smell it.  Daddy went after Mother.  Jack feels better now.  Mother made Joyce's doll a bonnet."


I'm guessing Joyce was given an empty perfume bottle to play with.  I wonder if Marie knitted, crocheted, or sewed that doll's bonnet?

Tuesday, February 25, 1936 - The Thaw

 

"I went out doors and played.  Bob came home this morning.  Aunt Elsie got her hair waved.  It is awful slushie out doors.  Marie came over to play we played school.  Mother & Daddy went to Angie's and Elsie's house."

Friday, February 21, 1936 - A Day with Elsie

 

"I went down to Elsie.  She gave me a peice of cake.  Her brother was there too.  Elsie came down here.  We had peanuts and pop.  I gave Elsie two magazines to read.  Elsie and Angie have a battery radio."


I found an interesting article about battery-operated or "farm" radios here.  Most homes in the country did not have electricity.  Batteries for radios were not the neat little metal tubes we know today.

Thursday, February 6, 1936 - Wool Socks for Jack and Family Photos

 

"Grandpa Kenfield bought Jack a pair of wool soxs.  Uncle Angie and Aunt Elsie visited to our house today.  Elsie has a new dress.  Mother showed some pictures of Angie, Daddy, Mother's brothers and family, her sisters and family and us kids, etc.  I gave Elsie a picture of me.  Mother gave her one of Angie."

My grandfather Bob told me that when he was young, he and his brothers and cousins would work all summer at Grandpa Kenfield's farm.  At the end of summer, Grandpa Kenfield would purchase each boy an outfit for school.  This makes me wonder if Jack did some chores at the grandparents.

I love that Marie was showing family photos to Elsie, making her feel like part of the family.  I wish I could time travel and see what family photos were being shown and given.  Perhaps one of them was the Robbins family portrait seen here.

Saturday, February 1, 1936 - Time with Aunt Elsie

 

"Mother had to make her coat shorter.  I went down to Elsie's house.  While I was down there she washed a few clothes and baked biscuits and a cake and moped the floor.  Mother and Daddy went down town.  I had supper at Elsie's.  Angie got a job, he has to work in the after noon till 8 or 11  P.M.  I stayed at Elsie's about four hours.  Mother bought me a pair of mittens.  Joyce got shoes and broom."

At only four-foot-eleven, my great-grandmother Marie had to make a lot of her clothing shorter, I imagine!

It sounds like Angie worked a swing shift.  I'm sure Elsie appreciated Shirley's company (and probable help) while her husband was at work.

Was that a toy broom for Joyce?

Wednesday, January 29, 1936 - Arithmetic and Uncle Angie's Job

 

"I went to Marie Server house and played school.  Uncle Angie got a job working at the Norge.  Mrs. Rosengren showed me how to do a problem in arithmetic.  I think I did it the way she told me and I got it wrong in arithmetic class.  I must to have not watched her very close.  Bob, Bill, Jack went down the hill."

I found this online article, which explains the history behind the building that held the Norge, a refrigerator company: "Norge Corp., which came to Muskegon in 1891 as the Alaska Refrigerator Co., bought the factory building in 1936 as part of a huge expansion program. Within two years, Norge would employ an estimated 4,500 workers."  I'm sure this was a huge relief to the many previously unemployed families in the area.

This Facebook page for Muskegon Heritage Museum has some photos of a Norge refrigerator at the museum.  And this photo on Pinterest shows the Norge building likely around the time Uncle Angie worked there.

Sunday, January 26, 1936 - Doughnuts, Cake, and Cupcakes

 

"We went to Sunday School today.  Billy went down the Heights to get the Sunday paper.  I wanted to go down to Angie's but couldn't.  Jack and I went over to Grandmother and Grandpa's house.  Grandpa gave us each a doughnut.  We had cake for supper.  We are going to have cupcakes tomorrow for lunch."

Wow!  Lots of sweets that week!

Friday, January 24, 1936 - A Letter from Phyllis

"I went to school today and started to do some of my mid term test.  I got a letter from Phyllis Taylor today.  I went down to Angi's and Elsies house.  Billy came after me to come home.  I was making the beds here at home and Bob said 'Look what you left under the lamp.'  I looked and there was a letter from Phyllis."

What a nice surprise that must have been for Shirley to get a letter from her friend!

 

Thursday, January 23, 1936 - The Snow was Very Deep

 

"I didn't go to school today because the snow was very deep.  I didn't get ready.  Mother told us not to go to school.  When it was time to go it wasn't so deep as I thought.  I missed part of my mid term test.  Mother and Daddy went down to Aunt Elsie and Uncle Angie's."

Saturday, January 18, 1936 - A Wedding Supper

"We went to Don and Bertha's house to eat a wedding supper.  We gave the supper for Angie and Elsie Robbins.  We gave them a basket of food.  I put a coffee cup in for their coffee pot.  Our cousin Don wanted to hug Joyce.  Joyce didn't want him to."


Angelo Merrick Robbins, II married Elsie L. Vogt on January 17, 1936 in Muskegon County.  I have not yet been able to obtain a copy of their marriage record.  It would be of interest to me who the witnesses and officiant were.

Don Robbins Jr. ("Sonny"), Don Sr. and Bertha's first child, was almost 18 months old.  Joyce, the youngest of Bill and Marie's family, had just turned two years old a few weeks previously.

 

Thursday, January 16, 1936 - Helping Uncle Angie

 

"today I went to Angie's house.  Jack helped Angie carry some wood to his house.  Jack ate supper to Angie's house.  Marie Server came over to play tonight.  We played cards.  I wanted to go to the show tonight but I couldn't go."

It sounds like the family was helping Angie prepare his home in anticipation of his marriage.  I need to figure out where this house was located.  

Sunday, January 12, 1936 - Uncle Angie's Marriage License

 

"Today I went to Sunday school.  When I got home Grandfather and Grandmother Lewis and Uncle Don Lewis were here.  Last night I saw Uncle Angie's marrage licesence in the paper.  He's going to marry Elsie Vogt.  I poped corn for my Grandfather, Grandmother, Uncle, Mother, Dad, and us kids."

Shirley's Extended Family: The Robbinses

Shirley mentions extended family often in her diary, because both her father's and her mother's families lived either in Muskegon County or in adjacent counties.  Several family members lived within walking distance, too.

Here's some background on Shirley's paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.  Her paternal grandmother was born Mary May Kimball in 1873, but she had many names.  Mary's mother, Lucy (Dickinson) Kimball, died when she was one week old, and her maternal Aunt Mary (Dickinson) and Uncle Phillip Weaver adopted her.  They already had a daughter named Mary, so three Marys in the household were probably too much!  She was nicknamed Lula after her mother.  Although never officially adopted, she went by the last name Weaver more often than Kimball until she married.

In 1892, Mary Kimball/Lula Weaver married Angelo Merrick Robbins who was born in 1874. They had seven children; six who survived infancy: Floyd Arthur (1893), Lloyd George (1894), William Bryan (1896; my great-grandfather and Shirley's dad, a.k.a Bryan), Reva L. (1898), Angelo Merrick Jr. (1904), a stillborn baby boy (1906); and Donald Charles (1914), another "bonus baby", born 10 years after his next-oldest sibling. 

The Robbins Family, 1917
Left to right: Mary Kimball/Lula Weaver Robbins, holding Don on her lap; Angelo Jr.; Lloyd; William Bryan; Angelo Sr.
Probably taken in Muskegon, shortly before Lloyd went off to war. Bryan followed the next year.
Not shown: Reva, who was mentally ill and institutionalized at the time.

By the time this diary was written in 1936, Angelo Sr. (1923); Floyd (1916); and Reva (1926) had all died.  Lula married Orlando Horace "Pat" Kenfield, a widowed farmer, in 1928 and was known ever after as "Grandma Kenfield".  She and Pat lived within walking distance of Shirley's family, just down the road and around the corner, so to speak.

Pat and Mary/Lula Kenfield
c. 1941
at their home at 2782 E Broadway, Muskegon Heights

Lloyd and his wife Josephine Huff lived in Grand Rapids, Kent County, where he worked as a carpenter in the construction industry.  They never had any children.  If they appear in this diary, it's not frequently, probably because they're much older and live further away.  This uncle is whom Shirley's brother Lloyd Jack was named for.

Angelo Jr., often called "Angie" or "Ang" and his wife Elsie Vogt, appear frequently in the diary.  They marry in the first month of 1936 and live close by.  Elsie seems to be a favorite aunt of Shirley's.  Don, although 10 years younger than Angie, married three years earlier, to Bertha Barringer.  They also live nearby, with their toddler, Don Jr. ("Sonny"), born in 1934.  Don Sr. often hung out with his nephew Bob, Shirley's oldest brother, as there were only six years' difference between them.

There may be a little bit of confusion that may occasionally need clarification throughout the diary: Shirley had more than one Uncle Don and Aunt Bertha.  Her mother, Marie Lewis, had siblings with those names.  We'll visit the Lewis family tomorrow.