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 20, 1936 - Mr. McCrilles Sold Us a Radio

 

"I went to Elsie's to day.  Mr. McCrilles sold us a radio.  Mother went to work today.  Elsie gave me two doughnuts.  Daddy let me go with him after mother.  We saw three boys riding on the back of a car."

There is a Clarence W. McCrilles, born about 1900 in Arkansas, enumerated with his wife Cleo and his two daughters, Lawanda and Anita, in Muskegon in 1930.  By 1940, they were living in Hazelton, Shiawassee County, Michigan, but stated they had lived in Muskegon in 1935 (a question unique to the 1940 census).  The 1936 Muskegon City Directory also has him living on Route 5, the same as the Robbins family.

Sunday, February 16, 1936 - There Was No Sunday School

 

"I went down to Aunt Elsie's.  Angie and Elsie are going with Don and Bertha to Grand Rapids to see Aunt Josie.  Aunt Elsie gave me two muffins.  I went over to Marie's.  She came over here too.  There was no Sunday School."


I wondered if there was a special occasion for Don and Angie and their wives to visit Josie (and Lloyd).  I checked Lloyd's and Josie's birthdates and anniversary, but none of them were in February.

Friday, February 14, 1936 - Valentine's Day

 

"I got six Valentines.  Our teacher gave each pupil a Valentine with a sucker in it.  I went down to Aunt Elsie's.  She gave me two peices of cake.  Jack got five Valentines.  Aunt Elsie got a Valentine from her sister today."

Saturday, February 8, 1936 - The Snow Shoveling Crew

 

"The snow is blowing.  Bob, Jack went skiing today.  I went down to Elsie's.  Men were shoveling the road to their house.  I baked a cake.  We had part of it for supper.  Jack carried half of a pail of water for Elsie.  Daddy went over to Grandma + Grandpa Kenfield.  Bob went to work on the roads shoveling snow, but couldn't because they had to be 18 years old."

That must have been a disappointment for Bob.  I'm sure he could do a man's work, as he had been helping to support his family for some time.

It sounds like neither Shirley's household nor Angie and Elsie's household had running water.  There is a photo of a well pump in the back yard here.

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.

Wednesday, February 5, 1936 - Calendars for the Bedrooms

 

"I went down to Elsies and ate supper.  I made a calendar for Bob, Bill, and Jack to hang upstairs.  I made one for our Bedroom.  I gave Joyce my crayons so as to color.  I didn't have to go to school today.  The snow is so deep and the roads not plowed, so they shut the school up."

What is interesting about this entry is that it explains the sleeping arrangements.  The boys slept "upstairs", which I believe was probably a half story or attic, given the photos we have of the house.  There is a window in the south gable.  It appears that Shirley and Joyce shared a bedroom.  Where did Bryan and Marie sleep?  Did they share a room with the girls or did they sleep on a fold out sofa in the living room?  Were there two small bedrooms on the main floor?

Zillow states this house has only one bedroom and one bath, and 552 square feet, but then again, it states the house was built in 1938, which is obviously wrong!.  The square feet is probably considered usable space only and the upstairs is likely not counted.  Another real possibility is that there was no bathroom at the time my family lived there.  They likely had an outhouse and used a tin tub for bathing; and then later on, one of the bedrooms was converted to a bathroom.

Tuesday, February 4, 1936 - A Good Book and a Report Card

 

"I bought a book home from school called Just David.  I like it very much.  Bob read it through tonight.  I got my ears and fingers cold coming home from school.  I got my spelling words alright.  I wanted to go to Elsies, but couldn't.  I got my report card.  I got A in reading, Health, English, Geography and spelling.  I got B in Penmanship, arithmetic and deportment."

Just David was written in 1916 by Eleanor Hodgman Porter, the author of Pollyanna.  It was a bestseller.  Now out of copyright, you can read it for free, here at Google Books.

Monday, February 3, 1936 - A Hair-Do, Dice, and Sweet Popcorn

 

"Mother went down to get her hair curled.  She said I could get mine curled in spring.  I went down to Aunt Elsie's.  I played dice with Mother and Daddy.  Jack poped corn and put sugar on the corn because he liked it sweet.  We had a half a hour noon at school.  We get out a half a hour earlier."

I remember my Grandmother Robbins (Jeanne - Bob's wife), who was a beautician, talk about how perms were done in the old days, with electric curlers, each one of which was wired.  Sometimes hair would burn.  I imagine it would also be dangerous, with the possibility of electric shock if there was a short.  The price of beauty!

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?

Monday, January 27, 1936 - The Veterans Are Awarded Their Bonus

 

"Great News!  The bonus became a law!  Today at school Mrs Rosengren and Mrs Smith our teachers was late.  We played colors till they came.  I b[r]ought a grit for Billy to my teacher.  I brought my playmate magazine to school.  I went Down to aunt Elsie's house."

In 1932, 17,000 World War I veterans and their family members (totaling 43,000), marched on Washington D.C. to demand early cash redemption of their service certificates.  They came to be called the Bonus Army.  The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 had awarded them bonuses in the form of these certificates but they could not redeem them until 1945.  The Bonus Army set up makeshift  housing, called Hooverville, in "honor" of the president, Herbert Hoover, who then ordered the U.S. Army to clear out their campsites.  The veterans were also met with resistance by the Washington city police who shot at the veterans; two were wounded and later died.  When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he offered the participants of a smaller Bonus March in 1933 jobs in the Civilian Conversation Corps, most of whom accepted.  On January 27, 1936, Congress overrode Roosevelt's veto against early payout and paid the veterans their bonus nine years early.  This was very good news for all those unemployed veterans whose families were suffering.

Grit was a weekly newspaper that was published out of Pennsylvania.  It was very popular in rural areas.  I remembering getting it when I was a girl, living in Alaska.  Billy must have had a subscription route.

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.

 

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.