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."

Tuesday, February 18, 1936 - Another Letter from WKBZ

 

"Mother didn't go to work today.  Marie didn't come to school.  I got a letter from W. K. B. Z. Spelling bee.  Mother is making Joyce a neckscraf [sic].  Mother also made a hat.  Mother made the beds for me.  I don't know if I am going to the Spelling bee."

Will Marie get to participate in the radio station's spelling bee?  Or will she be disappointed like last time?

Monday, February 17, 1936 - Candy and Pennies

 

"Jack's teacher gave every pupil candy.  Marie didn't come to school this morning.  Joyce is learning to cut paper with her shears.  I have been saving my pennys.  I have 26¢ now.  Jack has 15¢ ($1.15) now."

I used this Inflation Calculator to figure out that 26 cents is about $4.89 today. Fifteen cents in 1936 is about $2.82 today, and $1.15 is $21.64 in today's money.  I am wondering if Jack had a dollar bill in addition to 15 pennies.

Doing a little digging on the internet told me I could get a 2.5 oz. Snickers barfor five cents, and a loaf of bread for nine cents in the 1930s.

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 7, 1936 - Skiing on a School Snow Day

"Bob, Jack and I went skiing this morning.  Jack and I found a little hill to ski on.  We could ski up and down the hill.  Marie Server came over to play.  Bob gave us a penny.  Bob was skiing on a bigger hill then we was.  The snow came almost up to my waist.  This has been the worst winter for years."

Shirley was correct.  The winter of 1935-1936 was the coldest on record for many of the midwestern states, and February in particular set new low temperature records. 

 

Friday, January 31, 1936 - Mother Got Her "Knew" Coat

 

"Marie Server came over and Jack poped corn and I got some apples out and we had lunch.  At school today we played games.  Mother got her pay today.  She got her knew coat.  I got a ride home with Mrs. Rosengren from school.  Mother got her dresses back from Evans dry cleaners.  You can get one garment cleaned for fifty cents and two for fifty one cents."

Evans Dry Cleaners was at 1121 Third Street in Muskegon.  Google Street View shows that the building now houses a game store, The Griffin's Rest.

Thursday, January 30, 1936 - Shirley Goes Skiing

 

"I went down the hill with Bob and Jack.  Jack got cold and started to go home.  Bob told him to wait till we got to the top of the hill, and we would go home with him.  Jack didn't wait.  I had a apple when I got home.  We took skis to the hill.  I fell down about two or three times.  Marie Server was over when I was down the hill."

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.

Tuesday, January 21, 1936 - The Locked Geography Book

 

"We are going to have questions in Geography tomorrow.  Grace Bidney brings a school case to school.  Marie Server and Grace use one Geography  book.  Grace brought her case to school today and forgot the key to the case.  Marie couldn't take the book home to do questions.  I let her take my book.  Daddy forgot to take me to the spelling bee."

Shortages of school supplies is not a new thing!  It was kind of Shirley to share her book with Marie. Grace Bidney was a classmate of theirs.  Her parents were Peter and Helen Bidney, and she had a brother, Robert, who was two years younger, according to the 1930 Federal Census.  Her parents were immigrants, having been born in Poland and Germany.

 How disappointing it must have been that Shirley's daddy forgot to take her to the spelling bee!  I believe it was the one sponsored by the radio station, WKBZ.

Monday, January 20, 1936 - A Cold Walk Home from School

 

"It was snowing outdoors.  We had to face the snow on the way home.  I was walking with Marie Server home.  We got cold and stop to her sister's house.  She has one boy and one girl.  The boy's name is Donald and the girl's name is Gloria.  Donald is five days younger than Joyce."


Marie's older sister, Genevieve, was married to Graydon Brooks Wheeler (b. c. 1907).  Donald (b. 31 December 1933, if he was five days younger than Joyce) and Gloria (b. c. 1936) were the first of at least five children born to them, according to the 1940 Federal Census.  Mary Ann was born c. 1937, followed by Lillian (b. c. 1938) and Thomas (b. c. August or September 1939).  The latter two children were named for Genevieve and Marie's parents.

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.  

Tuesday, January 14, 1936 - An Evening with Friends

 

"a family named Dixon moved.  a boy named Billy is their boy.  I don't like him very well.  I change my set to where he sat in school.  Jack and I went to Marie's house to-night.  We played with colored buttons.  We made flower gardens and houses out of them.  Bob & Llye Server went skiing.  Bob stayed and played cards."

How clever to make flower gardens and houses out of colored buttons!  I'm thinking this was something like mosaic pictures.  Also, I learned something about my grandfather, Bob:  that he skied...probably cross-country, as downhill skiing is limited to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Monday, January 13, 1936 - Marie Server Came Back to School

 

"Today Marie Server came back to school, she stayed home because she had a fever sore on her lips.  today mother got home from work at 4.30 P.M.  She got out of work at 15 to 3. P.M. and waited for daddy.  Jack and I went to Marie's house to play.  Daddy & mother went to Grandma Kenfield's."

Friday, January 10, 1936 - A Spell Down and Sledding

 

"Today at school we had a spell down. our side won. next week we are going to have a mid-term-test.  Bob, Jack, I and Lyle Server and Marie Server went down the hill.  I took Joyce out doors today.  We went down the hill on Lly's toboggan.  he made it himself.  Billy Bought a toy airplane to make."

This photo of Joyce playing in the snow, Winter of 1935-6,
may well have been photographed on January 10.

Shirley's Friends, Neighbors, and Community Members

There were two families that Shirley mentions frequently in her diary: the Servers and the Taylors.  Marie Server was Shirley's best friend.  In 1930, the Robbins and Server families were enumerated three homes apart, living on East Broadway in Norton Township.  The Server family consisted of the parents, Thomas and Lillian, and two much older siblings, Lyle and Genevieve (b. c. 1915 and 1917, respectively).  Marie was born c. 1926 and was the same age and in the same grade as Shirley.

Lyle and Doris Taylor, 1935
Grant, Michigan
They were probably visiting Bob who was working on farms
 in the area, as there are several photos of them with him.

The Taylor parents seem to have been close friends with Bill and Marie, Shirley's parents, and frequently visited from their home in Ashland Township in neighboring Newaygo County, often staying for a weekend at a time. The parents were Ernest Sr. and Orah, and their children were Lyle (b. c. 1920), Doris (b. c. 1921), Ernest Jr. (b. c. 1923), and Phyllis (b. c. 1925). These children were close in age to Bob, Billy Jr., and Shirley Robbins and were good friends with each other, too.

Mrs. Rosengren and Mrs. Smith were mentioned as Shirley's teachers in elementary school.  Mrs. Rosengren was probably Ora Fern (DeCamp) Rosengren, wife of Alvin.  There were three Mrs. Smiths, all teachers, listed in the 1940 census who had lived in Muskegon Heights in 1935: Mildred M. Smith, an English teacher, divorced; Gladys L. Smith, a Kindergarten teacher, married to Vernard A. Smith; and R. Jessie Smith, enumerated simply as a teacher, married to T. Lynne Smith.  Mrs. Smith, Shirley's teacher, was probably not Mildred, as that Mrs. Smith likely taught high school, given that she was a teacher of a specific subject.  Perhaps we'll be able to learn more through the diary entries.

I will update this post with more information on the above families as I research them.  I'll also post about other friends, neighbors, and community members as we come across them in the diary entries.