Wednesday, February 19, 1936 - The Busy Bee Club

 

"Mother didn't go to work this morning because she didn't feel very good.  Mother and Joyce went over to Server's to the busy bee club.  Daddy went to Grandma Kenfields."

This was the second day in a row that Marie didn't go to work, yet she attended the Busy Bee Club.  I am wondering if she was having "female issues."  Searching for Busy Bee Clubs online yielded lots of results, mostly women's church groups not limited to any particular denomination, but also as social reform groups.

Sunday, February 9, 1936 - A Homemade Puzzle

 

"Jack, Joyce, and I played Sunday School.  It is so cold out that they didn't have Sunday School at our School.  Jack and I didn't know what to play.  Mother cut a picture into peices.  She gave it to us.  We tried to put it together.  It was a hard puzzle to put together.  Mother and Daddy went o Grandma Kenfields."


It's obvious that the snow and cold are starting to take a toll.  No school, no Sunday School.  I'm not sure if Sunday School was held at the school building or the church, after reading Shirley's entry.  I'm guessing that the frequent visits by Bill and Marie to the Kenfields were to help out the elderly couple with the snow removal and to check up on them.

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.

Tuesday, January 28, 1936 - Mid Term Results

 

"We got our mid term tests back today.  I got B on mine.  I got a new tablet at school today.  Mother and Dad gave Joyce, Jack, and I a penny.  Jack pulled us over to the store on the sled.  Joyce had a sucker.  Jack and I had a candy bar.  Mother and Daddy went over to Grandma and Grandpa Kenfeild."

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!

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."

Wednesday, January 1, 1936 - New Year's Day

 

"I went to the show today and saw Will Rogers in old Kentuckey. Grandma and Granfather Kenfield visited at our house today. I showed Grandma my Christmas present. I got a diary, sewing set, dishes, color book, story book, paper dolls, eversharp, new testament, stable cut out for Christmas."

It looks like Shirley had had a very nice Christmas!

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.