"Empty Hands" - Thursday January 29, 1925

Warmer today. Am so tired this A.M. actually feel weak.

D. went to party at E. Myers' Sunday school class, took 12 Ham sandwiches. Returned at 11:30.1

B., H., R., + I went to P. Show.
Jack Holt2 in Empty Hands.3 very good.

Borrowed $.35 from R.4

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1. Not sure why I never thought of this - but she must be writing most of these entries in the middle of the night. She always notes when everyone, esp. her husband get home late at night. Does she have trouble sleeping? Or just waiting for everyone to be home safe in bed?
2. Jack Holt 1881 - 1951 - leading man of silent films and early talkies. He became one of Paramounts early stars particularly of Westerns - even making a cameo appearance late in life in the 1948 version of Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
3. "Empty Hands" - listed in the IMDB.com database as a 1924 drama romance, starring Jack Holt and Norma Shearer, directed by Victor Fleming.
4. 3 day this week she has borrowed money from her daughters - this time from her youngest.

Still picture from film Empty Hands - Norma Shearer and Jack Holt

6 below - Wednesday January 28, 1925

6 below this morning.1

Washed clothes today, washed all of the downstairs floors + cleaned cellarway. D. went to a party at Harriet's returned at 11:45.

B. went to P. School, Ret'd at 12:20.2
D. Mummer here this P.M. + to dinner. Cooked a whole ham as M. Washington3 cooked it + it was delicious!

Made collar + cuffs for D.'s green dress.

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1. Yikes - cold!
2.So does she really think that Plumbing School continues until past midnight? As we have seen in other posts, his nightly plumbing school often brings him home much later than this...
3. M. Washington? Martha Washington? The White House Cookbook was published in the 1880's, but it does not specify recipes from certain administrations. She may just be referring to an old style of cooking Virginia Ham. There is a modern book entitled "Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats" which is described on the Mount Vernon website as "being a Family Manuscript, curiously copied by an unknown Hand sometime in the seventeenth century, which was in her Keeping from 1749, the time of her Marriage to Daniel Custis, to 1799, at which time she gave it to Eleanor Parke Custis, her granddaughter, on the occasion of her Marriage to Lawrence Lewis." The book contains over 500 recipes dating from Elizabethan and Jacobean time in a classic that captures the essence of early American folk culture". Sounds like a fascinating read! I must find a copy soon!

1920's Plumbing Fixtures Ad

Asleep as Usual - Tuesday January 27, 1925

Very cold + Icy 4 above1

Bill came home for lunch had pancakes, cleaned up + downstairs, cleaned out buffet drawer.

Cleaned hot plate + part of cellar.
D. went to town with H.B.1, Harriet went to campfire. D. went to H. Wylers with H.B.

Bill stayed home, but asleep as usual.

Borrowed $3.00 from D.2

Paid 7.J.C.Co3 $3.00
Butter
Cabbage
Papers $.04

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1. Who is H.B.? could this be a boyfriend? There is a family friend named Helen, but she usually mentions her by name.
2. Our writer borrowed $0.50 yesterday from her daughter, and today $3.
3. Not sure what this means at all... when I search J.C.Co, only JC Penney comes up, could be, but I don't understand what the 7. is for? But this is definitely where the borrowed $3 went to.

1925 J.C. Penney ad