Yesterday, we began a 3-part series quoting from an article written by Helen Smith of Wimbledon for the Dakota Farmer magazine in 1907. Here is part two, read by Meghan Vettleson, as Helen describes her day after 3 of her 6 children have left for school in the morning.
“I first make ready for the oven the dessert, pie, or pudding … . If there is bread to make, that goes in the oven after the dessert. Next I get the vegetables ready, and while they are cooking, I run upstairs, make the beds and tidy up the rooms. Then I come down, set the table, ... make the gravy, and by this time the men are in to dinner, and the little ones have to be washed and put into their high chairs. … I wait on the table and eat my dinner; then I take baby up, tend him and play with him about half an hour while my dinner settles.
“Then I wash the dishes, sweep the kitchen, and am ready by two o’clock for sewing or whatever else may be on hand.
“The little boys’ pants, suits, overalls, and little overcoats and cloaks, I buy ready-made, but not other things, as I think poorly-sewed ready-made things only rip out, and add to the mending … besides they never look neat or well made.
“Then the children come home from school, and mama has help. They mind the baby, hunt the eggs, bring up the cows, and if I haven’t put a cake into the oven for supper … then Mary bakes one; and let me say right here that my little girl of 10 can bake cake, set table, wash dishes, and sweep with any housekeeper in the country, and when mama is working with her, and making a companion of her, she thinks ‘tis all play, and she is laying by a store of knowledge and ideas of management, that will be of use … in future years.
“We have supper in summer at seven, then Mary and I wash the dishes, the little boys bring in the kindling and night wood, and after a general foot washing, the little folks go up to bed … and the day is done…”
Stay tuned tomorrow for the third and final installment of Helen Smith's award-winning story on how she managed without a hired girl.
