Eileen KINNICK - 75 yrs ago - Week 4 - Jan 24-31, 1937

Eileen KINNICK
75 yrs ago
Week 4 - Jan 24-31, 1937

My mother, Eileen KINNICK (maiden name), kept a diary from 1932 until her death in 1999. In Feb 2005, I created a website of her 1936 diary, the year she graduated from high school. During the latter half of 2011, commented weekly on these entries.
For 1937, I am transcribing the daily entries, currently, at The KINNICK Project surname blog.

In this weekly blog post, I will make summary comments and observations, and perhaps add a photo, from time to time.

Setting: The family lived in a farmhouse a couple of miles out of town (Coon Rapids, Iowa). Older brother, Leo, lived at home; his girl friend, later wife, Ida, visited regularly. Younger brother, Buzzy (she often wrote Bussy) was 9 years old. Pete Smith is her 'boy friend' - starting Oct 1, 1936 (they do marry, in Mar 1938).


Week 4 (Jan 25-31):

We had some good movies and photo images this week - how did you like that car from Ivory contest?

But, today, I want to focus on a comment from the January 31 post (today!) that I did not comment on over there: "Churned & got ready for Lil's & Del. Men butchered. Had lunch before they left." A bit like the mule stories from last week, here we get a little more insight into the 'lifestyle' they actually lived. Churned. Butchered. Not something done everyday, but very important activities. I go to the grocery and buy a tub of Parkay when I want a bread spread. They took the cream from the separator from the milk from the cow(s) and CHURNED it. Which type of churn to you think she used?

Butchering a pig was still pretty common on our farm into my early teen years in the 1950s. Note that it was a multiple man operation. Sometime in the 1950s my Dad started taking animals (pig or steer) to the 'plant' in town and they did it there. Through college, my Mom and Dad always had both beef and pork in the freezer (on the farm and at the locker in town). Coming home from college, they encouraged us to take the steaks, because the hamburger was much more useful for them at home!

What are your memories? Comments welcomed! 


Families are Forever!  ;-)