January 1, 2013

About a year ago, I learned that my great-aunt Dora and her brother (my maternal grandfather) kept journals AND that these journals were in safe-keeping by my mother's younger sister, my Aunt Jan.  Aunt Jan humored me earlier in the year and allowed me to rifle through and read these treasured items of our family's history.
The journals that I read didn't possess any deep, dark family secrets. They don't even go into detail about how people felt about things. They are really a simple record of what they did that day, what work was accomplished, who they talked to, and where they went.
I found, though, that long after I'd read a few of those journals, that it made me more curious about how they lived their lives back then. How simplicity, beliefs, and just plain old hard work shaped the people who raised my mother, and consequently how my mother raised me. I never met my great-aunt or my grandfather, both had passed before I was born.  I still see echoes of them though, in me, and in my brothers.  Echoes of Dora and Ray, and their life on Portage Lake Road.
I found that after I'd first wrapped my greedy fingers around those remarkably intact booklets, that I'd changed a bit.  I started doing a few things different in my own life, making it a bit more regimented and disciplined.  Dora did her laundry on Mondays. I used to do ours whenever it piled up to the point where no one had any underwear left (a slight exagerration, yes...).  I started doing my laundry on Monday. Life is better.  It was also very clear to me that Sundays were truly a day of rest in Dora's and Ray's house. I decided that I should probably start getting my groceries earlier in the week so I wouldn't be tempted to do it Sunday.  Sundays are more restful now.
I've thought so much about these journals that I asked Aunt Jan if I could have a temporary loan of a few of them so I could blog through them for at least a month.  I think it will be interesting to compare and contract my life with the lives of my recent ancestors.
This blog is dedicated to me Keeping Up with the Schneiders.  Unlike Keeping up with the Kardashians, no one will be worried about breaking a nail, tan lines, or whose baby's daddy is doing what...

December 31, 1912
Dora:
Tuesday "Ironed and got ready for Langs Young People and Lizzie Haas for supper.  Settled with Pa for the Vac Deal. $83.15- $73.19. $9.96 to the good"

Note: Earlier in 1912 Dora made a deal with her father. He gave her the money for a vacuum sweeper (my aunt still has this). She worked the entire year, going to people's houses and vacuuming for them. She earned the money back plus some.

Ray:
36 degrees in the morning. 42 degrees in the evening. Weather is Fair.
"Loaded to [two] loads of hay for John Kline. Went to church. [Illegible]Brierness (?) meeting in pm.

December 31, 2012
Cayla:
Had a slow morning. Baked a cake for tomorrow. Tarek took Ada to the store while I played with Maurice outside in the snow. Put the kids to bed. Pierre and Anita came over. We had prosciutto-filo wrapped asparagus, puff pastry goat cheese with preserves, cheese plate, smoked salmon and capers, sangria and French baguette and crackers. We got in the hot tub with the snow piled up around us. Drank champagne, talked, and watched disgustedly as Kathy Griffen and Anderson Cooper made dirty innuendos on national television. Went to bed around 1:30 am.

January 1, 1913
Dora:
"Invited to Uncle Davids for New Years Dinner.  Went to Wm. Saylors for prayer meetings at night."

Ray:
29 degrees in the morning. 38 degrees in the evening. Weather is Fair.
"Went down to Uncle Davids for dinner staid [sic] all day."

January 1, 2013
Cayla:
Made pancakes for breakfast. Tarek talked to his family in Lebanon. We got ready and left to go to Rabih and Mariam's house in Lafayette. I forgot to bring the cake I had baked the day before. We spent most of the day there. The kids were remarkably well-behaved despite no naps. Came home. Fed the kids, Tarek bathed them and we put them to bed. Started blogging.


I find it interesting that both of us had people over to our house for New Years Eve and then went and spent New Years Day at someone else's house...