Baby buggys and car seats

My sister, Helen, and I had two boys close together and lived in small apartments in Topeka. Our mother went looking for a buggy for us and found just the thing at a Topeka furniture store. It was a navy blue canvas buggy but it had a section that dropped down in the front so when they got older their feet could dangle. It folded up good so could go in a car and was canvas so was not heavy. It was great to have beside your bed. It must have been rainproof also as it was great on a rainy day if you were caught out away from home.

I used it through all five children and I think my grandchildren slept in it when they visited. When Ray worked for the Topeka paper and we lived four blocks from the paper he called one night to say a drug store, Walgreens, was on fire and did I want to come down. Steve was asleep in the buggy so I put on my coat, added another blanket and went out the door the three blocks to the fire on the corner of Kansas Ave and 8th street. Steve slept right through the excitement and Ray walked home with us at three in the morning. I really should give the buggy to someone as it is under the bed in one of the back bedrooms and is as good as it was when we got it, although the canvas is a little faded now. Maybe they don't put children in buggies anymore. I think they are generally in strollers or car seats now. As I think about car seats and how they have improved over the time from the first ones that came out. We bought the first ones of those in California when we were visiting my sister Ethel and her family and it would have not held the child in if there was a bad wreck.

Kansas turns 100

Earlier I wrote about Shawnee and its birthday. Now Kansas had a birthday too a few years after. A committee picked 10 famous Kansans in TV and business. I guess they did not take on Eisenhower. The business ones are a little hard to remember but the TV ones are easier. We had Milburn Stone from "Gunsmoke" and Vivian Vance from the "I Love Lucy" show. There were others from business. One I remember was a banker from New York who when they went up on the podium at the dinner in the Municipal Auditorium in Topeka pushed his chair to the back of it and fell off backwards. He was not hurt but it was a little awkward for awhile. I hope he was a better banker. I think the little girl from "It's a "Wonderful Life" was a Kansan but don't remember if she was there. They had a pageant at the fairgrounds but it was in the summer as Kansas' birthday is January 29 along with our daughter, Susan. She is much younger than the state. I thought I had a unique way to celebrate with having a daughter. I controlled not naming her Kansas but named her after myself but she always used her middle name.

Raggedy Ann Dolls

Whenever I went to the hospital to give birth to a child I took along something to give the kid or kids left at home when I came home. When our fourth child was going to be born, I got the idea of making Raggedy Ann dolls. The three children we already had loved the stories. I got my pattern and went to work. It was fun. We had had a bad incident with a doll with Sally when she was young inhaling the stuffing so I looked around for something safer that I could use and I got the idea of nylon hose. I asked my friends and relatives to give me their cast off nylon hose when they had runners in them and stuffed a Raggedy Andy for Steve and Raggedy Anns for Sally and Susan. They loved them. I can't remember if I did any more or not and expect the patterns are still on the shelf over the washer and dryer.

balloon sticks

For Christmas I received a lovely amaryllis and it has many blooms on it. It is now reaching the end and is bent over. I knew I still had some balloon sticks in my closet so got one to hold it up. It did not work. I was thinking how I got the sticks.

We moved to Shawnee in 1951 and Shawnee was founded in 1856. In 1956 we were celebrating and my cub scouts were to sell balloons at the parade. I don't remember how we blew them up but we stood by the parade route and were assigned a spot on Shawnee Square. It was nice little park. It now has Shawnee City Hall. But then it was a small park in the center of Shawnee. The town jail was across the street north of the park. It had been built by the first prisoner. They later moved it to the new Shawnee park west of the original one but changed it so much it did not look the same. Two blocks south was the street that led to the Indian cemetery. It had been on land that the Methodist church owned during the Civil War. Across the square was the Shawnee Bank on the corner of Johnson Drive and Nieman. Nieman Road was named after the first banker. The second president was named Pflumm and we named things after him also. Of course Johnson Drive is named after the man who started the Shawnee Mission Indian School in Fairway where they taught the Indian children. He was killed by some robbers from Missouri who thought he had money. Cantrell must have camped in the little square before he went to raid Lawrence. There are many springs in Shawnee and I expect there was a good one in the park at one time.

My mother and cutting off the head of the bed

We moved into our new house that my father had helped draw the plans for when I was three. My two sisters and I had a southwest large bedroom. We had new iron beds. I was not long out of a crib. My mother thought we looked like a room at an orphanage because of the many beds. She decided it was the kind of beds with high headboards. She took a hack saw and sawed off the heads and made the foot of the bed the head of the bed. She had bedspreads that covered up her work and we looked very fancy and up to date like a picture in "Household Magazine." It really did improve the appearance and we did not look so much like a dormitory. Ethel and my bed now had their heads against the west wall and Helen had the head of her bed against the east wall and closet. In the summer time to get the breeze the three beds were lined up with their heads against the south wall. If we had guests they moved the beds closer together and I was generally picked to sleep in the crack between the beds. I generally fell in the crack. It wasn't bad. It was fun to be close to my visiting cousins.

Be the secretary of an organization

I learned early that I was not really presidential material but liked being secretary of a group. Presidents have to go to all sorts of meetings that secretaries do not have to attend. I loved taking minutes and reading them at meetings and since you read them yourself you did not have to spell correctly. My husband, Ray, liked to be president and I don't think he ever joined anything without ending up president. Once he was elected treasurer and that was not good as he never understood bookkeeping and I was the unknown treasurer. He did a better job as president. Over the years he was president of the Shawnee Mission Indian Society, the Sister City Committee of Kansas City, many PTAs (with five children you are a member of many PTAs). As president of Sister Cities, we went to Spain and Japan for Kansas City. We went to China but that was a trip offered us when the China government was taking travel agents to show them what they had to offer for customers. Other places we went like Africa and South America he was covering them for the Star and they let him bring me along. I still enjoy writing minutes but since I do not hear well it is not a career so I think I will become a famous writer instead. Now if I could just think of a plot I would be on my way.

Doors

I am really mad at the way they have made doors. In my father's house which was built in 1926 they knew the width doors should be but lately they have made doors smaller. We did have one small door on the downstairs lavatory which was not good but the other doors were the correct width that a person in a wheelchair could roll through. The doors on the house I live in now was built in 1951 and the doors in the back bathroom are narrow like that. However they are all correct for my walker. The walker I have for being a short person are just right for the doors, but not the wheel chair. However they used to be wrong if I was an inch taller. When we added on to our house the neighbors were changing their house and did not want their doors so our contractor purchased the doors. They were like the original ones in the house. It was nice to tell the world about doors and now I will relax and just let them be what they are meant to be--divide the house in parts.

Birthdays

Today is my granddaughter Holly's 18th birthday. I remember when I had mine how important it was. Now you can do thing earlier but then there were many restrictions which no longer existed when you turned 18. Holly says one bad thing is you can not rent a car until you are 25. I never thought of renting a car so that did not matter. I just used the family car or truck. I was very good with the truck. You get to sit up higher and see the world from a different angle. I generally just rode my bike. I had a fancy bike. I had applied for it as the war was still on and got a really nice one with balloon tires that I would ride the two miles to work at my father's garage in the office and then at night he would put it in the back of the pick up and go home. I did not have to ride the bus that way unless it was snowing or rainy. Happy Birthday Holly.

Another flag

I forgot my cold weather flag. It is penguins. I love it for it is so happy in cold weather. It likes the snow and likes flying from the house and reminds people there is a time between Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's day. This is short today as I got everything said yesterday about flags.

Holiday decorations--flags

I have a flag pole on the northwest corner of my house and I like to fly flags of the season. I have a New Year one, a Valentine cupid, flowers for spring and that sort of thing. It is nice to let the neighborhood know what season it is. Of course someone has to put it up and take it down for me anymore. I love the big firecracker one I have. They will be taking down the Valentine one but I'm in no hurry because it is nice to let a little love last longer. Inside my house I still have Valentine's Day and am in no hurry for the hearts to be put away because it reminds me of all the people I love and who is in a hurry to lose that feeling at the moment I do not remember. My husband's family were Irish and Welsh but I was of German descent and don't know the holidays there. My mother was of English descent and I don't remember her celebrating anything special. She just liked American Holidays so I have an excuse that I don't know others.

Other holidays

I've tried to remember what other holidays we celebrated. I know on Arbor day I used my Christmas tree pan for a cake, Valentine's Day I had a heart shaped cake, Easter I did not do because my cousin Laura made a cake which my granddaughter, Grace, still does. I think it is a roll to make like a big egg. We had pumpkin pie and a cake for the five birthdays we have at Thanksgiving. One relative only wanted cherry pie and that was good. Christmas is pumpkin pies again. If it was your birthday you got to pick so it was a surprise. Sally makes a great Fourth of July cake. Then sometimes we bought the dessert and had an ice cream cake. Now I just use the frozen pies and they are good. Birthdays are generally celebrated in the person's home and they get to decide what they want. Holidays are fun.

Lincoln's birthday

In our household we celebrated every birthday with a special dessert. This being Lincoln's birthday we had a Lincoln's Log.
4 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t vanilla
4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 t salt
1 t baking powder
Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored, gradually add sugar and vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff; gradually add 1/2 cup sugar and beat until stiff. Fold yolks into whites, then add sifted dry ingredients, folding it in carefully. Bake in wax paper lined 10 1/2 by 15 inch jelly roll pan at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Loosen sides and turn onto wax paper. Trim crusts. Roll quickly with fresh wax paper. Wrap in XXX sugar towel, cool and unroll. Remove paper and spread with Richmond icing. Spread outside with frosting and sprinkle with almonds,
Richmond icing
1 cup sugar 3 T cornstarch
2 squares of chocolate 1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt
1 cup boiling water
3 T oleo
1 t vanilla
Mix sugar and cornstarch, add chocolate and salt, add water. Cook until mixture thickens. Remove from heat, add oleo and vanilla. Spread on cake while still hot. Remains smooth and soft

Valentine's Day

I have always loved Valentine's Day even when I got mean valentines. My husband loved the day and one year gave me 30 Valentine's. I have many decorations up around my house. I have a lovely Heart on my front door and a flag with Cupid flying. I have a cute clown doll on a shelf that I received at a dinner that Ray was the speaker. I have things hanging from the heater vents in the front room and I look forward to the mail each day to see if I might receive one. I have already received two and who knows someone may turn up with chocolates. On my linen closet I have a group of three hearts that tried to stay outdoors but kept blowing down. I have mailed some with leftover Christmas stamps to my grandchildren and two great. It was fun making them out and thinking about the people they were going to like my sister, Helen. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ANY BRAVE SOUL HE READS THIS.

Vacation at Potato Lake

My father was a great believer of vacations and thought everyone should take a couple of weeks to do something different. Sometimes we traveled and saw America and sometimes we did what he really liked to do--fish. When my Dad fished we went to Minnesota to Potato Lake. It must have been named after they had airplanes as the map drawers had to show it was shaped like a potato. My dad would go out in his boat and fish. The fish he caught was stored in an ice house. When we were ready to go home the owners put the fish in a barrel with sawdust and ice and we took it home in the trunk of our car unless my dad had them ship the fish. We went back to Kansas and ate fish for awhile. It was good. One year my sister and her husband went with us. He was never very fond of me but liked my sister Helen. We played cards a lot and the owner of the camp had a son about my age and we had a great time. After my sister Ethel died, Harold asked Helen to marry him as she was a widow also but she refused for did not want to move to San Diego and he did not want to move back to Kansas and I don't think she wanted to anyway. We lived in a cabin while we were there and slept on cots. The days would be hot but the nights were cool. The mosquitoes were terrible as they were larger than Kansas ones and it hurt when they bit you.

Nancy Drew

I loved the Nancy Drew books. I had a few. I loaned them to my friend Martha and she liked them also. She told her rich grandfather and he immediately brought the whole set and a bookcase to store them in. She would loan them to you but she had rules. Wash your hands before reading. Don't eat when you read. Use a clean book mark. Be careful when you laid it down. Return it immediately upon finishing it. Don't loan it to anyone else. I think she let me allow my sister Helen to read them but I'm not sure. It was worth it and I loved it when Nancy Drew stories came on TV. It was nice after reading the Bobbsey Twins to have something with a story and mystery to it.

Driving lessons

When I was in High school my mother thought it was time for me to learn to drive. My first lesson was in one of the trucks that my dad used at work. As time went on I got better. I think it was July 15th in 1938. My second lesson I drove up to Washburn College, July 18th I drove to church and then I got to drive to Scranton, Kansas to visit my dad's mother. I got my license when I was 14. It had limits on it. My mother was a better teacher than I was as when I taught my husband to drive he drove us into the ditch on his first lesson. My mother taught many women to drive over the years. I don't think there was anyone to teach people in those days. It is too bad I had to end my driving career at 85 by driving into a building and breaking my knee. The building was not hurt and is still doing well.