Minnie #2

Minnie is remembered as being very tender-hearted and would cry if her husband said a cross word. Her daughters Eunice and Viola told me (1983) that Minnie felt that "what was right was right", and what was hers she wanted. They remembered that in later years, when she took borders in at her house, she decided she would charge board and room by the week rather than by the month since some months had more weeks than others, and that way she could collect more money. They also remember their mother as being a kind woman who would help anyone. Minnie is characterized as having an especially good sense of humor. I guess this was a recessive gene -- we don't have anyone funny in our family now (does Stephanie count?).

Minnie was a very clean housekeeper and a good seamstress. She taught her daughters these skills and they especially remembered her teaching them how to sew aprons (a beginning lesson). She was very particular with her household tasks and when her husband helped with the wash, she told him exactly how to hang the clothes on the outside line to dry. The clothes were to be sequenced by size, with the largest ones first and moving down to the smallest. No bright colors were to be mixed in with the whites, nor with the dark colors. Her daughters also remember that Minnie loved to do the wash because it was a job where she could see the results of her labors.

These were the days of boiling clothes to get them clean, turning the handle to agitate the clothes in the washer and then putting the clothes one-by-one through a roller device to "wring" out all the water. Clothes dryers didn't exist -- well, unless you count the sunshine and a great breeze. Doing laundry usually took all day. And of course when there was a baby, it was cloth diapers to be laundered, and not the throw-away kind. I'm sure Minnie couldn't have even imagined what doing laundry was going to be like for her daughters, granddaughters, great-grandaughters and on.