Part of a year-long weekly serialization of Ypsilanti high school math teacher Carrie Hardy's diary.Kind readers may recall that Carrie was still sick for last week, but eating a bit better. School began without her.
Sept. 9 Tues. Expected a colored lady to clean for me; disappointed. My apartment very dusty. Mr. Erickson called.
Sept. 10 Wed. Went to see Dr. Hull. Heart is stronger, but the beat is irregular--More tablets. Mrs. Jennings + I drove on the good roads.
Sept. 11 Thurs. Mrs. Kersey cleaned for me today. 30 cents an hour $1.28. Heart is better, I think. How I want to go to school.
Sept. 12 Fri. Mr. Erickson called. Mrs. Jennings + I drove to Ann Arbor + back; then we attended the theater in evening. I walked down + back.
Sept. 13 Sat. Misses Creech + Savaine called. Drove Miss Gieske out to the peach orchard. Dug my 15 hills potatoes, 1 1/2 pk. Lillian stayed all night after we quarrelled.
Sept. 14 Sun. Expected Rob, but he did not come. Had rather a long day. Walked over to May Webb's in evening.
Sept. 15 Mon. Had dinner with Mrs. Fletcher (Swiss steak). Went to school + visited Mr. Erickson's two Geom. classes. Weighed. Gained 8 1/2 lbs.
Thanks for reading; tune in next Tuesday for the next series!
Getting better, which is very good. 15 hills of potatoes, man thats a good amount of potatoes. Still in search of Lillian.
ReplyDeleteJennifer: Yep, she said she got one and one-half peck. That's about 8 quarts, if you picture one of those quart canning jars. Or, two gallon jugs' worth of potatoes.
ReplyDeleteWow
ReplyDeleteI didn't know how much a peck was, and had to look it up. It was a lot fewer 'taters, turns out, than I expected from "15 hills."
ReplyDeleteTwo gallons in a peck, 4 pecks in a bushel.
So that old song, "I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck" means I love you 1.25 bushel baskets' worth.
Jeez, we need the metric system!
Lillian was probably advising her to leave the medicine alone -- like the good concerned friend she was.
ReplyDeleteWe still used "bushel, peck, half-peck and even quarter peck" measurements at the farm where I worked growing up. I would expect to get about that amount (1.5 pecks) from each of my 3'x8'ft beds of fingerlings. Gotta do that! As Carrie points out -- it's time.
Lisele: I did not know you worked on a farm growing up--that is very cool.
ReplyDeleteMy sis and I used to pick beans for candy money at a local bean farm a mile from our house, which paid us a pittance that we thought was a fortune. We'd take our cash to the candy store two miles from home. Lick-'Em Stix, SweetTarts, Garbage Pail Kids cards--what wonderful wealth we got from those beans!
Yes, DD, I worked on my sister's farm from age 10 to 20, first picking blueberries, then working in the flower field and assisting the farm ladies & pickers, and last working in the farm stand. The stand is still there, but the farm was sold for development ***so sad***. It was a centennial farm that had been in my BIL's family for generations. But the two of them had no children and then he suffered kidney failure and is no longer able to farm. I can't bear to think about it. If I'd chosen to live nearer, I could have farmed it -- and would have.
ReplyDeleteLisele: I am sorry to hear that.
ReplyDelete"Development" is an intrinsically loaded word. It sounds like a positive thing, something being "developed."
It is not always the case that it's a good thing, as we see in your sad story.
We should pick a new word for this process, maybe "plasticization."
I picked beans for a dollar a bushel in junior high. It seemed like a good deal at first - then I discovered how many stinkin' beans go into a bushel. I did get a 25% raise the next summer...
ReplyDeleteDollar a bushel sounds like about what my sis and I got for beans.
ReplyDeleteAnd yep...there are a l o t o f b e a n s in a bushel...visions of walking the 2 miles down to Otto's dusty old variety store with candy money kept us going...
I like the rhyme. however I ever pick a bushel and a peck for money. however I have planted potatoes for my aunt sue.
ReplyDeleteMs. Redfern: Potatoes are a fun thing to grow; also, they're related to tomatoes, peppers, and other members of the nightshade family.
ReplyDelete