2: What did you look for in a lifetime partner?
50 some years ago most people met, fell in love, got married and didn’t consciously think about what they wanted in a lifetime partner.
3: In the 50’s, how were women viewed and men viewed?
I think for the most part women were viewed as homemakers and men were viewed as the head of the house and made the living for the family
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
1st question
1: At what age did you get married? What was it like to be dating/marryng a man that was 10 years older than you? Did your parents approve?
I noticed grandpa one Sunday shortly after he got home from the Army. He was so handsome in a brown pin striped suit. I think I fell in love with him then. When I was in high school we had a youth group that went to other churches in the area to share in their evening services. Something like the worship teams we have now in our churches. Actually I was not old enough to be in this group but was asked to go because I could play the piano. Grandpa was one of the guys with a car. A couple of friends of mine knew I was “smitten” with him so they made sure I was in the front seat in the middle. He told me later that he knew that he would marry me but at the time he figured that he shouldn’t push it and since I didn’t know this it was very painful to see him with other women. I remember one Sunday that he had “Dorothy” (one of the ladies he liked) in the car with him. He told me that he was taking her back to Mpls where she worked. Oh my, was I jealous! !. When we actually started dating I was in my junior year. Grandpa drove an ice cream truck (like Schwan’s) and when I walked home from school I so hoped I would see him coming in from his route. I loved being with him. I was 18 when we got married. My mother was not well during my high school days and dad was very busy with his business so I’m not sure that they paid much attention to what I did. I was always a “good” girl so they probably thought they had nothing to worry about. But I do know that they - mom especially - did not want me to marry grandpa. Mother very much wanted me to go to college because it was always something she wished she could have done. I thought about it but I knew that if I did go to college I probably would not marry grandpa. I never regretted my decision.
I noticed grandpa one Sunday shortly after he got home from the Army. He was so handsome in a brown pin striped suit. I think I fell in love with him then. When I was in high school we had a youth group that went to other churches in the area to share in their evening services. Something like the worship teams we have now in our churches. Actually I was not old enough to be in this group but was asked to go because I could play the piano. Grandpa was one of the guys with a car. A couple of friends of mine knew I was “smitten” with him so they made sure I was in the front seat in the middle. He told me later that he knew that he would marry me but at the time he figured that he shouldn’t push it and since I didn’t know this it was very painful to see him with other women. I remember one Sunday that he had “Dorothy” (one of the ladies he liked) in the car with him. He told me that he was taking her back to Mpls where she worked. Oh my, was I jealous! !. When we actually started dating I was in my junior year. Grandpa drove an ice cream truck (like Schwan’s) and when I walked home from school I so hoped I would see him coming in from his route. I loved being with him. I was 18 when we got married. My mother was not well during my high school days and dad was very busy with his business so I’m not sure that they paid much attention to what I did. I was always a “good” girl so they probably thought they had nothing to worry about. But I do know that they - mom especially - did not want me to marry grandpa. Mother very much wanted me to go to college because it was always something she wished she could have done. I thought about it but I knew that if I did go to college I probably would not marry grandpa. I never regretted my decision.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Questions
I've been feeling a little blue this week and didn't really know why because the dismal weather we've having lately doesn't usually bother me. I know why now: my granddaughter who goes to college in Portland, OR sent me a serious of questions she asked me to answer. It's for a class she is taking. I'll post the questions now and post my answers later. Maybe it will give you something to think about. Ok- here they are:
1: At what age did you get married? What was it like to be dating/marryng a man that was 10 years older than you? Did your parents approve?
2: What did you look for in a lifetime partner?
3: In the 50's how were women viewed and men viewed?
4; What were the women's roles in society? What were men's roles? Did you agree with these roles?
5: How did you and grandpa decide on how to raise your children? Was there a specific way you wanted to raise them? Did grandpa have a different view? If so, how did you agree on this?
6: When your children were growing up, did you let them explore and be open to ideas about their gender, society stereotypes, etc or did you teach them how society viewed certain issues. For example, did you let your daughters play with cars in the dirt and did you let your sons play with dolls and play dress up or did you tell them that dolls and dresses are for females only and cars and dirt are for boys only.
7: What do you like about your role as a wife and mother? What did you dislike?
8: Because it's typical that husbands take the lead in households, did you have a lot of say in your marriage or was it whatever he says, goes? Was it hard to stand back and have him take the lead, even when you didn't agree? How did you handle that?
9: What was dating like when you dated? Do you think dating has changed with your children? Do you think dating now is different than when you dated? Do you think you will date again?
10: What was love like in your relationship? Was it love at first sight or did you love grow?
11: when there was a disagreement between you and grandpa, how did you two repair the hurt? Was there a time of thinking you didn't want to be married anymore and if so, how did you go on?
12: Now that grandpa is gone, how are you dealing with the separation? Do you think you are handling it well? What is/has been the hardest thing to deal with since grandpa?
Brownie - feel free to lend your view on your dad and me
and anyone else can chime in, too
1: At what age did you get married? What was it like to be dating/marryng a man that was 10 years older than you? Did your parents approve?
2: What did you look for in a lifetime partner?
3: In the 50's how were women viewed and men viewed?
4; What were the women's roles in society? What were men's roles? Did you agree with these roles?
5: How did you and grandpa decide on how to raise your children? Was there a specific way you wanted to raise them? Did grandpa have a different view? If so, how did you agree on this?
6: When your children were growing up, did you let them explore and be open to ideas about their gender, society stereotypes, etc or did you teach them how society viewed certain issues. For example, did you let your daughters play with cars in the dirt and did you let your sons play with dolls and play dress up or did you tell them that dolls and dresses are for females only and cars and dirt are for boys only.
7: What do you like about your role as a wife and mother? What did you dislike?
8: Because it's typical that husbands take the lead in households, did you have a lot of say in your marriage or was it whatever he says, goes? Was it hard to stand back and have him take the lead, even when you didn't agree? How did you handle that?
9: What was dating like when you dated? Do you think dating has changed with your children? Do you think dating now is different than when you dated? Do you think you will date again?
10: What was love like in your relationship? Was it love at first sight or did you love grow?
11: when there was a disagreement between you and grandpa, how did you two repair the hurt? Was there a time of thinking you didn't want to be married anymore and if so, how did you go on?
12: Now that grandpa is gone, how are you dealing with the separation? Do you think you are handling it well? What is/has been the hardest thing to deal with since grandpa?
Brownie - feel free to lend your view on your dad and me
and anyone else can chime in, too
Friday, December 12, 2008
Will there or won't there be a blizzard
The weather man says we're in for a possible blizzard and if so it will mess up a lot of plans. As you all know, the weather man could be wrong. But--- just in case we will be recording the children's practice tomorrow morning which means I have to really pay attention so I don't make any really stupid mistakes with the piano part :) So the reason for the recording: If we have to move the children's program to the 21st. that means I will accompanying three different music programs on that Sunday. First I play for first service as usual, then at the 2nd service I accompany the church choir cantata (10:45) then I accompany the Park Rapids Classic Chorale for that concert at 3:00 (which is when the children will be doing a final rehearsal thus the recording) and then the children's Christmas program at 6:00. Someone asked me if I could do all that .. . . sure I can . . . the adrenalin will be flowing but I'll be really tired when I get to go to bed
Monday, December 8, 2008
Christmas past
Brownies blog reminded me of Christmas's past. Aunt Gertrude and her family lived in Minot, ND and was the only sibling of my mom's that didn't live in Redwood Falls when I was a young girl. There was Aunt Beth and Uncle Guy, Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Harvey, Uncle Gillette and Elaine. And their families and, of course, my mom and dad and brother. I know the adults exchanged names for Christmas but I don't remember what us kids did. I do know that one of my most memorable gifts were books from my Aunt Beth. Like Brownie said she had a knack for getting just the right thing for each of her nephews and nieces and I always looked forward to my gift from her. She didn't have any children of her own but when she married Uncle Guy he had two daughters. If I remember right we all would get together at whose ever turn it was to have Christmas on Christmas Eve after the Children's Christmas program. And it always seemed to be snowing when we would get out of church.
Back to the books . . . . when I was given this gift my great Aunt Amanda said "You don't need to open it because it's just books" I'm sure she thought it would be easier for mom and dad to get the gifts home but I said " I know - I can feel that they are books but I want to see what they are" And so I found Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and 2 others that I can't remember the titles. I was so delighted and spent many hours reading. I think this was probably one of the few times that Great Aunt Amanda and Great Uncle Ewalt were with us at Christmas.
More to come .....
Back to the books . . . . when I was given this gift my great Aunt Amanda said "You don't need to open it because it's just books" I'm sure she thought it would be easier for mom and dad to get the gifts home but I said " I know - I can feel that they are books but I want to see what they are" And so I found Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and 2 others that I can't remember the titles. I was so delighted and spent many hours reading. I think this was probably one of the few times that Great Aunt Amanda and Great Uncle Ewalt were with us at Christmas.
More to come .....
Monday, December 1, 2008
Pies
I spent Thanksgiving day with my daughter -in-law's family which is quite large and not all of them were there. There was a constant undercurrent of noise but nothing really loud. My DIL's mom lives on a small lake which had frozen over much to the delight of almost everyone there. And most everyone went ice skating. Not me - I haven't been skating since I was in high school and and not about to start up again now. They tell me the ice was like glass - very smooth and they saw a turtle and a fish swimming underneath the ice which all thought was very cool. The small children who have not learned the art of skating were pushed around on chairs.
We had the usual Thanksgiving dinner and then the desserts were put out on the table . 16 pies of every discription: Apple, pumpkin, ki lime, cherry, chocolate, dutch apple, Lemon.
Lowell was not a game player so there a lots of card games I'm now beginning to learn (and enjoy). Whist was the game of the day - great fun.
All those pies made me think of the first time I made a coconut cream pie. It was the second summer we were married. I made the pie crust and mixed up the coconut cream from a pudding mix. Poured it into the crust - hmmm something wasn't right. Oh ya, the crust needs to be baked first. So I scraped the pudding mix out, baked the crust and poured the mix back into the baked crust. The crust was a bit tough but it tasted good anyway.
We had the usual Thanksgiving dinner and then the desserts were put out on the table . 16 pies of every discription: Apple, pumpkin, ki lime, cherry, chocolate, dutch apple, Lemon.
Lowell was not a game player so there a lots of card games I'm now beginning to learn (and enjoy). Whist was the game of the day - great fun.
All those pies made me think of the first time I made a coconut cream pie. It was the second summer we were married. I made the pie crust and mixed up the coconut cream from a pudding mix. Poured it into the crust - hmmm something wasn't right. Oh ya, the crust needs to be baked first. So I scraped the pudding mix out, baked the crust and poured the mix back into the baked crust. The crust was a bit tough but it tasted good anyway.
Monday, November 3, 2008
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