Went to the Trading Post & Bought Babies Crib & Mattress.

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This year, I have been transcribing my mom’s diary for 1947 month by month as a continuing Christmas present for my sisters. The title of this posting is a quote from my mom’s diary entry for February 4, 1947. Every Sunday I send out a “Sunday Message” to my older grandchildren. In the Sunday message for February 5 of this year, I included my mom’s entire entry for February 4, 1947, and in addition to my older grandchildren, I also sent my Sunday message to my three daughters, because I mentioned them also in my footnote to this entry in my mom’s diary. The Sunday message is below, and the full text of my mom’s diary entry is at the end of the Sunday message.

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February 5, 2013 – Sunday Message to daughters and older grandchildren

Daughters,

              I have now been processing my mom’s diary for 1947.  Each month I try to finish a month and I send that month off to my sisters as a continuing Christmas present. I mentioned you all in the footnote to this entry.   At this date in February 1947, my mom is pregnant with oldest sister and everything she is buying is for the baby, my parent’s first child, oldest sister.  As the footnote explains, oldest sister and me and all my sisters were in this crib, then all three of you, then all of the (children of oldest daughter) grandchildren.

              The photo is of me in the crib in 1951 when I was maybe almost a year old.  This is the only photo I have of the crib in those very early years.

              Note our old beat-up, weathered car.  Also, note the construction.  This was the second house my dad was building on our lot, “the big house”.  I am in the dirt between the first house, “the little house” and the big house.  I’d have to check my notes, but I think we moved into the big house around Thanksgiving.  I remember still having my bottle of milk in the morning in the big house, which I always looked forward to.

              The open space of the house under construction to the right of the photo, is the open porch of the house.  When I was about seven or so, with more sisters now in the house, my dad, to add a bedroom for me, enclosed the porch with walls and lined the inside with pine wood paneling, which I loved.  The back door to the house, in the middle of the back wall, now opened into my room but I don’t remember that being an issue.  One half of the small room was where my little bed and chest of drawers were, and the other half, on the other side of the door, was where my mom had her sewing table and sewing machine set up.  Sometimes as I was going to sleep at night, I would watch my mom sewing, and I remember even then when I young that I always thought my mom looked tired.  My mom was always busy, even during what I thought was late at night, when I was going to sleep. 

I remember one moment when my mom was sewing very vividly.  She accidently sewed part of her finger with the needle and thread and made a little cry.  I was startled and looked up, and as I watched my mother slowly turn the wheel of the sewing machine by hand to lift the needle, she explained what had happened and that you can’t just pull your finger away as that would tear and hurt it more, but that you had to carefully turn the needle up to get it out of your finger.  She then got the needle and thread out of her finger, put her finger in her mouth for a moment, went to the kitchen to wash it off, then came back to the table, started sewing again, and told me gently to stop talking and to now go to sleep.  I watched her face for a bit more in the light of the little light she sewed with – a little light so that her sewing and the light would not keep me up – and then I must have fallen asleep, as I remember no more of that night when my mom sewed her finger.

              Now, also of note is the house across and up the street.  This is the inspiration for my novel, “This Old Wooden House”.  Also, the old couple that lived there is the inspiration for the old couple in the novel.  Their last name was Copp, and that is the name of the couple in the novel.  I changed the location of the house in the novel.  It is on the other side of the street with no houses around it. When I publish the novel, I will use this photo as the photo of the author, which is true.

              So, I thought you would appreciate seeing when my parents acquired the crib that all of you were all placed in when you were born. And oldest daughter, all of your children were in this crib.

                          Dad

February 4, 1947 – Tuesday

Got up at 9.00 & had breakfast with Leo.  Washed the dishes & made the bed.  Made his sandwiches while he had a bath.  Told him about buying the books & had a bath.  Cooked lunch.  Went out with him went (sic) he went to work, left him at Mission Blvd.  Went to the bank & withdrew $50.00.  Went to the Trading Post & bought babies crib & mattress.*  Bought a pair of shoes, 3 baby’s vests, 2 set of babies wash towels.  Walked down to Negrete’s & bought 4 small baby blankets.  Went to the S&K market on the way home.  Went to the Post Office & sent off my tax withholding statement.  The crib was delivered in the evening at 6.00.

*2/4 This is the crib that oldest sister and then all of us and then I know all three of my daughters and the five my oldest grandchildren were in.  I still have this crib.

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