My farm ancestors believed that bedding, rugs, laundry, the very old, and the very young needed to be “aired out” regularly. When I was a baby living in the farmhouse, my mother put me outside on the walk in my carriage for at least a half hour a day. Once, when my mother and father left me in my grandparents’ care for a weekend, my mother wrote a detailed note about what and when to feed me and specific times for napping, bed, and bath. This list, titled “Usual Routine,” instructed my grandmother to feed me liver soup and prunes, and included these lines.
“8:00 or 8:30 – Arise – put in high chair and give 6 drops of oil in Teasp with orange juice – give rest of orange juice in cup. Put outdoors if nice.”
Carol out on the sidewalk, 1946
For the old ones living in the farmhouse, spring weather meant finally being out in the sunshine and feeling truly warm. My great-grandmother, Lydia Jane Hall, welcomed this time of year. In a May journal entry she says it’s the “first day I‘ve been out of the house since the fall.” The front of the house faced south, so it was pleasant and bright in spring and summer. She would have been able to see the barn across the street, people coming and going up and down Whirlwind Hill Road, and the children playing on the lawn.
Sunday, May 8, 1921 – “This is a fine day and it is Mother’s Day. Mothers, children, and grand-children been to see us bringing flowers. Mrs. Biggs here and went home this afternoon. Henry, Ellen, Jane, John, Hattie, Edgar. Wilbur and Edyth’s boy (William E. Hall) whom we think is fine & Emily Crooks. Agnes, & Lydia & Francis went to Sunday school. I have been out with William sitting on the walk. Agnes took our picture.”
This photo could have been taken on the day she talks about. Maybe young William took it of his grandmother Lydia, his Aunt Agnes, and his three cousins, Janet, Lydia, and Francis.
Lydia Jane Hall with Agnes Hall, and the three children – Janet, Lydia, and Francis
My favorite picture of Lydia Jane out in the sun is this one from the early 1900’s. She and her husband William sit in front of the open parlor window, enjoying each other’s company. They’ve brought the parlor chairs outside onto the lawn so they can sit and chat and welcome the Sunday afternoon company.
Lydis and William Hall, around 1900
On Friday: Violets – An Addendum
Hi Carol- yeah for spring back then and now. Your little face looks a bit concerned when you were taken outside back then! Perhaps it was due to the after taste of your liver soup:) every parent has their own special way of raising kids. Glad you shared …. I so enjoy your writing and pictures.
Thanks, Netzy. I do look a bit unnerved. Maybe it was the liver soup or that oil in the orange juice!
I love these pictures and remember seeing that wheelchair up in the attic. This post brings up two thoughts for me. I’ve always thought it a little funny that there was a sidewalk–it seemed kind of like a town thing to me.
And, I wonder if putting the baby outside was something from the era, or if it might have been Grammy Hall’s (Agnes) British influence. In the late 1970’s we visited with some friends who had guests from England visiting with a baby and they did the same thing, in a pretty busy neighborhood in New Haven. The baby was outside napping and they were inside. (No one would do that now, would they?). And I notice they do it a lot in the BBC series “Call the Midwife” which takes place in the early 1950’s in the east end of London.
You’re right about the sidewalk. It did seem a bit strange out in the country. But I’m sure it was a practical solution to keeping mud out of the house before the porch was put on.
And I always shudder when I see those babies in “Midwife” sitting out in their prams by themselves on a busy street. I picture them climbing out or falling out or just being wheeled away by a stranger. I think our grandmother thought the time out in the air (even in the cold winter air) helped “build up our constitutions.”
I think cod liver oil and orange juice (which I can taste to this day) and airing out should be reinstated as routine kid and home maintenance practices. And just sitting outdoors (never ‘outside’, was it?). No text messages or emails to check, no TV shows that couldn’t be missed, no yoga class to run off to. Respite from toil, and just as important. Love these photos and the journal snippets, Cuz.
I totally agree about the just sitting outside with no distractions. Hard to do these days. But I’m not so sure about that oil (which I can still taste too). Thanks for reading, Cuz! Miss you.
I love this post. I too was aired out as a baby. My crib had screened sides and a screen top–like a rabbit hutch. My mother would push the whole thing outside on good days and leave me there–who knows how long! I am always airing out still: rooms, linens, pillows, duvets, and I love drying clothes on the line.
On visiting my daughter and her new baby the other day, I said, first thing, in walking into the bedroom: “Let’s air this room out.”
I don’t think we ever lose those early notions of our parents. I remember my brother being put out into the back yard in his wooden slatted playpen. This lasted until the neighbor’s dog cams and lifted his leg on the side of the pen. Sometimes the fresh air isn’t all that fresh.
Hope you’re having fun, fun, fun with that new grandchild!
Oh I’m with the air out crowd! And I put our babies outdoors in Alaska (!) in a borrowed pram, right next to the window – but still – no way would that happen now!
I am NOT on board with the oil in orange. Yuk Maybe that’s why you can’t stand citrus in salad Carol – old memory. What a very fun spring post!
That could be the reason. But now I like apple or even blueberries in salad! My taste buds are changing – for the better.
I’m not sure I ever left my kids outside in a pram, but the number one son was, before I got a car seat, transported in a little plastic box bed on the back seat of the car. When I stopped suddenly he rolled quite gently onto the floor. No harm done. At least I don’t think so.
I love these pictures and the whole idea of “airing out” the baby (and the laundry and the old folks). I’m not sure about my own early years, but I know that my younger siblings spent time outdoors in the bassinet before they were walking. My parents generally thought that outside was best place for young folk and they never fell for the line, “I’m bored”. If you couldn’t find something to amuse yourself, that was your problem, not theirs. So we did find things to do, things I now believe fired our imagination and our appreciation for the natural world. I don’t want to spoil future posts with talk about the games we played in the fields or the animals we discovered, watched and brought home, so will save those memories for the future. How nice that Lydia Jane and William could enjoy each others company sitting in the sun on front of the house. Wouldn’t we all be better off if we took the time to do just that?
Mike
I can’t imagine your parents putting up for one minute with “I’m bored.” And we did find much to do outside in those days. I always enjoy hearing your memories, Mike, so keep them coming.
You’re right – we would all be better off if we could just sit and watch the world go by (in real time) for an hour or more every day.