Weather Ruled The Day

Mon. Sept. 6, 1926: "Buster (their pet dog) did not return today. We have nearly given up hope that he will come home anymore. Len made a round over and around John Weis’ round mound then in to Win Tippet’s and Charles Ehrler’s pasture and up by the church & etz. Dad went up along the ridge as far as the school house and down the road. I went up around on Joe Weis’ hill but did not find him. Perhaps someone killed him. This is Labor Day and the big celebration at Galena. Quite a number of cars went along.

Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie came along about 3-30 and asked Ma & Dad to go along out to Uncle Henry’s with them so we wouldn’t have such a load. They went but soon after it came to look rainy. It got very dark in Northwest. We were all ready by 5-30 but it was such threatening weather we feared to start. By six it began to look brighter. Len didn’t want to go then, claiming it was too late. Anyhow we started. The weather looked so clear and nice back by Weis’ and our road so good. We went along so happily. But as we turned onto the ridge road it got awfully muddy. We stopped and put on the chains, but they were too big. I was afraid to go on that way so we went back and thought we would try it by Scales Mound but it was very muddy up that way so we got gas and telephoned down to Uncle Henry’s and told them we weren’t coming. Then we came home with a very sore heart. After we got home we went to bed without any supper."

If you read "Lillian's Diaries" you are aware of how dependent everyone was on the weather. If you count how many times Lillian and/or her family planned on going somewhere and it "came to rain" (meaning it started to rain) you will find that they cancelled their plans more times than they carried through with their plans. For Lillian, as a teenager, that had to be heartbreaking - to be invited to a party, a anniversary party, a bridal shower, a dance, or a school social and then to not be able to go after all your preparations because of the rain, the snow or the muddy roads!

At the time of the entry above Lillian was still living at home - which would be expected in 1925- with her Mother, Father and with Ruby (Lillian's older sister) and her new husband, Leonard Stauss. The house was made of brick and two stories high with an extension room made of wood in the back that might have been a summer porch or maybe even a summer kitchen in the days before Lillian's family lived there. Charles, Lillian's Father, had lived there all his life, except for the short time he lived with his family of origin in the barn where he was born.(see previous post). I have had the opportunity to tour the house and I can't picture how everyone could have possibly fit into the house. But, as my Mother says "In the old days people were much more inclined to put up with less of everything than we are today."