Happy Birthday Dear Lillian, Happy Birthday To You

Saturday, August 29, 1925: My twenty-eighth Birthday. It was a very hot day. Len & Ruby went to town this afternoon and brought home a brick of ice cream for my birthday. Dad, Ma & I went to town this evening. Friday we ironed and baked and etz. and etz. Aunt Till came down awhile this afternoon.

Thursday we washed a big wash, baked bread & drop cookies and cut up big cucumbers that evening. Dad went over to help clean the cemetery this forenoon. Wednesday, I put up ten quarts of peaches. Also made 2 ½ quarts of sweet cucumber pickles. Uncle Edd and the Aunts came down this eve. Brought me some birthday presents* a dresser scarf from Aunt Mag & Till and fifty cents from Aunt Annie.

Tuesday Len thrashed at Glassman’s today. Dad, Ma & I went to town this forenoon. Ruby chanced it up to Aunt Annie’s and came home with us this afternoon. Lavina Grebner and daughter and Harold & ______ Dittmar were there at Aunt Annie’s fixing a tire. They were on their way to Galena. This evening they and John H. and Bessie and two children stopped out in the road. Bessie is here from Dakota. As the aunts weren't at home they stopped to see if they were here. We put up ten quarts of plums that we got at Fiedler’s after we got home from town. Monday was a warm day. Len helped thrash at Bert Weis’. Bill Fiedler brought us a peck of blue plums today for seventy-five cents. We canned tomatoes, corn and beans, made apple sauce and picked cucumbers and etz.

* This is the most Lillian's birthday was celebrated in any of the diaries [1913-1931]. Ice cream and presents! Do you know how one of your family members celebrated birthdays in the mid-1920's. Want to share that experience? Today Lillian would be 113 years old!

The photo above is thought to be from 1910, but I think it is a later date photo. What do you think? Starting on the left hand side front row we have Lillian, Aunt Tillie Dittmar, Pearl Bunder ( I think Bunker is the correct spelling and fits into Lillian's comments on Pearl and Mr. Bunker). Then in the back row  2 Tippet men ( I think Johnnie Tippet and Uncle Edd)  and then behind Lillian is Ruby.

Where Will We Eat Tonight?

"Tue 12,1926: Dad, Ma & I went to town this forenoon. We met Aunt Mag coming down. The other Aunts were in town. It rained some last night so Einer Glanman did not come till after dinner. He got started painting under the eaves. He came yesterday and was here all day painting and he got the two chimneys fixed and half the roof painted.* I dug some more potatoes on Monday. Sunday, we all went to church in the morning. Then we came home to dinner. The roads were good. In the afternoon Dad, Ma & I went up to Aunt Annie’s. Otto Grebner and family and Gesselbrachts were there. We staid to supper. Len & Ruby came up that evening to see Aunt Annie."

* You have seen the front of the Trudgian house in an earlier post, and now you can see the back in the photo above where Einer was painting and fixing chimneys

Are any of you amazed at how many times the Trudgians are dropping in to someone’s house for dinner or supper without an invitation …or how many times they are hosting “a dinner party” with no warning whatsoever? It must have been a custom or accepted social action of the day! I know my housekeeping and meal planning would never be able keep up with a continuous flow of unexpected guests. How about you?