DAY 17 -- ANOTHER SKIMPLY CHRISTMAS WITH INA

You’ll rejoice to know the rainwater cistern is a-borning – it is now down to 7 feet in depth and is 8 feet across. The digging is very hard, for it is now frozen hard pan, but it won’t have to go a great deal deeper. It’s going to be a real boon, for it will more than cut this awful chore of hauling water in half. Ernest is planning to put a timber cribbing around the top on the outside of the bricks to bring the well top to the same level as the porch. Then we can just walk right to the pump from the porch with no steps to climb up and down. “I can hardly wait until Saturday night to try it.” -- Ethel to Vance, 1-3-37

[The quote above confirms that Ernest Robinson was really digging the cistern at the farm by hand and during the cold months. However, the actual year was 1936-7.]

A postcard from Vance's collection

Monday was always laundry day, so today they are doing laundry. Jack put extra water on the stove to heat while Ina fixed breakfast. While the women did the breakfast dishes, Jack set the washtub on an old table and mixed good sudsy water for Ina. When that was ready, he carried Sadie to school by horseback, returning with a message from the teacher saying that Ethel need not come today but please come tomorrow afternoon to help with dress rehearsal.

Ethel was relieved not to have to go to the school today. She had her own family’s laundry to do. Ernest’s clothes were filthy what with his work to make a cistern. It was wet, cold, dirty work, but she was proud of him for doing it, and she just knew having access to water at the back door would revolutionize life for her parents, who were carrying water from a spring some distance away.

Laundry on the sun porch; west dormer above

Once the clothes were washed, rinsed, and wrung until they seemed practically dry already, Jack carried them to the sun porch on the back of the house, and when that was full, he carried the remainder to the “west dormer” (a bathroom today). Clotheslines were strung on hooks. Ethel needed to stand on a stool in order to hang the clothes. No sun made for slow drying, but dry they would.

Another of Vance's postcards

“Let’s see,” said Ina, as Jack cleared the kitchen of washtubs, buckets, and pails. “Christmas Eve is just one week away. All right! That means I must begin mailing the boxes tomorrow. I’ll have Pearl’s ready first, then the one to Earle and Bernice (Idaho Falls), and then the boxes to the sisters in Drain and Vance’s to Raymond.” Just thinking of all those trips to the mailbox made Jack’s head spin, but he really didn’t mind. After all, Ina did all the work. His only part was to carry the mail to and from the mailbox.

An early photo of the dining room

In order that the hustle and bustle of daily chores and Christmas preparations might continue uninterrupted, Jack rode off to fetch Sadie from school. On the way home, they stopped at the mailbox, where the mailman had delivered a dozen cards today. 

After a supper of beef stew and cornbread, the family again gathered round the dining room table to open and read the Christmas cards and letters. KW