INA'S WINTER VACATION (PART 2)

Well, Ina was away from the farm for a good three months. She didn’t return home until late May 1934. While she was away, 23-year-old daughter Shirley managed the house and the chickens, cooked for her dad, and when the time came, planted the garden. Aunt Bertha wrote that Shirley had not needed her help and did just fine. Shirley had been getting 60-70 eggs a day, Bertha said, and she had overheard (which means she had “rubbered” on the party line) when Shirley ordered groceries from the Orofino Mercantile in exchange for 30 dozen eggs.

Meanwhile, Shirley and Henry Shockley were “running around together,” Aunt Bertha wrote. Only time would tell if this would evolve into marriage, but of course, we know it did -- just not until 1937.

By late June, Ina was back in the swing of things. She wrote that she was canning and sewing. Canning? I wonder what she was canning in June. As for the sewing, she reveals that she altered her gray dress for her sister Mabel, but she decided that gray wasn’t such a good color for Mabel – is it a good color for anyone? – and made a new organdie collar for it.

So, Ina had packed a box to ship to the sisters in Drain. Besides the dress, she included Shirley’s old coat. Myrtle had a new coat and had given Shirley her old one, Ina said. It might have been a dubious gift because it sounds like the coat was worn out. “I think you can alter the coat into a three-quarter length and turn the collar,” Ina wrote, adding that it was such nice fabric. She also put in old shirts to be used for patches, and she says that shirttails make good sacks.

We've already seen through the "skimpy Christmases" that Ina digs deep into her storehouse in order to share. Well, that’s the way she managed – shuffling the old goods around. I don't know if the Drain family appreciated a box of old textiles. Perhaps if they couldn’t have new, they could at least have different by reusing, renewing, and sharing the old. It was a different time, you know. I admire their frugality, initiative, and thoughtfulness. The earth is better off if we live frugally.

And Ina came home with seeds for her garden. She says the Drain squashes are growing well but the beans shriveled and died. She adds that she’s still enjoying her Drain visit. “It was so beautiful,” she says. KW