If you could ask someone who was there...

[Sweet Leilani]

I'm going out to Detroit to visit my Gram in a couple of weeks. She'll be celebrating her 97th birthday & is still sharp as a tack. Since she was born in 1910, she did the Charleston in the 20s, lived through the Depression & raised a family during the war.

I've talked to her about a lot of things that happened in her life, but I always wonder if there isn't something more I can learn. Little stuff, big stuff... If you could ask her anything, what would it be?

 

[MinnieRose]

Did she enjoy the music of the late 30s/40s?

Did she enjoy dancing, or was dancing generally something the teens/20 somethings did?

Were most people she knew actually 'willing' to help the war effort? I don't think the U.S. population could 'do' what people did then. Generally I think we're pretty spoiled.

What, if anything, did her kids 'do' that she thought was worse than the previous generation? I bet we would think it's pretty tame.

 

[Sweet Leilani]

Good ones! I know she enjoyed dancing, but in the late 1920s (at about age 17-19)- she showed me how to do the Charleston years ago. I'll have to ask if she kept it up later on.

 

[green papaya]

old fashioned foods?

I would like to know how good was the food ? what kind of foods did she like to make?

 

[HadleyH]

Details in the interior decoration of her home... colors that were popular...fashions in clothes that were considered extravagant...what perfume did she wear...where did she go on Saturday night...etc.
lol well... this is no big stuff but these are the sort of questions I'd choose to ask.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

What it was like to live back then, what were the advantages and disadvantages, what doe she remember of the history of those times, what does she want to say about it? What can she say about her/your family? Any old stories she wants to tell.

And I would video or audio tape her talking about it. Think how valuable that will be for you and your family in years to come!

karol

 

[panamag8or]

What it was like to live back then, what were the advantages and disadvantages, what doe she remember of the history of those times, what does she want to say about it? What can she say about her/your family? Any old stories she wants to tell.

And I would video or audio tape her talking about it. Think how valuable that will be for you and your family in years to come!

karol

+1 on the audio. Take a tape recorder, and get everything you can on it. We did that with my Great-Grandmother, and the info and family history is priceless.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

What were the things she did that she was most proud of?

What people / political figures / celebrities / etc did she Respect most?

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Honestly, I would want her to tell me about the boys she dated. What a way to gain cultural perspective and understand the morals at the time. Plus, I bet she has some great stories!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Since I'm a movie and movie theatre nut, I'd ask her if she was a fan, too. I'd ask her how she reacted to her very first talkie and what she thought of the Production Code. I'd also like her to take me on a tour around town and show me where all the old theatres once stood.

But if she didn't like movies and movie stars, I'd also like to know why! Lots of people today dislike modern celebrities for their fakeness and I'd like to know if anyone felt that way "back in the day" -- since all you ever hear is how movies were so wonderful and everyone worshipped them.

I'd also like to know how she felt about television.

 

[Flivver]

I'd like to hear her memories of radio in the 1920s. When did she hear her first broadcast, what station was it, what did she think of it?

Did she live in Detroit back then? Detroit had much interesting early radio history.

I'd also like to hear all about the high school scene in the 1920s. The fads, fashions, the popular dances and the music they liked best. Were the shieks and flappers really as they were portrayed in the movies of the time?

 

[goldwyn girl]

I would ask how the everyday person and lifestyle differed to what was see in the movies and what our perception of it is. Also recording her telling you these things is an excellent idea. And fashion, what she wore and for what occassion.

 

[Miss Sis]

Ask her to tell you not just about herself but her memories of other family members such as Aunts/Uncles and Grandparents, cousins etc.

Also, if she has lots of photos from then, go through them and write on the back who they are and how they are related to you. We have lots of photos and we aren't sure who some of the people are!

Maybe you could also find out about holidays and vacations she took both as a child and as an adult. Where was popular to go then. Did they infact go at all at a time when many people didn't have much money?

Luckily for me my Nana had a great memory and told me loads of stories. Unfortunately I don't have them on tape - it would be so wonderful to be able to hear her voice again.

 

[Elaina]

I'm weird. I'd ask her if her life was mostly happy and leave it at that.

 

[MinnieRose]

Leilani ~

Have you visited your grandmother? I'd love to hear what she had to say!

Kim

 

[Sweet Leilani]

Yes, I just got back. I didn't have the opportunity to ask all of your questions, but I will try to follow up with some phone calls. Her short-term memory is starting to slip a little, but by and large she remembers most everything that happened in the past.


MinnieRose: "Were most people she knew actually 'willing' to help the war effort? I don't think the U.S. population could 'do' what people did then. Generally I think we're pretty spoiled." This question intrigued me too, so it was the first I asked. She agreed that the total effort that took place during WWII would be difficult to duplicate, and that she doubts that we could do it today.

She remembers particularly that the rationing was looked at as a minor inconvenience; making do with substitute ingredients was not that difficult for her. (Although my mother makes a point here of saying that my Gram was not that great of a cook anyway...lol )

green papaya: "I would like to know how good was the food ? what kind of foods did she like to make?" This kind of relates to the above answer.. I know she made "Swiss Steak" a lot, which is ground beef patties broiled with onions & swiss cheese I believe. My mother says she made a lot of tuna fish & casseroles. By and large, the food would probably be considered really full of fat and very lightly seasoned compared to today's styles.

K.D. Lightener: "What it was like to live back then, what were the advantages and disadvantages, what doe she remember of the history of those times, what does she want to say about it? What can she say about her/your family? Any old stories she wants to tell." We heard lots of stories about growing up in Eastside Detroit (the neighborhood was called "The Heidelberg"- it's not a very nice place now) and how all the family lived on the same block. She talked about which aunts she liked best because they were closer to her age (her parents were each one of 13 children!). Some of the relatives (the Orlings) made hot dogs that were sold at Tiger Stadium & Sanders shops. She still loves baseball.

She also talked about electric cars (c.1910-1915) and how they were designed to be driven by women (no greasy moving parts & no crank starter). She rode to the church for her baptism in an electric car (that would be in 1910).

Miss Sis: "Maybe you could also find out about holidays and vacations she took both as a child and as an adult. Where was popular to go then. Did they infact go at all at a time when many people didn't have much money?" I am lucky enough to have a scrapbook that her sister made when they took a cross-country car trip and a cruise to Havana in the late 30s. I believe that the Depression really didn't hit her family hard- they all were employed. She worked for the phone company during that time. That said, I don't think this trip was terribly expensive. Here's a photo of her sister (L) and my Gram (R) on board the S.S. Roma enroute to Havana, c. 1939.

I'll take a break now and try to answer some more later!

 

[griffer]

I am late to this...but i'll throw them out there for posterity...

Did canning and rationing take the flavor out of American food?

Do you remember food being better or worse than it is now?

Do you remember certain periods in your life SMELLING diferent? Seriously, smells of cities, houses, people, food, clothes, etc. must have all changed over time.

 

[Gideon Ashe]

I am late to this...but i'll throw them out there for posterity...

Did canning and rationing take the flavor out of American food?

Do you remember food being better or worse than it is now?

Do you remember certain periods in your life SMELLING diferent? Seriously, smells of cities, houses, people, food, clothes, etc. must have all changed over time.

Hello to all herein.
(A wonderful thread, this)
May I join in?
The smells. Yes. The smells.
There was no deodorant when I was a child. Perfume and cologne yes. But most people could not afford any decent brands. Money was tight, particularly in the years preceding the war.
My early personal recollections (New York City in a mixed Italian/Jewish/European community where everyone was very poor and not unaware of it) of the years 1940 and on were those of people smelling "warm". "Yeasty". With overtones of their tobacco. Almost EVERYONE smoked. Lucky Strike, Camel, wings, Sweet Caporal, Chesterfield, and for people who had weak lungs, Kools. A midget dressed like a pageboy in a hotel, "Johnnie" crashed through the glass windows in magazines shouting: "Call for Phillip Morris". Cheap Kaywoodie pipes and tins of cheap and dusty pipe tobacco. Italian "rope" cigars. Soaked in Grappa. God in his Heaven, did they stink.
There was a large disparity in the smells of gum, tobacco and bad breath. Dental hygiene was not considered important, only Clark Gable and Betty Davis we were informed, flossed, by Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, or Jimmy Fiddler on the radio, and the powders, Ipana and Pepsodent were not well scented. Gum was tightly rationed during the war, and we kids got little of it. A substitute gum, Fleer's Dubble Bubble made of pine tar and wrapped in cartoons wrappers were a favorite. Chickle was from an area occupied by the Japanese and highly restricted. The real gum went to the soldiers fighting the war.

Also sweat. People stank a lot. Dry cleaning was very expensive. Washing machines were rudimentary. Clothes got brushed instead. Shoes got shined with lamp black.

Food. Food spoiled much faster and people bought less to prevent that. We had a Smith & Warren Ice Box. An iceman (Rocco Chopelli, an old man at the time) did commeth, twice a week to open our front door after knocking, trudge through the the house into the kitchen with his leather cape over his shoulders and carrying a huge(to me)block of ice, fit it into our icebox, using his picks. He always saved me a sliver of ice. Unflavored but a treasure to a small boy. He would curse Mussolini in Italian, and I copied a few words that got my butt swatted.

But not as bad as when I gave away every pot and pan in the house to metal collectors seekiing scrap for the "war effort", which was EVERYBODY'sresponsibility.
I remember the day of our proudly placing the little white flag with four blue stars vertically on a white background in the front window indicating that our family had four men in service.
And the very bad day when we placed another, but with one Gold star indicating my eldest brother had been killed.
The burning anger of my maternal grandfather because he was not allowed to join the military, because of his age. He later became a translator for interrogators of German POWs, but he felt left out.
My father's shame at not being able to enlist even though he had more than a disqualifying number of children, and a heart murmer. He became a ballif of the Courts, and proudly wore his huge colt .45 revolver, as if he were parachuting into Europe.

Food was simple. The depression was not far in the past and there was no waste. My mother would intone,.."Finish, finish,there are children starving in Europe"

There were too. I was to learn that a significant number of members of my family had indeed starved and died, consumed by Nazi flames during that war. Children whose pictures I knew from photos and the names of cousin this or aunt that. A separate world disappeared.
To this day I cannot leave food on my plate or waste anything. It seems such a shame, although I can well afford to lose a few pounds or bucks.

Enough.
I sincerely hope I have not drafted too much of your thread.
If I have please forgive me. It was greatly interesting to share this with you.