Write It On Your Heart

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote:

"Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays."

New Home

 Have you ever given thought to how people actually lived in the not too distant past?  Most of us are unaware of the vast differences in the lives of people who lived just one hundred years ago.  Many of those folk found it necessary to work long hours to earn just enough to provide food and shelter for their families.  Until relatively current times, few people had enough time or money to take any sort of holiday.  Starvation and homelessness was a reality for many who were unable to work.  Many homes in the United States still had dirt floors, no indoor plumbing [running water and bathrooms], no electricity and no central heating as we know it today.  

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Campaign Poster

Perhaps the three most common changes were state involvement in everyday life, the role of women in society which occurred due to military issues and an increase in free time and income which fueled the leisure industry.    

Rising prices along with poor pay resulted in revolts which led to strikes during the 1920’s.  As a result of these dark days, there were shortages of almost everything including food and shelter.  A young “Welfare State” emerged… By the 1940’s, it was the government’s aim to provide the people with a service from the cradle to the grave. The Government taxed the rich heavily and allowed the wages of the poor to rise more quickly.    The 20^th Century saw a marked narrowing of the divide between the very rich and the very poor.  The motor car, mass production and domestic machinery made life earlier for most people.  As the new century began, gas lighting replaced candles.  

 As the 20^th century progressed, more types of leisure activity was available to ordinary people.    Each generation added more to the list as inventions evolved to become necessities. 

WWI Trenches

WWI Gas Masks on Soldiers

 

WWI Gas Mask For Dogs serving on Front Lines

1900-1925

WWI

Airplanes used by military

Automobiles

Road improvements needed for motorized vehicles

Women acquire the right to “Vote”– 18 August 1920

Working men’s unions and clubs

Tea dances

Dance – The Charleston

Music – Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey, etc

Pubs – people met to play dominoes and darts or to singing around a piano

Cinema –Silent films

Movie Stars: Greta Garbo, Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Lillian Gish, William S.  Hart, Buster Keaton, Louise Brooks

Dust Bowl

 1925 – 1950

WWII

Airplanes become larger

University education made possible by G.I. Bill for veterans

Banks offering home mortgages which make home ownership possible for most people.

Dust Bowl in mid-western states

Radio - almost every family owned one

Cinemas – Talking films and newsreels

Community swimming pools

Seaside holidays

Movie Stars – John Wayne, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Jane Russell, Frank Sinatra 

Patsy Cline

 

 

 

Patsy Cline's Plaque

1950 – 1975

Clubs for political and social meetings

Gramophones became small enough to owned by individuals playing 33 1/3, 45 and 78 rpm records

Birth control

Television in almost all homes

American Bandstand – Rock and Roll – Bill Haley and the Comets – “Rock Around the Clock”

Elkton's own, Miss Patsy Cline, inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame

Cars owned by most families

Sports centers offered activities for almost everyone

Movie Stars – Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Ben Johnson, Fabian, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Jeanne Craine, Glenn Ford, Ronald Regan, Richard Gere, David Niven, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Ricky Nelson 

1975 – 2000

Longer holiday seasons result in more travel within the United States, some beginning to take cruises or to travel abroad 

Theme Parks

Dining out

Clubbing

Computers for business and also for the home

 

Journal of Miss Lottie M. Davis - July and August 1933

Journal of Miss Lottie M. Davis

Miss Lottie M. Davis

As we read Miss Lottie’s Journal, there are two major events which we need to take a brief look at in order to more fully appreciate the protection that our beautiful mountains have given to the families who have chosen to live in our Shenandoah Valley.

The first is the Great Depression [1929-1939] which was both the deepest and the longest-lasting downturn in the economic history of the Western industrialized world.   In the United States, The Great Depression started soon after the stock market crashed in October 1929.  This crash wiped out millions of investors sending Wall Street into a major panic, resulting in severe unemployment as failing companies all over America laid off workers. By 1933, some thirteen to fifteen million Americans were unemployed.  Almost one-half of all the banks in the United States failed and were forced to close their doors as they were unable to repay folk, like us, who had deposited money in their banks. In her unassuming manner, Miss Lottie mentions this in her entry for the 4^th of March 1933. She followed with the reopening on the 15^th of March which means banks in the Elkton area were closed for only eleven days while many banks in the rest of the United States were never able to reopen.  The American economy did not recover until after 1939, when the demands of WWII forced industry to produce the needed products.

The second is the Dust Bowl which was the name given to the Great Plains region [one hundred fifty thousand square miles encompassing Oklahoma, the Texas panhandles, neighboring sections of Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico] which was devastated by a severe drought during the 1930’s.  Many members of Valley families had settled in these areas immediately following the War Between the States.  Massive dust clouds [one rose to ten thousand feet and reached as far as New York City] caused by high winds and poor agricultural practices proved to be a very destructive combination.   Cattle choked on the dust, dirt penetrated everything including homes.  The moaning winds caused many folk to lose everything including their sanity. The recurrence of these storms [commonly called black blizzards] wreaked havoc, resulting in driving sixty per cent of the population from the area.  Most folk in other parts of the United States were unable to help their own families which had settled this region due to the foreclosure of many banks during the Depression.  

The Elkton-McGaheysville area is located between the Peaked Mountain [blue
 and near the clouds in the background] and the Blue Ridge in the foreground.

We’ve all heard stories about the lack of jobs and of the many other problems which occurred during the 1930’s; but, Shenandoah Valley residents have normally always had enough food to live, clothing to wear and some form of shelter which provided protection. They have endured many difficulties including a war fought on their own property [military records of most Confederate POW’s cite,” to protect their own property/land” as the reason they joined the Confederate States Army] and living through a period of Marshall Law; however, few ever experienced the horror of starvation faced by many people including immigrants living in our nation’s major cities during the Great Depression.

[Note: New car purchased by Mr. Kyger and trips taken by both Mr. McGuire and Elmore Eula Leap.]

July 1933 – August 1933

July 1933

Page 89

     Jul 1933 – Mrs. John Hooks died age ninety-nine years.

     Jul 1933 – Mr. McCoy died.

16 Jul 1933 –Came home.

  8 Jul 1933 – Mable moved back to Elkton, Va.

17 Jul 1933 – Mrs. Williams died age twenty-one years.  Ruby [Mom] Cole.

17 Jul 1933 – Mr. Kyger new car.

16 Jul 1933 – William Eaton killed.

19 Jul 1933 – Mrs. M.V. Leap died age eighty-nine years.

21 Jul 1933 – Mrs. Leaps funeral at McGaheysville.

11 Jul 1933 – Mrs. Clinton Shifflett new baby.

     Jul 1933 – Pearl Ware new baby.

21 Jul 1933 – Mr. McGuire starts on trip.

14 Jul 1933 – Mrs. Grace Lam operated [on?].

  8 Jul 1933 – Mrs. Bane shot at Shenandoah, Va.

  9 Jul 1933 – Dr. Wright hurt.

22 Jul 1933 – Helen Shifflett and Sanford Winegard married on Saturday.

27 Jul 1933 – Mrs. C. Downs died.

Page 90

23 Jul 1933 – Mr. A. J. Koontz died fifty-seven years old.

18 Jul 1933 – Chus F. began to take lessons. Harmond. [Questions: 1. Was Chus written for Chas – meaning Charles? 2. Was this the same Mr. Harmon who was giving music lessons in the Elkton - McGaheysville area during the early 1950’s?]

24 Jul 1933 – Mr. Jinkins [Jenkins] died age eighty-six years.

26 Jul 1933 – Austin Downey lost job.

28 Jul 1933 – Got coal for winter. $22.98.

18 Jul 1933 – Lee Opal and Gale went over to Lelias. Tuesday.

10,11,12,13 Jul 1933 - Mrs. F.H. Leap visited us.

30 Jul 1933 – Mr. Sam Bontz died at hospital Eighty-two years old.

August 1933

  2 Aug 1933 – Knight girl died.

19 Aug 1933 – Fields Day.

20 Aug 1933 – Elmore Eula Leap take trip.

30 Aug 1933 – Mr. M.H. Harrison divorced.

30 Aug 1933 – Mr. Bernard Lam in hospital.

27 Aug 1933 – Mr. George Lam funeral.