SEGMENT: FARMHOUSE
Lucile Daniels Kirby>UIS Collection K-M>UIS Collection K-M, Segment 3
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- FARMHOUSE
- Moved to great-grandfather's 1800's farmhouse in Illinois when she was 12. Father began to buy farms to flip. First telephone was installed in December 1903. Used the phone to talk or to listen to neighbors' gossip. Husband's family got phones before 1903. Recalls her husband's grandfather's reaction to the telephone. Had a kitchen built on a long porch with a lamp shelf, a shelf on which you kept your nice lamps. Made breakfast for the men every morning, had a carpet sweeper that didn't work later on, and had to sweep and mop. Washed windows with coal oil, ammonia, or vinegar. Had straw matting under the rugs on the floor, and had to pull up the rugs to clean them and get all the dust out. If she visited her mother in Petersburg, she first had to make dinner, wash dishes, and get a horse ready from the barn or have a man do it for her. Had to hook the horse up to a buggy and drive an hour, although she would write speeches on those trips. She would sometimes take their foster son with and see movies starring Mary Pickford. Got their first car in 1917.