Ice Box

Photos taken inside the Hobart Historical Society museum.

There's simple classic beauty in this cabinet, though I wish I could have seen it when it was new:


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The manufacturer's label tells you everything except what this thing is.



The McDougall Co. manufactured various models of useful kitchen furniture.

However, open up the top door and look at the heavy insulation on its interior surface …



… I think we've got ourselves an ice box here. This compartment would hold the block of ice, carried in by the iceman's tongs there.

The lower compartment, with an equally insulated door, would hold the perishables — though this one now holds imperishables.



At the bottom, a hinged panel that probably hid the pan that caught the dripping water as the block of ice slowly melted. Some small child in the household was charged with emptying out the pan before it overflowed.



Ant's-eye view:



I'm photographically obsessed with these clasps on the door. I can't rest until I've posted an artsy version of one:



… Ah, at last.

Alma Sitzenstock

From the Busse autograph collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

We last met the lovely Alma on the occasion of her marriage to George Busselburg in November 1919. This signature dates to nearly 11 years before, when she was a schoolgirl of about 12 or 13.

Searching around the internet for this little poem, I find several variations on the third line, including "Remember the boy you kissed at the gate," and all those variations are from autograph albums. So it was an old reliable workhorse.

Maisy and Kittens Update

The kittens are nearly two weeks old. Their eyes are open and they are starting to take an interest in their surroundings. Inside their nesting box, they can manage a few wobbly steps before they fall over.

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They are very difficult to photograph individually, being mostly dark kittens in dark weather and a room that's not exceptionally well lit. Here's Cookie:


They are all cute and adorable, and massive time-wasters.

Racing News, and the Boys with the Yellow Paint

The Hobart Motorcycle Club was confident enough to place this ad in the News ten days before the scheduled race although, according to the Gazette, its members were still working to get the new track ready — the "low places [were] being tiled and the grading [was] progressing."

Three days before the race, the News reported that the work was nearly done: all topsoil had been removed, the curves were banked properly, and the three-quarter-mile track would indeed be ready for the races on Decoration Day, 1920.

The town's memorial ceremony was scheduled for 1:30 p.m., so the races' 2:30 p.m. starting time would allow people to engage in solemn remembrance and then go have fun.

And indeed they did have fun. The racetrack's opening day was a great success.


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It's not that I think you're interested in all the details of the race, Dear Reader; I just wanted an excuse to include that totally irrelevant story about the murderous farmhand.

♦    ♦    ♦
The News of May 20, 1920, which carried the ad shown above, also carried a small and mystifying item in its social column: "It is said that the boys with the yellow paint were at work again one night this week."

That the "boys" had no names and were working at night leads me to speculate that this was a case of vandalism, similar to the events of the autumn of 1918. But if this vandalism was likewise in protest — then in protest of what, I wonder? The war was over, and so were its gasless Sundays and rabid anti-German paranoia; thus there was no excuse, anymore, for denouncing "slackers" or persons of German origin. I wonder if perhaps this time the "boys" were trying to denounce Prohibition-flouters?


Sources:
♦ Advertisement. Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Hobart's New Speedway Will Be Opened Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 27 May 1920.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Motorcycle Races Well Attended." Hobart Gazette 4 June 1920.
♦ "Motorcycle Races Will be Held at 2:30 Sunday, May 30." Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Motorcycle Races." Hobart Gazette 21 May 1920.
♦ "Nearly 5,000 See Motorcycle Races Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 3 June 1920.

Hand Embroidery

Photos taken inside the Hobart Historical Society museum.

I'm old enough to remember when your sheets and pillowcases were not 400-count Egyptian cotton in colors like Celery and Plum. Nope, they were white. All of them. To make them pretty, you (meaning the women and girls of the house) embroidered designs on the edge of the pillowcases. Even I was taught that skill as a youngster.


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That last is from one of a pair of pillow shams.



"Sweet lillies close their leaves at night … and open with the morning light."

Edith Busse

From the Busse autograph collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Sister Edith was the second Busse daughter, after Minnie. The 1910 Census shows her as 18 years old, while Bertha was then 16 and Lena 14. (Minnie, 22, had left home sometime after the 1900 Census.)

Ross Township Graduates

There are several familiar names among the Ross Township graduates — and this was graduation from the eighth grade, not high school; none of these schools (save Merrillville, mentioned at the end of the article) had high-school classes, and a brief check on some of these children shows them in the age range of 12 to 14 years.

This article predicted that the new Ainsworth school would be ready for the next school year, which I suppose means the autumn of 1920.


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You will also notice Charles Goldman's ad, at right.

Here's another ad, in case you were wondering who the local sellers of United States Tires were:




Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Advertisement. Hobart Gazette 21 May 1920.
♦ "Ross Township Schools." Hobart Gazette 21 May 1920.