~ Boyd County, Nebraska
September 6, 1920: Was a nice day all day. C. E.’s [Chicken Eater’s] Little Sow had 7 nice little pigs Saturday morning. Will and Howard got corn and raked in forenoon our hay and in p.m. we put up a stack as I helped drive stacker team. Mr. B. was feeling bad, and in the evening I got so sick, so we had poached eggs, potatoes and Post Toasties as I couldn’t’ stand to cook meat or much else.
~ Hidden Timber, South Dakota
September 6, 1931, Sunday: Bright, real hot day. Will chored and I got breakfast, and Will and I went to Ben’s and Ed’s and got cucumbers and watermelons, and Wm and Leo tried to catch Tennessee, and Molly kicked Leo, so they didn’t go to Dave’s, but visited with Arnold and Alf Ross awhile in a.m.
Louise, Harry Buster, Calvin and Harley came, and Louise helped me get dinner, then we all went to Hidden Timber, and no Kewanee game, so just men and boys around here played, and Roundys, us and Tates mostly visited, and when we got home, Ed was here, so Wm and he butchered a small hog and finished late. Ed took Rena, Charlotte, Clarence, Edward and Yvonne home in our car and came back at midnight, and went on to hay-camp on horseback, for Leo, Wm and Lemoyne took the wagons after supper. Narvin Boyd came and went to Hidden Timber, but his father got him.
September 6, 1934, Thursday: Cold night, bright, nice, frost in places Sunday night and again last night. In fact, a wonderful day. Maggie got the meals and all the other necessary work and washed the clothes and they dried nicely. I mended and hemmed dish-towels and made a cover for new lard out of tobacco sacks. This is to keep odors away from the lard, and made out orders to Sears and Montgomery Ward and Company, and played solitaire.
Elmer Fritz and Will stacked thistles on Nobles’ Place and had to get Pierce’s sweep, for our push-sweep wouldn’t work.
September 6, 1936, Sunday: Rained in a.m., but bright, real nice in afternoon. Will got a young fry of our own, so I cooked it for dinner, and Will took Thomas and Lemoyne to Hidden Timber to go to O’Kreek to the ball-game, but they went to Carr’s Dam to swim instead, for Ben, Will and I went to Hill’s pasture and looked for grapes, but there were none. We came to Furreys, got melons and 1 prairie chicken and pheasants on Moore Creek, they were wild.
September 6, 1939, Wednesday: Cloudy early forenoon, bright, very hot in the day. Narvin got back at about 9 p.m., just as we went to bed last night, so he rode this forenoon and stopped at Wm Abbotts, where he is batching. Delores and Billie to school. Mrs. and Cora Ann are with her Mother since the funeral of Mr. Wm Anderson, he father, at Winner last Friday.
Will puttied and fixed the barn and coop windows, and he and Narvin painted east side of the barn white in p.m. I got meals, fried a chicken, wrote in diary and played solitaire.
September 6, 1947, Saturday: Bright, warm day and some clouds late p.m., but clear again and no rain. Levi got in water, and I heated a boiler full by putting in small kettles on the oil-stove, so when Will got back from Mission, he put the motor back on the machine. The men had used it to sharpen sickles the last 2 or 3 weeks as the other motor went bum. We put warm water in the washer, washed sheets, pillow slips, nightgowns, blankets and quilts, and Will hung them on the line, then we washed the main washing through cold then hot water, and Will got in things from the line as it was getting cloudy, and he left to see where Levi was, as Will took him to Mission this morning. He came right back to get water and do his jobs at washing clothes, and Levi was bring the Model A motor for the sweep. Levi ran in the ditch near Hungers on the south highway that we take going west, south of Fasts to Mission, Valentine Road. He walked to Hungers, no one home, came back to Model A and someone came along and pulled him out of the ditch to the road, charged him $1.00, so Will met him coming near Van Epps. When Will got back, he got in wrinch water. I put clothes through and Will mowed yard, then put clothes on the line for the night.
September 6, 1954, Monday: Labor day is bright and warm, so Will did his chores. Got car to the door. I baked cookies and fried chicken and mixed potato salad. Put dishes in box, bread, cookies, coffee with cream and black, and ice-water, and ice in tub in large pieces in roaster. We took a 1 gallon jug of water, and Parkers were ready.
Went to Winner via west road to 18 highway, and Dave got pop and put it in the tub with ice. We parked along 18, west of Lutheran Church, south side of road facing north, so had a nice place to wait for the parade.