Elmer

That girl sure is in love.

1920s/1930s kitchen, thanks to white wall buick.
~ Dany-145

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 1929 | HI: 62° LOW: 28°

Got up early & made doughnuts. They turned out pretty good too. Katherine called me up & asked me to go to a show with her Wednesday night. That girl sure is in love. Today was Communion Sunday so I went to church. After church Elmer brought me home as usual. I’m getting so tired of him, but he won’t take a hint.

Elmer, Elmer, Elmer . . . I sure hope you can get over her as I know you’re going to have to do. We’ve all known an Elmer, most of us a lot of Elmer’s (now I’ll call them all Elmer from now on). Katherine’s in love. Nice.

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Image Credit: 1920s/1930s kitchen from Library of Congress. Flickr: white wall buick. Some rights reserved.

He wouldn’t buy me anything to eat & I was wild.

The Aldine today, a CVS pharmacy.
~ Dany-145 ~ Leave a comment

FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1929 | HI: 39° LOW: 32°

Elmer came down about 7 P.M. & took me to a show. We went to the Aldine to see “Abie’s Irish Rose.” It was pretty good, but not what I expected. I had read the story & I was rather disappointed. After the show we walked down Chestnut Street & looked in the windows. He wouldn’t buy me anything to eat & I was wild.

Nancy CarrollTwo days ago, Elmer was very nearly a full-blown pest. Today he dropped by and you go to a show with him? The Aldine, now we can start a map of some kind. We know where home is and now where Ethel and Elmer were sitting while watching Abie’s Irish Rose at 7 P.M. on Friday night, January 4, 1929. Starring 25-year-old Nancy Carroll (see Imdb), in what was called at that time a “part talkie,“ and it ran however long “12 film reels“ is, which looks like depends on, duh, frames per second and length in feet.

OK, so WILD? She was mad. He wouldn’t buy her food and she got very angry. I wonder, did he ask her if she wanted food? Or is it that, in the early 1900s, a woman had to hope it was offered, because she shouldn’t ask?

The photo up top, by the way, is Chestnut Street now. The Aldine is now a CVS pharmacy and is the building with the red awnings on the left , before the light.

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Image Credits: Some rights reserved. “At the Racetrack Nancy Carroll photo – photo 5 of 12,” clamshack.

He is getting to be an awful pest.

~ Dany-145

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1929 | HI: 47° LOW: 27°

Mother went out to Aunt Lizzie’s & I went out from work & had dinner there. We staid until about 8 P.M. & then went to Laura’s to see her tree. Will & Uncle Boydie brought us home. When we got home Elmer was there with Harry. He is getting to be an awful pest.
[Note: Another interesting spelling and word: staid (origin: mid 16th cent.: archaic past participle of stay).]

A lot of new names in such a short entry: Mother, Aunt Lizzie, Laura, Will, Uncle Boydie, Elmer, and Harry. Of course for me, Elmer stands out the most as he is “an awful pest.”

In other words: So mom went to Aunt Lizzie’s, and then after work Ethel went there too. After dinner, at 8 P.M., Ethel and her mom (and Aunt Lizzie?) went to Laura’s house to see her tree. Perhaps Will and Uncle Boydie live with Laura and that’s why they drove them home? Or they were part of the collective “we” and were with them at Aunt Lizzie’s? Is “home” Ethel’s house, or her mom’s house, or Aunt Lizzie’s? Wherever home is, Elmer and Harry were there. And of course, Elmer is a pest.

Usually a boy pest, from a girl’s perspective, means he likes Ethel but he’s not taking the hint. Thank goodness Ethel brought up Elmer, more characters means more potential stories to unfold. And I love a good story.