I’ve been cleaning out my house of a lot of memorabilia from the olden days. I seem to have accumulated a lot of things from my mother and two aunts and through them from my grandmother. And with this accumulation of things I have a lot of memories to share about the olden days.
One of the items that I found during my cleaning was a set of glass muffs. What are glass muffs, you might be asking? It is with the telling of these glass muffs that I can give you a glimpse of the time before Social Security and the plight of the people during the Great Depression of 1929.
The Great Depression – 1929
Since I wasn’t born until 1935, what I remember is the aftermath and stories from my family from the time before, but my grandparents were victims of that depression. They lost the family farm on which they had raised their family of five children. After the loss of the farm, my grandfather committed suicide because he was no longer able to support himself and his wife. At the time, all of the children had reached maturity.
My father was the youngest of the five. In 1929, he had just turned 21 and had begun his career in sales. My grandparents’ family consisted of two boys and three girls. Raymond was the oldest, with three sisters between Ray and my Dad, Orrin Kenneth. My Dad was known as Dutch and by his interesting initials – OK. The sisters were from the eldest down: Edna, Ruth, and Bernice (called Betty).
When the family lost the farm the only thing to do was to move in with their children. And after my grandfather’s death, my penniless grandmother relied on lodging with her five children. She would stay with each of them for one or two months each year.
Entertainment in the Olden Days
It was when she came to stay with our family that the story of the glass muff began. During that time (before TV) married couples would hold Saturday night card games with friends. My parents played bridge, which required four players – two couples. Sometimes they would have two tables of bridge and invite three other couples. A total of eight players. For refreshments during the games, drinks (highballs) would be served. Keeping track of each person’s glass during refills was difficult until Grandma began making glass muffs.
The glass muffs were crocheted with cotton yarn and were made in contrasting colors. A solid red and a white trimmed in red. A solid green and a white trimmed in green. And likewise with the colors of blue and yellow. Hence, each player had a unique glass muff. They fit snugly onto a 8 or 10-ounce drinking glass. As an aside, many of those glasses were “recycled” from containers that contained cottage cheese delivered by the milk man.
Glass Muffs Income in the Olden Days
The glass muffs became a small “industry” for my grandmother, who had no source of income other than money given to her by her children. The glass muffs were popular with all of the bridge crowd, and I have no idea how many she made over the years. What brought this whole story to mind was that I found a set of class muffs when I was cleaning out “stuff”.
With this story in mind, I could not put them into the Goodwill box. They will go back into the cedar chest with other items I just cannot throw away. It will be up to my granddaughter to keep or dispose of them after I am gone. Hopefully, after reading this she will keep them to pass on down to the next generation.
In thinking about this story, I also began to think about how important our social security of today is. Without it, I too would be dependent on living with my only son for lodging and nourishment.
The Start of Social Security
The beginning of Social Security came just before my time, created by the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The concept was pretty simple yet unique. With each working person depositing a small amount of their paycheck into a fund to pay those too old to work with a small income. As the younger population expanded, the amount put into that fund exceeded the demand for payment to the elderly. However, now with people living to older ages, the fund is having a hard time keeping up with the demand.
Now, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, with so many younger people out of work, hence not paying into the fund, and elderly people still receiving their monthly check, things are out of balance. The fund is vital for the survival of a large population in the country. The government also, over the years, has borrowed from the fund for other needs. I pray that there will be a plan to recover the funds to keep this wonderful concept of FDR’s for the future.
The First President I Remember from The Olden Days
FDR is the first president I remember. I was born in 1935. My first memory was hearing him announce the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the radio. I’ve documented this memory on another blog page called Pearl Harbor Remembered. You can click on these underlined words to read that page if you’d like to. I was about seven at the time and after that time, I remember things about the Second World War up until VJ Day. I remember the food rationing, the air raid drills in school, and the news of balloons and things reaching the West Coast. Since we lived on the East Coast, these were not frightening to me.
I remember the neighbor across the street who had sons in the war and the loss of some of them. It was a time to remember. But my best memories are of the times when Grandma came to stay with us. I learned so much from her, beginning with how to do embroidering.
I think in the cedar chest there is one of my first hand towel attempts. She also taught me to crochet and knit, but I never learned to make the glass muffs. She also taught me to cook. One of her creations that I still make today is Spaetzels. These are noodle-type creations that we always serve with Pork and Sauerkraut. She didn’t measure, and neither do I. See the recipe by clicking here.
Blogging with Rory
I am so glad that I have learned to create blog pages and am able to record these memories in my blog pages. But the main purpose of my blogging originally was to do online marketing. I now have over 200 published pages. Some of them offer super great products that have been brought to us by our mentor, Rory Ricord. These products have all been tried by members of our PBS family. PBS stands for Professional Blogging System.
You might be interested in trying some of these products for skin treatment, and recently the healthy energy booster. There are also clothing sites on my pages as well as unique adventures that make amazing gifts. Please bookmark this website and come back often to see what else new we’ve added. And you can receive email notifications of new stuff by leaving your name and email address on the form that appears on the right of this page.