{"id":5724,"date":"2017-12-13T17:37:31","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T17:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=5724"},"modified":"2023-08-07T01:35:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T01:35:52","slug":"09-historically-yours-love-marjorie-knitting-hats-for-strawberries-swearing-at-horses-and-the-circus-comes-to-town-life-in-kansas-in-the-1930s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2017\/12\/13\/09-historically-yours-love-marjorie-knitting-hats-for-strawberries-swearing-at-horses-and-the-circus-comes-to-town-life-in-kansas-in-the-1930s\/","title":{"rendered":"09: Historically Yours: Love, Marjorie; Knitting hats for strawberries, swearing at horses, and the circus comes to town: Life in Kansas in the 1930’s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Living miles apart from your loved ones in the 1930’s a letter was a great way to stay connected. University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science faculty member and author Jennifer Burek Pierce is the guest for episode nine of Historically Yours and reads a fun conversational 1938 letter from Marjorie McVicker (Sutcliffe) to Bill Sutcliffe catching him up on the ins and outs of her daily life telling tales of everything from the weather and pesky lamp miller moths to funny tales from the people in the neighborhood and an account of the circus that came to town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to the podcast<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Download this episode (right click and save)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Guest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Burek Pierce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Letter Citation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Marjorie McVicker (Sutcliffe) to Bill Sutcliffe, 1938
Judith Sutcliffe Papers
IWA0067
Box 16, Folder “Marjorie to Bill, 1938”
Iowa Women’s Archives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Envelope “A few of my pets”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Transcription<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Wednesday Nite<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dearest Bill,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just came home from the circus. It was a perfect evening. Sheldon was a clown in the band. Robert danced in the May Pole dance. There were educated elephants, giraffes, bears, ducks, Indians, cowboys & cowgirls, a merry-go-round with the cutest little horses made out of cardboard – of course the kids were in them for legs – but gee! Was it fun! They had a bazooka animal too, the only one in existence. A Hays City Wells Fargo stage big enough for a little boy.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something has animated this pen until I can\u2019t seem to control it. Don\u2019t know whether \u2018twas the circus or if \u2018tis this lamp miller you wished off onto me. Anyway I\u2019m all prepared & have tried twice already to put an end to it. The first time it accidently flew under the blanket & I didn\u2019t know it was there until I got up for something. Every time I take a bite of Hershey it deliberately stirs up a dust and I don\u2019t like that sort of powdered sugar on my candy. Then I swatted it under the bed and had about one minute of peace. Now it has come back and is \u201ctwo\u201d instead of one. Can\u2019t you invent something practical enough to rid homes of such pests? You\u2019d have more than a \u201cpath to your door\u201d if you did.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you no imagination? This was a Hereford ranch – and they had only two cows to milk – there weren\u2019t enough cows to go around – so that\u2019s where the \u201chalf\u201d came in.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such vicious looking canibals – and such an idea for a hair dress! If only I had known, I would have saved the thigh bone of my fried chicken (Sunday at Feller\u2019s) and re styled my hair. Wouldn\u2019t a wish bone be prettier tho? That tree looked none too comfortable and those knives! Oooh! Wow!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill, I\u2019m so glad you have your router – does it sound like a dentist\u2019s drill? If so, I bet you have goose flesh & chills when you work it. This housecleaning cartoon looks as if they didn\u2019t have enough ink or pressure when it went to press. I wonder if a heaver press would make it darker. I looked for a paper at the college library but guess they don\u2019t get it. However, I saw a Grainfield on there. I don\u2019t want you sending me your clippings for I\u2019m afraid you may need them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the radio ad did you draw something beside the lettering? I suppose you have been sketching Roscoe\u2019s parents and getting a lot of interesting features for the big day & the big issue. Pardon, the familiarity of first names but I couldn\u2019t recall anything but that – However, I now believe it was Coberly or something similar.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is your wheat, etc? It was 28 here Sat. Nite and froze tomatoes, etc. However, Swanson doesn\u2019t believe it hurt any wheat except possibly some Blackbull that was headed out – though he doesn\u2019t fear even that. He had all varieties in his plots and so far has seen no damage. Some Russian thistles turned black. I do hope your watermelon didn\u2019t suffer, and your poor strawberries – I\u2019m going to have to knit them some boots & bonnets.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I planted my pansies on May 7 and so far only one sprout is noticeable. It was a seed that lay on top. Sheldon had to help me, so one box is his planting.  Don\u2019t worry I caught the sand burrs when I sifted the dirt thru my fingers in filling the boxes. Mr. Barry has been sitting up, but is still in the Hospital. May come home this week.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s raining here again. Just as the circus ended at Washington school it began to sprinkle and was raining quite a shower by the time I walked home. I didn\u2019t have a horse either – nor any cows to lead the way.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of horses – \u201cCelly\u201d came to town early Sunday morning when Edmond came after me – and Celly was to ride one of Major Cook\u2019s high class mares and lead the other one out to Feller\u2019s pasture. They both have colts. At 12:30 he hadn\u2019t arrived so JD & Ed went to see why. They found him only a short ways from starting point – in the middle of the road (not highway) he was pulling, pushing & !!!***??? Ed said: \u201cYou Fool, why didn\u2019t you tie them to a fence post and go to a telephone & call us?\u201d Celly used some words I can\u2019t spell & replied, \u201cYear, a fence post within 10 feet & telephone in 100 yards – but do you think I could carry them to a fence post?\u201d Well, results were that we wimmin\u2019 folks waited till 2:30 to eat that fried chicken dinner – and I hadn\u2019t had any Sun. breakfast! Major Cook, you know is the Cavalry man at St. Joseph’s. His horses are superior & well trained.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Went to the Star theatre last nite to see David Copperfield. They had a short on cooking – and I learned if you pour salt over the hole in a broken egg the innards won\u2019t boil out in the water. Also if you pour boiling water over tuna fish in a colander the fishy taste and odor is removed. I can hardly wait to see if it works on herring too. There were several other practical things in the picture. I just wonder if they\u2019ll work.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I took your advise & plinked down 16.50 for a pair of owl eyes – no joking, the pink linen wiper that came with the case has an owl printed beside the motto or slogan.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But am I having fun trying to remember to look through them instead of at them. And she told me I was far-sighted – so I’m expecting to hear you say “copy-cat.” They make me look quite sophisticated – only I can’t draw my picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to see how good they were I made myself a new blouse – all by hand – and found the cutest little white button with tiny flowers painted on them. I’ll put in a scrap of material. Would send a button but am afraid you’d lose it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill did you ever watch a magician – if so, perhaps you know – there can be no magic unless someone waves a magic wand. And that’s what you have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning a mocking bird sang outside my window to awaken me. Then as I went to breakfast one sang as I walked down the alley and when i went to work – another was outside my office window. Could it have been the same one – or is all the world filled with melodious singers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did the little turkeys pick the dandelions for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love Marjorie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. The pansies sprouted over night + are coming up this morning. It didn’t rain much last nite but is awfully cloudy this morning.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living miles apart from your loved ones in the 1930’s a letter was a great way to stay connected. University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science faculty member and author Jennifer Burek Pierce is the guest for episode nine of Historically Yours and reads a fun conversational 1938 letter from Marjorie McVicker (Sutcliffe) toContinue reading “09: Historically Yours: Love, Marjorie; Knitting hats for strawberries, swearing at horses, and the circus comes to town: Life in Kansas in the 1930’s”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":5744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[449,481,483,482],"syndication":[435],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5724"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7647,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions\/7647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5724"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=5724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}