My Grandmother kept a ledger of all expenses including car expenses. The car expenses were listed on the ledger’s opening page. In January 1940, my grandfather had 45,600 miles on his car. On January 8th of that year, my grandfather purchased a ½ year license for $5.15, and later that year, brake expenses were listed at .96, sparkplugs .87, hose for oil change .10, and gas was 20 cents a gallon.
My grandmother’s ledger held more than facts and figures. Not only did it show money coming in and going out, but it also held recipes, songs, poems, dates of births, deaths, and marriages. In essence, it contained the things that were important to my grandmother.
For instance, on the page following car expenses was a lengthy poem called “The Sun was Sinking in the West.” I have researched this poem, and there are poems and songs with that name and from that era and before, but I cannot find any that are exactly like my Grandmother’s. Other lengthy poems in the ledger are titled, “The Boy that Wore the Blue,” and “The Deserter.” Again, in researching these titles, none are exactly like what is written in my Grandmother’s ledger. I found another poem or ballad called “The Pride of Glencoe.” It’s a beautifully written Scottish poem similar to what I found in my research, although there are subtle differences. It makes me wonder if my Grandmother changed the original poems and made them more personal. Knowing my grandmother, this wouldn’t surprise me one bit. She loved poetry, and I can see her taking those beautifully written poems and adding her special touch making them more personal.
After my Grandmother died in 1990, I was given an envelope with scraps of paper that held poetry that my grandmother had written. Nobody knew she loved to write. This is one of the reasons why I think she may have changed those original poems in her ledger and made them more to her liking.
I love history, and my grandmother’s ledger holds a certain charm. Maybe because my grandmother was special to me, and seeing her penmanship and notes, reminds me of happier times. It’s a well-cherished gift wrapped up in pages of facts, figures, thoughts, and so much more. She left a piece of history to enjoy. It paints a picture of my grandmother in the early to mid-1900s. It also gives a glimpse of what a few things cost during those years in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
The thing about ledgers, especially ones from earlier times, is that they tell a story. With a little help from memories and imagination, the story unfolds. A story of what life was like in days gone by. Having spent so much of my childhood with my grandmother this ledger represents her life during those early years before I was born. I can almost see her writing those entries. I feel like I am standing right beside her.
Below are some prices of goods and services found in her ledger. I picked random months and years. The children’s clothes were purchased for my Mom, aunt, and uncle. My grandmother was a child in 1911, and I can only surmise the ledger originally belonged to her parents.
February 1911
Graham crackers .10, bag of potatoes .18, pork hocks .25, can of lobster .40, sugar .25, and salt .05.
June 1937
Electric bill .72, Kodak film .30, insurance 1.02, pair of bloomers .10, postage stamps .09, girls dress .62, bottle of shoe polish .10, package of envelopes .05.
January 1938
Meat and tomatoes .62, storm windows 5.89, children’s mittens 1.22, milk and tomatoes .37, meat, coffee, and milk .93, insurance 2.34.
August 1938
Soo Sand and Gravel (basement) 7.65. preserving kettle 1.39, preserving dipper .26, two bushels of peaches 6.00.
April 09, 1940 – Mail Order
Shoulder brace 1.00, 10 yds. cotton broadcloth .90, two-tone hat 1.98, 4 pairs of bloomers .76, boys trousers 1.99.
There are several entries of relatives, coming and going, along with their arrival and departure dates, and when their trunks were shipped. There are birth dates and dates of the passing of loved ones. There are also notations where cemetery plots are located. Not everyone could afford tombstones back then so it was important to know the location of the plot. Most of the entries are from the Depression years and the beginning of WWII.
Her ledger also contains recipes for Jelly Roll Cake, Cream Puffs, Spice Cake, Doughnuts, Eagle Cake, and Molasses Cookies, to name just a few. The Molasses Cookie recipe was one of her favorites. As a child and young adult, I remember sitting at her dining room table and eating one or two. She sprinkled white sugar on top which made them sweeter. All the ingredients are listed, but there are no instructions on how the ingredients are added or mixed. Also, no temperature or baking time is included. This is back in the day when many people had wood stoves. Like others, Grandma knew how to mix and incorporate the ingredients and how much to stoke the fire to get it to the right temperature to bake the cookies. I picture my Grandmother in her house dress, bib apron, sensible oxford shoes, and her hair in a bun covered in a net standing over that hot wood-burning stove with a tea kettle on top.
I wish I could sketch and draw. I would love to bring the pages to life for everyone to see what I do through my memories and imagination. What I love about Grandma’s ledger is that parts of it read like a journal. I have been keeping journals for many years and there are instances where they similarly read like my Grandma’s ledger. My journals were written before I became aware of hers, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that we were alike in many ways.
If my grandmother were here today, I’m not sure she would want me to share the ledger’s contents. I think she would find it an invasion of privacy. I don’t know that for sure, but one thing I do know is that she wouldn’t have wanted me to share those unmentionables (bloomers). She would have been highly embarrassed. But the thing is, that’s some of what makes her ledger come alive. It’s those little things that we know nothing about in today’s world, that bring smiles to our faces.
I try to picture where she sat as she entered figures and wrote poems. I wonder too, where she kept the ledger. I’m sure she didn’t keep it lying around for anyone to pick up and look through. Maybe she kept it in the bedroom, a wardrobe, or maybe on the built-in bookcase in the dining room, hidden among classics of Edgar Allan Poe and Thoreau.
But wherever it was kept, I am sure that Grandma never expected it to be shared all these years later. Maybe she would have smiled about having its contents shared, after all. Minus the bloomers, of course.
Written by: Laurie Davis
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OMG …. I love this story about grandma. I didn’t know she kept a journal. And the prices back then, they probably thought was expensive. As I read your story, I picture grandma making those cookies, stoking that fire in the stove and the tea kettle on top of the stove. Thanks for sharing this wonderful memory of her.