Old Photos and Attic Treasures

"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
--Edward O. Wilson (Courtesy of Jim Reed)

I think it was about 1907 when Daddy Doll got modern ideas, inspired by a modest inheritance from his step-father. He spent all the money installing electric lights and other prototypical monstrosities. Even a bathroom. The Dresden chamber-pot in the photograph used to reside in the guest room armoire, and Saturday baths took place in the washtub.

 This was Camilla at about that time, at age three or four,

and this was Kenya the cook making breakfast on the wood-burning range.

Up to that time, Cook thought she ruled the house, because she was the only one there who could even safely boil water. But when a gas stove--and later even an electric one--was brought in, she found that nobody listened to her protests. The only way she could make an impression was to resign. Temporarily. The wood stove went to the attic, anyway.

Cook stayed with her sister in another town for a month. Mama didn't know how to cook, and all Daddy could make was fried pies. Sometimes he forgot to poke holes in the dough, the pies would explode, and the kitchen would get decorated with hot boiled apricots or canned hash. He tried to make biscuits, but they turned out so hard, even the dogs turned up their noses.

The pretty bassinet in the attic was used for both Camilla and little Dolores/Dolly. But Peter weighed nearly twelve pounds at birth, and he had to have a bigger cradle. The portrait is thought to be of someone's maiden aunt, but all that is remembered of her is that she was called Dovie.

*

I watched "Amadeus" last night. The Mozart concerto, a link to which is in the left column of this blog, is the most beautiful piece of music ever created, I say. And I haven't even heard them all.