Life went on at 260 Ovington Avenue. Copies of a
photograph taken in 1936 of Jimmy, Lily and their children were sent to Mavrovo and Kastoria.
And family celebrations continued, like the Easter gathering of the same year
(photo).
Lily was very busy in these years. Women worked hard to take care of their families. Conveniences taken for granted in the year 2001 did not exist in the 1930's.
- Few homes had refrigerators, fewer still freezers. Iceboxes provided a cool environment in which to store food. These were generally made of wood with galvanized metal linings. One hundred pound blocks of ice, delivered every three or four days by horse drawn wagon,
charged the upper half of the unit. Melt water ran down a tube to a catch basin beneath the lower, food storage box, and frequently had to be emptied.
The box at 260 Ovington Avenue was in a vestibule that led to the garden. In the winter the little vestibule room was sealed off from the house by a door to the kitchen, so was quite cold and provided extra storage space for food that was prepared for the holidays. On the day before Christmas large pots of the pork soup, patsa, and pans of stuffed cabbage could be found on the floor and shelves.
- There were no diaper services or disposable diapers; and there were few washing machines. Diapers were washed by hand in great wash tubs, and hung to dry in the basement, if one were lucky, or on rooftops, or on fire escapes, or outside windows. The rest of the family laundry was washed and dried the same way.
- Coal furnaces provided hot water heating. The coal used was anthracite, which burned efficiently and minimized coal dust. No matter, there was still both black smoke and dust. Fueling the furnace and removing ash were constant chores.
- Baby food was prepared at home. There were no jars filled with prepared baby food lining market shelves, ready to buy, take home, heat and serve. Meat, for example, was chopped, boiled and mashed for the young ones.
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