Weekend Words

My Diary - 1883 - Sarah Jane S.

November 21 - Pa came home this morning with prairie chickens for dinner tomorrow.  Ma said we will have a feast.  She started cooking yesterday and Pa said he couldn't stack wood as fast as Ma could use it.  We are going to have lots of company.  Mr and Mrs Logan and Charity are coming.  Ma says Mrs Logan makes the best cream layer cake ever.  Mr Turner and Harriet and Hiram are coming.  Pa said Mr Turner had a ham to bring.  I hope they bring their checker game.  I have to get up early tomorrow to help Ma with the rolls for dinner.

November 23 - We had a good Thanksgiving.  I wish Aunt Ivy and Uncle Henry and Gramma and Granpa could have come.  Then it would have been perfect.  All the food was so good.  Pa read from the Bible a long time and I was so hungry and I could smell food.  Pa and Mr Turner and Mr Logan went outside after dinner.  Ma and Mrs Logan washed up the dishes, so I played checkers with Hiram.  I would have won but Molly grabbed the checkers and we couldn't remember where to put them.  I sat on Pa's lap when he played checkers with Mr Turner and Pa won.  Mr Logan started singing.  He knows so many songs.  I wish I could remember some of them.  When we were singing Muffie ate some of the chicken.  I was afraid Ma would smack her but she just laughed and said it was Thanksgiving for cats too.  I am sorry Thanksgiving is over but Christmas is coming.

(From the Prairie - A Child's Memories by Joan Vibert and Linda Brannock)