Making a House a Home

Hello Dear Reader,
At first the Hall family used coal oil lamps for light in their old house in Lake Shore. The lamps gave off a dim glow. When they got gas lanterns the light was brighter but the smell was worse. Grandma (Caroline) Hall decided to turn the house into a home. She had little money but bought light-colored paint and wall paper and began decorating. The nesting instinct is strong among the women of our family.

A few years ago Mary wrote a sketch entitled, “Mama’s Project.” In it she told about being her mother’s assistant in papering the living room. Mary brushed each cut paper strip with wheat paste her mother had cooked up, folded the ends of the paper to the middle, put the paper over her shoulder, and climbed a ladder to the scaffold where Caroline was waiting. They carefully unfolded the paper and applied it to the ceiling, something that isn’t done nowadays. Mary held one end of the paper up with a broom as her mother brushed the paper with a wallpaper brush until it adhered. “The walls were easier,” Mary recalled.
Love,
Aunt Genni