For entertainment my grandma played with her sisters and the occasional neighbor friends. She and her sisters would get one doll and a trunk for doll clothes for Christmas. They would make the clothes for their dolls and play with them all year. One time my grandma's friend from next door broke her doll. My grandma said that girl never touched her dolls again! My grandma would only play dolls with her sisters for a little while because she would rather be outside playing with the animals or climbing trees. If her mother could not find her all she had to do was look up the nearest tree. My grandma and her sisters also liked to make mud pies and play soup on their wood burning stove. She liked to make paper dolls to play with also. .
My grandma does not remember her parents disliking the president, Herbert Hoover. They were not drastically affected by the Great Depression. She did remember that her parents helped out the neighboring families that were not as fortunate as they were. One significant sign of hard times for my grandma was she remembered one of her brothers having to come home from college because her parents could not afford the expense after the Great Depression hit.
I was telling my mother about the interesting stories from interviewing my grandma and my mother remembered some things my grandma left out! I learned that my great grandpa died from cancer when my grandma was only nine years old. When he was bedridden and not able to shave his face, he would let my grandma shave him. She felt very honored that he trusted her to do so much. My mother said that my grandma remembered shaving his face and how gentle she had to be with him because his face would bleed easily, especially the sicker he got. During my great grandpa's illness, he had to sell all the land, except for 100 acres, for the needed income. My great grandma never remarried. She raised all five girls by herself, the boys were already grown.