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Ramona's Ramblings

Grandma’s diary May 1913

Ramona Jan
Posted 5/10/22

My grandmother, Lina Dreher, was sixteen when she kept this diary. Her father (my great grandfather, an immigrant to this country) was a talented German baker who rescued bakeries in NYC and NJ, and …

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Ramona's Ramblings

Grandma’s diary May 1913

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My grandmother, Lina Dreher, was sixteen when she kept this diary. Her father (my great grandfather, an immigrant to this country) was a talented German baker who rescued bakeries in NYC and NJ, and then sold them for a profit, which meant moving the family of eight siblings each time a new bakery was bought, sold or traded. Lina and siblings, Joe, Tillie, Hattie, Mary, Helen and Fred, attended school and worked in each successive bakery.

May 3rd

Hattie and I each got a new dress. Hattie’s is a white serge Bulgarian dress, it fits her fine. And mine is a light tan silk voile with a ruffled lace collar. We paid seven dollars apiece for them. This is the first new dress I got in almost two years. I’m getting my last year’s summer hat remodeled for Sunday wear.

May 4th

Joe, Hattie, Mary, Helen, Fred and I went to SoHo [NYC] today. We used to live there. [Location of the first family bakery]. We picked white and purple violets, dog flowers, Pinkster blossoms, wild geraniums and a few other kinds of flowers the names of which I do not know.

May 5th

Three men were here talking about buying our business [then located in Newark, NJ]. Or exchange our business for a small bakery and a house worth $2,000. So now you can see how high we have raised ourselves. Why, we paid eight or nine hundred for the place and we didn’t make a cent for the first six months, and now we have machinery and everything new, and still about five hundred clear in the bank.

May 6th

It’s all cut and dried, as you call it, about the exchange. Joe and Papa went to look at the bakery today and Joe’s stuck on it. It’s a very nice place only that there isn’t much trade. And this, Joe says, is on account of the way the goods is baked. As Papa is a good baker, we are quite sure to pick up the business.

May 7th

Oh dear! I thought it was all settled about the exchange! All the leases and so forth were all settled, but now at the last minute when we started to pack, the other landlord demanded a security on the lease. Now that is nervy, isn’t it?

May 9th

Filled the jelly doughnuts for the last time today [in Newark]. Gee, I never thought it all would end so soon. Good news! The doctor said the air in Orange, [NJ] where our new place is better for Em. [Emily has tuberculosis]. Tomorrow I am going to the new place to be ‘broken in’ as they call it.

May 10th

The new place is dandy! They have tables and chairs and plenty of room so we have decided to put [ice] cream, soda and candy in if the bakery pays.

May 11th

Today we packed up some of our things. We have eight light, airy rooms at 76 Park St., corner Elm, top floor over a butcher and [Graulich’s] grocery store. The rent is $26 per month. There is also a bathroom and steam heat. We haven’t had a decent wash in two years.

May 12th

Most of the people whom we tell of the change we are about to make, seem disappointed, and a few of them gave us their addresses, and took ours. While others who are familiar with Orange promised to stop in to see us.

May 13th

Well, we’re all in a mix up now. Whenever you want something, it’s packed up.

May 14th

My first day in the new store. It’s a fine up-to-date store, but hardly any business going on. Well, I sat around till twelve o’clock p.m. then I tended store till the other party got out and then cleaned behind the counters. Ugh! It was so dirty! Took in $4.48 and in [our old] store they must have taken in $40. Just imagine the difference.

To be continued…

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