Grandpa Wessman's Letter Part 3

DURING THE 1920’s AND 1930’s, WHAT DID YOUR FAMILY DO FOR ENTERTAINMENT?

Due to our large family, we spent most of our time being associated with each other, and likewise, due to the frequent moving of our family, we had plenty of friends with each other in the family. Some of us would acquire a neighborhood pal here or there on occasion. But mostly we were associated together with family-members. We the boys liked to play with marbles, tops, or other toys, and we did so considerably. We liked to go to the movies; our father and mother encouraged us to go to these, as they were very interesting and enjoyable. First of all, the movies were the silent type; however late 1928 and during 1929, most of the theaters acquired sound equipment so the new sound movies were available. We enjoyed this improvement tremendously. As a family, we did many things together. One of the principal ones was learning to swim. Our father was a remarkable swimmer, and he felt that we should all learn to swim as soon as possible. He used to take us swimming very often, and he taught us many things about being a good swimmer. If we became discouraged about our swimming, he used to demonstrate to us how much we could learn by his swimming very fast or by swimming underwater from one end of the pool to the other. We would then continue to improve our own swimming. We used to go to see local parades on holidays or other occasions, and we used to go to the canyons often for family picnics. Going for family over-night sleeping was very seldom, as it was too difficult to take a large family with many blankets for such events. We liked to play games with each other--out in the front yard, or in the house with card games, checker games, or other commercial games which we received for Christmas or birthdays. We all enjoyed reading books, and used to do a lot of it, as well as reading newspapers.


WHAT WERE SOME PRANKS YOU PULLED ON APRIL FOOLS OR HALLOWEEN?

I do not remember the April Fool pranks particularly, but the Halloween events I can remember. My older brothers took me with them when I was quite young, but at that time we spent our efforts in ringing people’s doorbells, then running and hiding so that the person answering the door would find no one there. We used to laugh with each other when we saw the door open then slam shut. Another favorite was to try to place a tin can full of water on someone’s screen door so that when someone opened the door the person opening the door would become splashed upon. That usually wasn’t very effective--we probably got splashed upon more ourselves while we were attempting to place the tin can upon the top of the door.


HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU GOT YOUR FIRST JOB, AND WHAT WAS IT?

I have previously answered this question earlier in my notes herein.