Lessons for 2020 from 1945 family diary
Upon the April death of my second cousin, Susan Dannreuther, 99, I received the 1945 diary of her mother, Alice Evans Dannreuther. I never knew Alice.
Retyped 40-plus years ago by Susan, the spiral-bound, 121-page diary records a year of momentous national, international, and family news. America celebrated winning WWII on two fronts, Europe and the Pacific. The extended family had sent two to war; one returned.
The diary begins and ends with New York Times editorials. I found Alice’s insights refreshingly relevant for 2020.
Alice, 53, frequently mentioned radio and press reports regarding the European and Pacific fronts. Three radios dotted her Orange, New Jersey, multilevel home. She regarded Eleanor Roosevelt, generals Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas Macarthur, and presidents Franklin Roosevelt (who died April 12) and Harry Truman as heroes.
Besides Alice, those crossing her diary’s pages include:
h Her husband Taylor, a salesman, and Susan, 23
h Clara, Alice’s younger sister, who lived in Minnesota and her three children: Bobby, 24, Peggy, 23, Harry, 20. A year in the life
The year began with Susan studying piano at The Juilliard School in New York City; Peggy, lithe and lovely, working in NYC and visiting Orange frequently. Harry training for an infantry assignment overseas; and Bobby, a paratrooper in Italy, volunteering for daring, clandestine work. Because the nation expected invasion, Alice had prepared by taking Red Cross First Aid training.
During 1945’s winter, Juilliard and New York museums closed because of heating; coal went for steel production. Everybody faced rationing. Citizens received red stamps for food staples. A friend gave Alice black market coupons, but Alice cut them up, writing “I could not get more than my share.”
Despite rationing, Alice proved herself a kitchen marvel. The Dannreuthers entertained often. She described this entrée on March 11: “I had mushroom sauce over a macaroni loaf, in the center of a large silver platter, with piles of peas and carrots alternating around it.”
Each spring Alice took down, washed, ironed, and re-hung organza curtains. Summer days noted her garden’s blooms—blue Siberian iris “at the left fence”—and new plantings, “Rosy Morn petunias”.
Alice and Susan frequently went “to town” (NYC) for a day of window shopping, lunch, and movie. Lunches at Schrafft’s and elsewhere ran about $2.50. Their travel passed through a tunnel that Alice wrote “frightens me with its roaring tubes.”
Alice and Clara corresponded about their mother, a resident at “the P.E.O. home for old ladies in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.” Daily care cost $5. With no extra cash in the household budget, Alice bemoaned her lack of independent money, something common among married women in 1945.
But she economized. By undertaking all the housework and laundry herself, she sent $10/week toward her mother’s care. When the labor proved too taxing for her “wobbly knees,” Alice cut it to $6 a week, hoping someday to make it up to Clara, who contributed much more.
The nation celebrated Victory in Europe Day, May 8
On May 25, the family learned that Harry, a private, was killed in action May 1 in the Philippines. Alice described this winsome family favorite as fey, as the Irish often are. “The light in Harry’s face should have warned us that he was just with us temporarily,” she wrote.
The year progressed. America entered a new era. When handsome, bemedaled Bobby came home, he shared he was part of OSS, Office of Strategic Services; it preceded the CIA. Peggy returned to Minnesota. Susan took Red Cross training, sailed to Japan, and served there for several years. Alice and Taylor became a two-some again.
Alice’s diary reveals a woman of patriotic calmness. Throughout 1945, she carried on—gracefully, elegantly, excellently—doing the tasks at hand. Alice described “one of the greatest blessings in life” as “the every-day, ordinary happenings in a home.”
This year, 2020, is hard for America. Thank you, Alice, for recognizing respite and joy in “every-day, ordinary happenings.”
Robin Gallaher Branch was born after World War II and is the daughter of Bobby and Gwen Gallaher. She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. She can be reached at rbranch3@cbu.edu.