Thursday Was very busy this forenoon
fixing work for Ellen cut out a corded skirt for her
to make for Susan Have been this after
noon to Alsons with Mr Ames & Mrs Stevens
met Augustus & wife & Miss Eddy had quite
a treat of peaches plumbs &c came home quite
early in the evening The weather still
continues to be hot
Ah, harvest. This time of year brought a short-lived abundance of fresh fruit, “peaches, plumbs &c.” “[Q]uite a treat” Evelina sighed, perhaps with the scent of peaches still on her fingers as she wrote. She, Oakes and guest Mrs. Stevens had met up with nephew Augustus, his wife Henrietta and another visitor, Miss Eddy, at the family farm south of the village. Now run by her brother Alson Gilmore, it was the farm where she grew up. Perhaps the annual harvest from the family orchard reminded her of her childhood.
While the fruit was delightful, the hot weather was not. It’s difficult to imagine how hot Evelina must have been when she spent much of her morning cutting out corduroy. “Corded” cloth was heavy, and not easy to cut, either. She wanted one of the servant girls, Ellen, to sew the skirt for daughter Susie. She was already thinking ahead to the fall and winter, perhaps; maybe she thought of winter as she cut along and stayed cool that way.
Evelina’s entry on this date was written exactly 150 years before our modern catastrophe, 9/11/2001. Unimaginable then and still.
evelinaames 