China's Daily Life

I wonder if a hundred years from now women of the day will look back and wonder about their grandma’s life. How did she live? What did she do with her days? What were her financial circumstances, and did it make a huge difference or only a small one to her activities? What about her leisure time--or did she have any?

That’s exactly the same thing I go through when I sit down to write a China Bohannon story.

I only remember bits and pieces about my grandmother when she still lived on the farm, but that’s the kind of routine I think of for China in her daily life. Although China is a city girl in 1896, and my grandmother was a farm wife in the 1950s. My grandparents' farm was probably more primitive than 1896. In fact, I know it was, since they didn’t have inside water  and had to carry it in from the pump house. The bathroom was a one-holer privy set at some distance from the house. One bathed in a tin bathtub, which then needed emptied. Their telephone hung on the wall, was made of oak, and had a crank--and a party line. They did have electric lights, but no refrigerator. Of course the kitchen range burned wood. That’s how they heated the house.

Why so primitive, you may ask? Well, for one thing, my grandfather may have been the cheapest old SOB you ever heard of, especially if it concerned convenience for the womenfolk. Ah, well, we won’t go into that.

In the China Bohannon novels, I  don’t go into much of China’s daily life beyond her work in the Doyle & Howe office, and the cooking of a bare bones meal. I have mentioned a skirt she made for  herself, and maybe a few other articles of clothing. I also mention her shopping for readymades. No real details, though. It’s not because I don’t know how clothing is made⏤I used to make a lot of my own. It’s just that China has more important things to do, like sleuth.

But I can imagine her out chopping wood when Monk or Grat are gone or too busy.  I haven’t put her into a grocery store, either, except a look-in when she’s on the trail of someone. There weren’t grocery stores as we know them, anyway. There were meat markets and bakeries and greengrocers. Milk and dairy was delivered to one’s door. A lot of things we buy at the supermarkets were probably purchased at the general mercantile. Just think how much more difficult and time consuming it was then! And don’t get me started on refrigeration. All China has is an ice box, with ice delivered on a weekly basis. Just think what a chore emptying the drain pans must’ve been. Forget it even for a few hours and you’d have water all over the place to clean up.


To be continued------

Black Crossing is baaaack.

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By the way, the female character's name is Ione, which is pronounced I own. It's also a town in eastern Washington, not far from where I've set the fictional Black Crossing.