Jane’s Notes: Mom takes a break from writing in her diary at this point. We’ll pick up the story a week from tomorrow on August 27th. In the meantime I’ll quote from another document I inherited that Mom wrote beginning in 1978, then put it down for four years and picked it up again in 1928. Dad found the narrative, which recounts the story of her land her parents lives in Manila, three years after her death and put it with the other papers. Here she talks about servants.
“When I think of the early years of my parents marriage in Manila I can’t help but imagine what a glamourous life it must have seemed to a girl raised on a farm in Iowa. It was a very cosmopolitan life. Many of her friends were English women (colonials) who observed the manners of high society. Exchanging calls and calling cards (there were strict rules about how many cards you left, your own & your husbands even tho’ he didn’t go with you). They entertained at tea parties. There was an abundance of servants because help was very inexpensive. Many of them lived in, so they were furnished with food and housing and a small salary. They were anxious to work for the Americans and the English because they could learn a skill.”
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