Caldwell County MO Archives History .....GOING VISITING IN THE COUNTRY AND TOWN  
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:36 pm

GOING VISITING IN THE COUNTRY AND TOWN IN THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES
	Narrator:  Mrs. Helen Booth, 81, Hamilton

     Mrs. Booth came from town life in Ohio to life in the country when her 
husband Dan Booth brought her as a young wife to a farm in Lovely Ridge, 4 
miles south of Hamilton 1874.  In 1881 they moved to Hamilton, so she has had 
experience in all sorts of visiting.
     In the 70s in the country, visiting was done by the whole family, who got 
into the farm wagon, and without prior notice went to spend the day with a 
neighbor or maybe after the evening chores were done, they went to stay till 
about nine o'clock.  On the night visits, the host would bring up from the 
cellar pans of apples or turnips, or a pitcher of sweet cider, or even bring 
in clean washed raw potatoes to eat with a knife.  They sat solemnly around, 
peeling to see who could get the longest peel, telling past history, present 
doings or crop plans.  They told what they had heard at church in town or 
while doing their trading at stores at Kidder, Cameron or Hamilton.  The 
children were playing in the kitchen.
     When they moved to town, Mrs. Booth found visiting much like her old life 
in the Ohio town.  Formal calling was then at its height.  There were 
unwritten laws which governed the subject.  The new comer waited till she was 
called upon in all cases.  She might be left out a long time or taken up at 
once.  The first call was less than fifteen minutes and must be returned with 
in two weeks.  The callers put on their best clothes and often went in pairs 
and usually were glad when they found women away from home so they could leave 
a card and get more calls made.  It was very improper to start out before 
three o'clock.  No caller ever thought of taking the children along, they were 
left at home, either with hired girls or kind neighbors.
     Big dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years were common among 
one's own clique and the children always ate at a second table.  "At Homes" on 
New Years or Washington's Birthday were popular ways of returning social 
obligations on a large scale, and refreshments at such functions were 
comparatively simple.
     Interview  1934.


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