Annie's "Say
Good Night" Routine
Good
night, Kitchen!
Say "good night"
to your kitchen and your kitchen will say "good morning" to
you.
By Doug Boilesen
Say "good night"
to your kitchen and your kitchen will say "good morning" to
you was a saying of Anna
("Annie") Ender Vogt Barr, Betty Ann's mother and my grandmother.
Anna Ellen Ender
was born April 7, 1884 and lived all of her life in Howard county,
Nebraska. She grew up learning the importance of not procrastinating.
If she cleaned up her kitchen at night she knew that her morning
would be much easier. She was a good cook and I have fond memories
of her baking loaves of bread and pans of cinnamon rolls in
her wood-burning oven.
Anna married Frank
Vogt on December 28, 1900. Their kitchen in a farmhouse outside
Elba, Nebraska was typical for its time: a dry sink (wooden)
with no drain so water would need to be pumped into a pan to
do the dishes and then thrown outside when it was dirty; a wood
burning stove for cooking and for a kettle to boil water for
rinsing the washed dishes or for the tub where a bath could
be taken in the kitchen; no electricity until 1934 so evening
activities were done by the light of oil lamps and lanterns;
no washing machine for the beddings and clothes; no dryer so
in the winter everything would hang to dry in the kitchen; no
refrigerator, but there was a root cellar for storage of some
foods and an ice house; no phonograph for entertainment and
no radio until the late 1920's.
Anna's parents, my
great-grandparent Enders who homesteaded in Nebraska in 1872,
had spent their first winter in a lean-to and dugout (perhaps
similiar to Laura Ingall's 1874 dugout). The story goes that
they had a blanket for the entrance of the dugout and in the
winter of 1872 when my great grandfather was called to report
to Fort Hartsuff, he left my great-grandmother with two young
sons in that dugout abode.
Laura Ingall's sod home dugout in 1874,
Plum Creek, Minnesota (courtesy A Prairie Girl, Silhouettes
Historic Dresses and Costumes)
Fort Hartsuff, Nebraska,
(Restored officer's quarters circa 1874-1881)
Through
the years the homes and the Ender kitchens improved as my great-aunt
Mary was born in a sodhouse in 1880; my great-aunt Tay in a
log cabin in 1882; and my grandmother "Annie" in a framed house
in 1884.
The Ender Sisters circa 1905
from the left to right: Sarah (Tay), Anna, Maggie and Mary
My great-grandmother,
therefore, lived in several different houses by the time my
grandmother Anna was born. I don't know if any of those kitchens
were cleaned according to the "say good night to your kitchen"
adage. But I am sure that my grandmother grew up learning that
the kitchen was central to the home and how a kitchen functioned.
Anna's first husband
Frank died in 1914 leaving her with three children. She would
marry Manley Barr on October 16, 1922 and they would have one
daughter, my mother, Betty Ann Barr. My grandmother had already
raised three children and my guess is that the adage "say
good night to your kitchen and your kitchen will say good morning
to you" by then was an established practice probably followed
by both my Aunt Tay (Sarah) and my grandmother. Tay and Anna
were close sisters. After Tay married Frank's brother Ernest
Vogt in 1902 they moved in with Frank and Anna for a while and
in all the decades to follow Tay and Anna shared their ups and
downs always living in close proximity. "Say good night"
is also like other 'sayings' I associate with them, such as
one about visitors: "You're a guest for the first day but
after that you're on your own and you help with the chores."
Or "For every visit there is a time to go, but
not too soon."
Anna and Manley Barr
didn't have electricity until the Rural Electrification Act
reached their home but they did have a wind-charger (powered
by a windmill that supplied their battery powered radio), and
they did listen to the radio
in the evening.
One of the radio
shows Grandma Barr listened to was the Burns and Allen Show
with Gracie Allen's zany character and her Gracie-isms (1).
The show signed off each evening with George's "Say good night,
Gracie."
George: "Say good
night Gracie."
Gracie: "Good night."
(Popular legend has it that Gracie would instead repeat George's
"Good night, Gracie" but there is no evidence of that.)
I can imagine my
grandmother turning off the radio and saying "Good night,
kitchen" to sign-off her own day after hearing Gracie's
"Good night."
Granted, my grandmother
may never have actually said "Good night, kitchen,"
just like Gracie never said "Good night, Gracie."
But both phrases
make me smile and I like to think that the
next day's "Good morning" spoken by the clean kitchen
to my Grandma Barr was a good start to her day and a greeting
that she always appreciated.
"Say good night, Gracie"
June
29, 1935 Radio
Guide
"Good night, Kitchen"
Gracie: I'll be right back.
George: Gracie, where are you going?
Gracie: Well, I, um - I just remembered
I left the stove in the kitchen.
Gracie's Kitchen? Cooking in
a banjo.
When Gracie cooks roast beef shes put two
roasts in the oven, one large roast and one small.
When the small roast burns then she knows
the large roast is done.
Phonographia
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