Remembering our pasts can be like opening Pandora’s box — there’s so much in there, we might not know how to winnow the information down.
Beckye Parker, special needs consultant at the Iola Public Library, understands that, and has a number of devices to help walk memories along a specific path.
The library offers Bi-folkal kits — large, small and photo versions — that elicit stories from those who use them.
The kits all have specific themes, Parker said, plus, “we have all the holidays.” A full kit fits comes in a bowling bag.
“All your sensories are in here,” Parker noted. Tactile items, scented cards, song books and cassettes. There are replicas or authentic vintage items, such as perfume bottles or ration cards from World War II. Aside from the artifacts, “everything in here is reproducible,” Parker said.
Short stories, craft how-tos and fill-in-the-blank cards with statements such as “Our kitchen table was made of ______” and “My first morning chore was ________” stir recollections.
“First Writes” are sets of reproducible cards with statements about daily life regarding religion, birthdays, kitchen memories, movie stars, relatives and more. They can be used as a parlor game, with people around a circle taking turns filling in the blank. “My favorite relative ____ had _____ colored hair,” is one example.
Bi-folkal kits can be used by anyone. Each comes with an activity guide. There is even a 25-piece percussion band with bells, tone blocks, rhythm sticks and cymbals. Photo kits are particularly good at sparking memories, Parker said, as viewers recall clothing styles, the price of shoes and world events of the pictured era, she said.
“The nursing homes have a hard time getting the men involved,” in activities, Parker said. “But so many of them around here were farmers,” that they respond readily to the pile of seed packs, placard of different grains and classic red bandana in the “Remembering Farm Days,” kit, Parker said.
While schools and assisted living facilities are most aware of the kits, Parker said, “you don’t have to be special needs to check this out. It’s great if a person wants to do something with their mother, their dad. This is definitely inter-generational, from age 2 on up.” The band-in-a-box is particularly popular for mixed-age groups, she said.
Puzzles, toys, balls that light up when bounced — all are available for check out, Parker said. Some groups check out puppets and put on shows. Foam Frisbees, plastic vegetables and oversized dominoes for the visually impaired are also available.
“The funniest thing we have is a rubber chicken,” Parker said.
One college student planned on checking out items for her birthday party, Parker said.
The kits are wonderful tools during family gatherings or reunions, to get quiet members of the family talking or to keep conversation going when minds might otherwise might turn to TV, Parker said.
“It’s all conversation starters. Whatever can stimulate memories, talking, laughter.”
GUEST HOME Estates and its activity director, Phyllis Coltharp, regularly use the Bi-folkal kits.
On a recent afternoon, the activity room was packed with residents remembering the impact of World War II on life in Iola.
“I remember picking milkweed for the latex,” offered Bill Scheivmeir.
“I remember a comic strip of Captain Easy — he fought the Germans,” Scheivmeir added.
Coltharp prompted Scheivmeir about his family’s profession, beekeeping, while the group discussed replacements for white sugar, which was rationed during the war. Instead of sugar, people used honey for baking, many of the women in the group recalled.
“They gave you booklets (of ration coupons) for sugar, shoes and gasoline,” said Dorothy Hurst.
“You could purchase the items at the store, but only what you had coupons for,” added Russell Zornes.
But, let on Andrew Still, “B rations gave you twice as much as A rations.”
Still was a physician, and as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service during the war, he received the extended rations. His profession was considered crucial to the war effort.
“The more important you were to the government, the more gasoline you got,” he said.
Talk of the hardships imposed by the war led to other recollections.
“If you went swimming in dirty water, your legs would stop moving so well,” said Rosa Neal. Polio was common in the war era, and it was spread through unclean water.
Home remedies abounded.
“My dad would come with a cup of chopped up onion mixed with sugar in the middle of the night and say ‘eat this’ because you had the croupy cough,” Zornes recalled.
“My uncle would give you a hot pepper and it produced an artificial fever and you’d just sweat it out,” recalled John Jessamore of his family’s cold cure.
His mention of cod liver oil elicited a collective groan from the group. “And castor oil would clean you out,” he added.
Lye soap was used to dry the weeping rash of poison ivy, Coltharp noted.
It was also used to wash clothes.
“On wash day, you’d catch all the rain water you could,” said Pearl Green. “You’d put the suds in that, then you’d hang out the clothes to dry,” she said.
Neal noted her mother made their family soap of lye and bacon grease.
“If you got the lye on your hands and got it wet it would eat a hole in your hand,” she said of the caustic substance.
Russell noted his mother washed clothes in a washboard in the river.
Families — often the children — had to haul water from creeks and rivers to houses for daily use, said Green, and children bathed in washtubs in the yard. Water was heated on stoves stoked with coal, “Or whatever you could find to burn,” she said.
“I was born in the ’40s, so I grew up that way,” she added.
OTHER TIDBITS of daily life were remembered by looking at artifacts in the Bi-folkal kit.
An ad for leg makeup prompted Dorothy Hurst to inform “you didn’t have any hose during the war. The material was used for parachutes.” Instead, women used leg makeup, she said, which made their skin appear tan.
“If you got a sunburn you were all right,” joked Green.
While the group moaned at how much taxes have risen — they were $13.44 a year in Allen County in 1944, according to the kit —
overall, they are pleased things have changed.
Hilda Kimzey summed it up.
“It was hard living,” she said.
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