Twice a year, I get to be a 1920s homemaker for a day, 
And bring this 3-room house at the Kansas Oil Museum to life. 
My few hours there are simple and precious.
On arriving, I first thread the treadle sewing machine, and put the treadle belt in place, and then wait for willing seamstresses and seamsters to arrive.
When no one is at the sewing machine, I can do some sewing myself, or knit, or …
Hang dish towels on the line, 
Sweep the front porch and pull weeds,
Tidy up the kitchen,
Tidy up the parents’ room (which doubles as the nursery),
Tidy up the front room (which serves as the sitting room, sewing room, play room, and kid’s bedroom),
Or visit the grocery store.
Back at ‘my’ little house, at certain times of day, the kitchen is not well lit, but is always charming. 
At Christmastime, the house is heated by a cast iron wood stove, so I bake a pineapple upside down cake on the stove.
The house is called a ‘shotgun house’, because if you shoot a gun through the front door the bullet will pass through the back door. I haven’t tried it. 
My favorite moments are when a little visitor takes in the whole scene and then looks up at me and asks me if I live there. ❤ My answer is always, “Yes, but only on special days like today.”
This post was inspired by a lovely post on Everyday Women of the 1920s by The Pretty and the Kitsch.
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