No. 54, March 2008
Journal
The Hired Girl - 1954
by Delores Miller
Twas the summer of my 16th birthday, 1954. In those days, all teenagers were required to get jobs, slave labor really. Boys worked on farms, milking cows, shoveling manure, baling hay. Girls were hired out as nannies. Pay was a dollar a day. But we did get a roof over our heads and plenty of food to eat. Our parents encouraged us to get out of the house and earn school spending money.
My first job was as a 'hired girl' for Earl and Gertrude Mielke and their 4 very small naughty boys. A large dairy farm in Central Wisconsin.
Cooking big meals for that family of six, plus the 'hired men'. Nine people. Gert did teach me how to cook. Oh, what good pies, cakes, cookies she could make, and taught me how.
Cleaning that house, scrubbing the floor. Washing clothes with a wringer washing machine. Hanging out on a line. This was in the days before disposable diapers and clothes dryers. Ironing all the clothes worn by that family, me and the hired men.
Grass cutting the large lawn with a push type lawn mower. Oh, the leg cramps I got from that.
But the hired man across the road took me for joy rides at night, to escape the boredom. No hanky panky in those days. Mielke's seemed to have a busy social life, so most nights, though I had to babysit those naughty boys and get them to bed and sleeping.
A dollar a day was the pay. And then after 3 months, my Junior year of high school began. Gert wanted me to stay on, ride the bus to school and take care of the children at night, wash dishes, iron the clothes all for $2 a week.
Found I could not keep up with my school work, I was so tuckered out. So my parents did let me come back home and they did give me a little pocket change to keep me in ice cream cones.
Gert Mielke died this week at the age of 84 after a long bout with Alzheimer Disease. Earl still lives on at an assisted living facility. Other commitments forbid us attending the funeral.
The next summer, Mielke's again offered me a hired girl job. I declined, to work as a maid for a rich Paper Mill owner's widow. I got $16 a week. All to cook a few meals. She had her own cleaning lady who did the laundry. Oh, how I had it made that summer!
Wished I could have had a 'hired girl', when our five children were small, alas no one was available, and I had to do all the work myself.
Delores Miller
copyright 2008, Russell and Delores Miller
