I'm Barb. I write about change. Those niggling alterations that creep into our lives until we laugh at ourselves. And if you don't think change is funny, pull out your high school year book and give it a look-see. Check out "About" in the header if you want to know more.
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Category Archives: Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Birth Control in Two Pan: 1871
PART 2:Gross Alert!!! The historical information is documented, but names changed here. Some of the birth control practices were gross and questionable. Please click here if you’d like to read something lighter. This past week freighter, Jonas Hopkins was set … Continue reading
Birth Control in Two Pan: 1871
We’re looking at change. Every other week we give a sideways glance to the newfangled ideas cropping up in the 1870s. This week, we’re in Two Pan, and even though we hate change, we’ll grudgingly admit…some improvements are long overdue.. … Continue reading
Posted in Choices, Humor, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Tagged Birth Control 1870, Change, Humor, Lots of children, Pioneer, Rubbers, Saloon, Two Pan, vulcanized rubber
46 Comments
We Don’t Need No Book Learnin’
The town meeting to build a school was held in the newly constructed Grubbs Mercantile. Ignacius Grubb has sold mule shoes, single sips of wildfire hooch through glass straws, and tobacco out of barrels since the first gold claim in … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Humor, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Tagged 1870 chores, Book learnin', Change, Horse shoing, Humor, Mercantile, Pioneer, School, Sporting Palace, Two Pan
27 Comments
Death Quilts
This Friday, we look at change in the 1870s. The change is so drastic, it’s made poor Violet Spinrad avoid a sacred pastime for women. Patricia Woolsey had a sewing get-together, today. My heart wasn’t in it. I didn’t go. … Continue reading
Posted in A Laugh, Change, Life, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Tagged Burial, Change, Cholera, Friendship quilt, Northwest, Oregon Trail, Pioneers, Sewing Bee, Typhoid, Wagon train
40 Comments
Lace Up Your Corsets…Here Come the Drunks
No job opportunities exist for Violet Spinrad in 1870—that’s about to change. (We hate change.) I didn’t know what to do, but I needed money. I’d heard Silky Sue, had built a house next to her saloon. I left 14-year-old, … Continue reading
Posted in A Laugh, Change, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan, Satire
Tagged Change, Corsets, Pioneer Friday, Saloon, Tight Lacing, Undergarments of 1870, Whalebone
52 Comments
Valentine’s Day at Opal’s Sporting Parlor
February 9, 1871 Editor: LinkingModifiers-LateBloomerBuds In the past week, Big Opal has employed her usual form of advertising. With her white steeds hooked to her carriage and seats piled with loud buxom sporting women, she visited the mining camps Fully … Continue reading
Posted in Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
43 Comments
NOT the Salt of the Earth
Welcome to 1870 where Violet Spinrad finds something needs to change. Alice Hopkins showed up at my door. She was out of salt. Can you imagine? That’s like being out of air. We’re so poor the only thing on our … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Tagged candles, Change, Clothes pins, Humor, Oregon Trail, Pioneer, salt, Salt box
41 Comments
Remedies to Forget
Patricia Woolsey WANTS a remedy for the 1870s It’s hard to change an empire when you’re stuck in the house. The Daughters of Two Pan marched in front of the whore house and saloon, but we scattered like twit sparrows … Continue reading
Posted in A Laugh, Humor, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan, Satire
Tagged Cattle, Change, Humor, mustard plaster, Pioneers, remedies, Saloon, sleep walking, The West
55 Comments
Needles, Dogs, and Secrets
In 1871, Women sew more than quilts for a change. “Can you stitch up the dog?” That’s what every woman wants to hear when she’s cooking dinner. The kids were poking each other with sticks and into this chaos, Henry … Continue reading
Posted in A Laugh, Humor, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Tagged Bears, dog, Humor, miner, needle, Oregon Trail, Pioneer, Ranch, Sewing
24 Comments
Burning the Fat
When Patricia Woolsey wishes for change… (Two Pan, 1871) They stink. And soot off. But what are you going to do? Besides, through the whole process, I learned why Violet Spinrad won’t picket the whore house or saloon. We Woolseys … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Pioneer Friday in Two Pan
Tagged 1800s, candle making, candle molds, Change, Humor, lamps, Piioneer, render, Settlers, tallow
28 Comments
