Monday, September 22, 1919

Rainy day. To College. Chapel 8:30 A.M. Welcome to students etc. Attended bible & chemistry classes. Down town. Bowled at Star. Home. Candled eggs. Operated Vacuum Cleaner. Took mother to Aunt Martha Clowe's party. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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Aunt Martha Clowe, I was able to discover, was the wife of Garrett Wilson Clowe, John I. Clowe's brother. And John I. Clowe, as many of you know, was Frances Augusta Clowe Closson's father.  Therefore, Martha was Fanny's aunt and Stanford's great aunt. Martha was born Martha Alida Conde on September 21, 1840.  So the party Stanford and his mother went to was undoubtedly to celebrate Martha's 79th birthday.

Stanford's mention of a  vacuum cleaner's being used in the household is interesting. When he says he operated it, it sounds odd.  We don't employ that term anymore to describe using a vacuum cleaner.  We say we vacuumed, or that we ran the vacuum. That he capitalizes the words is also interesting.

Here is 1919 ad for a vacuum cleaner, taken from amazon.com where someone is selling their copy.  As you can see, the words Vacuum Cleaner are capitalized here because they are part of the brand name.

I guess Stanford wasn't worried about doing women's work.