*FAMILY*

Almost everybody in Greenbelt was family oriented, according to the numerous biographies that are kept on file at the Greenbelt library. The typical family that applied to live in Greenbelt consisted of a young couple who either had, or soon planned to have a few children. Most often the families were white and of the Christian faith. The father was the one who worked, while the mother stayed at home as a housewife. There were mothers who worked, but even then it was usually only part-time while the children were in school. The majority of a woman's day was occupied mostly with housework, cooking, and taking care of the children. Free time was spent on activities such as gardening or women's clubs. These woman's clubs, as seen in Leslie Holcombe's project on Women's Organizations in Greenbelt, gave the mothers confidence and support to deal with the stress of running a household. They also gave the housewife an escape from her daily routine. The wife would often spend a significant portion of her afternoon in preparation of that evening's dinner. Cookbooks were often helpful aids for housewives.



In the afternoons while their mothers were cooking dinner, the children would play outside, either at the playground, or in the common areas outside of their homes. Once the children got called in for dinner, they would come inside and clean up to their mother's satisfaction before they were allowed to sit down to eat. The family usually ate in the early evening, at about the same time daily. Dinnertime was set according to the time that the husband arrived home from work. Dinner was a time for the whole family to be together in one place. The family ate at the table in the dining room.



The children could tell their mother and father of the events of their day, and what they did in school. Dinner was often followed by dessert, after which the children were excused. Some kids were allowed back to play outside, but most had to go and start their homework. The younger children had bedtime just a few hours after they finished dinner. The parents could discuss other events or problems over coffee.



After dinner was over, the wife would clean up and do the dishes while her husband relaxed, or took care of family issues like paying the bills.

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Information for this section was obtained primarily from "additional sources" see REFERENCES section

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KITCHEN

FOOD

ANALYSIS

REFERENCES

BACK TO THE START

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