Obituary of a Three-Century Man, Chapter 11
Women in Pants, Ben, Chanelle Marie, and Talking Pictures
... In 1924, his first son Benjamin was born; in 1926, his second daughter, Chanelle Marie; . . .On May 28th of 1923, the Attorney General of the U.S. declared it legal for women to wear trousers whenever and wherever they pleased. But having the legal right to do something and that something being acceptable or fashionable are not always one and the same thing. It would be decades before women wearing pants in public would become commonplace.
Crystalina continued to wear dresses, both at home and when out shopping, but women on the farms and ranches—such as her mother-in-law, Gertie—often found pants to be far more practical for chores in the home as well as in the yard and in the fields. Even when farmer’s and rancher’s wives and daughters went to town, though—as infrequent as that was for many of them—they still, for the most part, wore dresses. Gertie, for one, was never seen wearing pants beyond the confines of the homestead.
The next years passed quite pleasantly for Jackson, Crystalina, and their growing family. Ben was born in 1924, then Chanelle Marie in 1926, joining Audra Aileen in the Fort Bragg Calloway household. Except for those events, life continued along pretty much the same lines for the Calloway family, with Jackson working as a topper in the woods, and Crystal managing the household and taking care of the children.
Jackson worked ten hours per day, six days a week. He always was home from Saturday evening until early Monday morning, then drove his trusty Model T to the logging camp on Mondays and spent the work week there.
Winter was the best time for working in the woods, as the roads were hard and thus easy to traverse. In mudtime, the loggers were laid off, as the machinery would get mired and transportation of logs—and even just walking—was nigh impossible. During those times when Jackson could spend extended periods at home, he devoted as much of his attention as possible to his family, trying to make up for the long stretches he was away.
Jackson loved his work, but rued the regular separations from his family. He had to keep at it to support them, though, and logging was what he knew.
One weekend in 1927, Jackson took his brood to the newly-built State Theater in Fort Bragg to see The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson, the first “talkie” or “talking picture.” The sounds of popcorn being munched and lips being kissed in those roaring 20s were no longer the loudest noises in the theater. The days of silent pictures were numbered.
The other big event that year, which had vast implications for the future—although as yet unenvisioned by most—was the first solo Transatlantic flight. In late May, 25-year-old aviator Charles Lindburgh piloted the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris, a grueling 1,500 mile trip that took him more than fourteen hours to complete.
Several of the Calloways would embrace the thrill of flight in the decades to come, ultimately to the grief of the family.
Chapter 1 can be read here.
Chapter 12 can be read here.
