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The Whittaker Saga - 1930: Life in San Myshuno (5/04)
JAL
Posts: 1,055 Member
I was vastly inspired when reading the decades challenge, and as a history teacher, I could not stop myself from giving it a try. Of course, true to my nature or refusing to do things by the book, the first thing I did was break the rules. How? By creating as my protagonist a single, working woman living on her own! Gasp!
Why? Partly because a story popped into my head, but also, partly, to honor the many women who - by choice or necessity - actually worked, and worked hard for their living in the 1890s. We tend to forget them, but the working women were there - from the hard working farmers that we often downgrade by calling wives, as if they weren't an essential part of the economy of the farm, to the working class women working as domestic help or in the factories where they were only payed half of a man's wages.
So with that, I introduce Abigail Spencer, a single, working, middle class woman in 1890s Willow Creek:
As middle class there is only a few jobs available to Abigail, that of governess or that of teacher. Abigail is therefore a teacher, teaching at Willow Creek Elementary School.
She lives right next door to the school, in a small shotgun house with a few chickens and a patch of land to help her make ends meet (teachers really were not payed a lot during this time either). Obviously, her biggest goal in life is to find a husband, get married and start a family so that she won't have to work. (In fact, a teacher, as well as many other working women, automatically lost their job if they got married during this time.) But to get married, she needs to find a husband.
Meet Willow Creek's eligible bachelors:
Matthew Godeau:
Matthew is one of the richest men in Willow Creek. A bit too old to still be a bachelor he lives with his widowed mother in Ophelia house (yes, eventually this family changed their names and became the Goths. Ophelia house is named from Matthew's mother).
Pros: Matthew is creative, just like Abigail, as well as a romantic and would be sure to bestow lots of attention on a wife. He lives in one of the biggest houses in town, and is a wealthy business man. Abigail would have a good life with him.
Cons: His mother. Ophelia is a woman set in her own ways and she is not about to let some silly girl interfere with how she runs her house! Ophelia is mean, materialistic and an overachiever. She is not likely to see some middle class teacher as good enough for her son. Add that she has raised her son to be not only creative and romantic, but also incredibly self absorbed and the household may prove hard to be comfortable with.
Joseph Whittaker:
Joseph is a novellist, living in the stately Whittaker house, which with time, will be turned into the well renowned Willow Creek Archive. He has no mother (a definite pro), but two very young children. A son and a daughter, from a previous marriage.
Pros: Joseph is a bookworm, just like Abigail and is sure look favourably on her past as a teacher. They are also both family orientated which means they are a good match in personalities and would likely find a lot of common ground. The house is ripe with books, and Joseph's two motherless children desperately need a mother to tend to their needs. With two live in maids it's a comfortable life focused on the family and the books she so loves.
Cons: Joseph very much mourns his dead wife, and keeps her picture on the wall over the fireplace. Can he ever truly love again, or will Abigail forever live in the shadow of the woman he loved and lost?
Loyd Brennan:
Loyd is the owner of Brennan's Groceries and Dry Goods, the biggest (only) shop in town. He lives with his sister Mary and their dachshund above the store.
Pros: Loyd is outgoing and friendly and easy to get along with. He's self assured, but unlike Matthew, not self absorbed. He works hard and provides a good home. As a working man he does not mind a working wife, so Abigail would do more than sit around being pretty. He loves dogs, and anyone who does cannot be bad - right?
Cons: Living in a store would mean working in the store. There is no way the wife of a store owner is not in that store working along side her husband. Without money for a maid, this involves not just working in the store but running the household as well. The apartment isn't really big enough for a large family and unless Mary gets married, it's bound to be crowded. Then there is the fact that she and Mary does not really get along well.
Paul Heydale:
Paul is a farmer, living with his entire family at Garden Essence, a farm with a cow, chickens and a whole lot of crops. They're a tight knit family who works hard for what they have.
Pros: Paul, like Abigail is both creative and family orientated. He dreams of becoming a painter rather than a farmer. By marrying him, Abigail would be wrapped up in a large family who would be there for her, something she'd never had before. His family is also very friendly, and Abigail teachers his younger sister and has already met and chatted with his mother and father and really likes the entire family.
Cons: Marrying a farmer would be a step down the social ladder, and the life of a farmer is hard! Is Abigail cut out for working out from early morning to late evening without ever more than making ends meet? And the house is crowded as is, with Paul's parents and two younger siblings (so far). Where would more children live? Is Abigail prepared for the hard life that accompanies this choice?
Now I wanted to make a poll, but apparently you cannot do this in this section of the forums. So I'll leave you with a question instead - who do you believe Abigail will most likely fall in love with and why?
Finally, a small note about CC. I've tried to use as little as possible, but Abigail's blouse and skirts and the male bathing outfits are CC, as is a maid's uniform and some boys clothing that aren't in any pictures here. Links under the cut:
Finally, here is my Willow Creek in 1890:
Why? Partly because a story popped into my head, but also, partly, to honor the many women who - by choice or necessity - actually worked, and worked hard for their living in the 1890s. We tend to forget them, but the working women were there - from the hard working farmers that we often downgrade by calling wives, as if they weren't an essential part of the economy of the farm, to the working class women working as domestic help or in the factories where they were only payed half of a man's wages.
So with that, I introduce Abigail Spencer, a single, working, middle class woman in 1890s Willow Creek:
As middle class there is only a few jobs available to Abigail, that of governess or that of teacher. Abigail is therefore a teacher, teaching at Willow Creek Elementary School.
She lives right next door to the school, in a small shotgun house with a few chickens and a patch of land to help her make ends meet (teachers really were not payed a lot during this time either). Obviously, her biggest goal in life is to find a husband, get married and start a family so that she won't have to work. (In fact, a teacher, as well as many other working women, automatically lost their job if they got married during this time.) But to get married, she needs to find a husband.
Meet Willow Creek's eligible bachelors:
Matthew Godeau:
Matthew is one of the richest men in Willow Creek. A bit too old to still be a bachelor he lives with his widowed mother in Ophelia house (yes, eventually this family changed their names and became the Goths. Ophelia house is named from Matthew's mother).
Pros: Matthew is creative, just like Abigail, as well as a romantic and would be sure to bestow lots of attention on a wife. He lives in one of the biggest houses in town, and is a wealthy business man. Abigail would have a good life with him.
Cons: His mother. Ophelia is a woman set in her own ways and she is not about to let some silly girl interfere with how she runs her house! Ophelia is mean, materialistic and an overachiever. She is not likely to see some middle class teacher as good enough for her son. Add that she has raised her son to be not only creative and romantic, but also incredibly self absorbed and the household may prove hard to be comfortable with.
Joseph Whittaker:
Joseph is a novellist, living in the stately Whittaker house, which with time, will be turned into the well renowned Willow Creek Archive. He has no mother (a definite pro), but two very young children. A son and a daughter, from a previous marriage.
Pros: Joseph is a bookworm, just like Abigail and is sure look favourably on her past as a teacher. They are also both family orientated which means they are a good match in personalities and would likely find a lot of common ground. The house is ripe with books, and Joseph's two motherless children desperately need a mother to tend to their needs. With two live in maids it's a comfortable life focused on the family and the books she so loves.
Cons: Joseph very much mourns his dead wife, and keeps her picture on the wall over the fireplace. Can he ever truly love again, or will Abigail forever live in the shadow of the woman he loved and lost?
Loyd Brennan:
Loyd is the owner of Brennan's Groceries and Dry Goods, the biggest (only) shop in town. He lives with his sister Mary and their dachshund above the store.
Pros: Loyd is outgoing and friendly and easy to get along with. He's self assured, but unlike Matthew, not self absorbed. He works hard and provides a good home. As a working man he does not mind a working wife, so Abigail would do more than sit around being pretty. He loves dogs, and anyone who does cannot be bad - right?
Cons: Living in a store would mean working in the store. There is no way the wife of a store owner is not in that store working along side her husband. Without money for a maid, this involves not just working in the store but running the household as well. The apartment isn't really big enough for a large family and unless Mary gets married, it's bound to be crowded. Then there is the fact that she and Mary does not really get along well.
Paul Heydale:
Paul is a farmer, living with his entire family at Garden Essence, a farm with a cow, chickens and a whole lot of crops. They're a tight knit family who works hard for what they have.
Pros: Paul, like Abigail is both creative and family orientated. He dreams of becoming a painter rather than a farmer. By marrying him, Abigail would be wrapped up in a large family who would be there for her, something she'd never had before. His family is also very friendly, and Abigail teachers his younger sister and has already met and chatted with his mother and father and really likes the entire family.
Cons: Marrying a farmer would be a step down the social ladder, and the life of a farmer is hard! Is Abigail cut out for working out from early morning to late evening without ever more than making ends meet? And the house is crowded as is, with Paul's parents and two younger siblings (so far). Where would more children live? Is Abigail prepared for the hard life that accompanies this choice?
Now I wanted to make a poll, but apparently you cannot do this in this section of the forums. So I'll leave you with a question instead - who do you believe Abigail will most likely fall in love with and why?
- Matthew
- Joseph
- Loyd
- Paul
Finally, a small note about CC. I've tried to use as little as possible, but Abigail's blouse and skirts and the male bathing outfits are CC, as is a maid's uniform and some boys clothing that aren't in any pictures here. Links under the cut:
Finally, here is my Willow Creek in 1890:
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
Post edited by JAL on
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Comments
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Matthew then , money and high in social ladder , meant much more in that time. Abigail can deal with the mother in law
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Interesting choice. Tell me why you think he would be a good match.
So far there are one and a half vote for Matthew and Joseph alike, and one for Loyd. None for poor Paul!
Paul for his family well if a large property maybe can build them a small house and when the time comes for Paul to be in charge of the household after the deaths of his parents. One of his younger siblings can move into the house or have the house later after they move out for one of their children when older or for the workers on the farm that need a place to live
Matthew cause of tie in to the Goths and similar interests
After moving into her small house, getting some chickens and some simple crops to extend her pay, Abigail started her life and work in Willow Creek. She likes her students and quite enjoy her work as a teacher:
Still she is a bit stressed about fulfilling her aspiration, and finding love when it's entirely inappropriate to be the one to initiate flirting is apparently hard! But she tries, and she has met all four eligible bachelors at this time.
She met Joseph while taking a stroll in the park. They got along quite well and enjoyed a game of chess together:
They have really hit it off and quite enjoy each other's company, and after Sunday service in church, Joseph even flirted with her for the briefest of moments before becoming friendly with her again.
In general, Abigail is really happy about Sunday services. It's a great place to meet all the people in town, the reverend is nice, and holds good sermons (although the congregation is very bad at listening and instead chat away amongst themselves. I've made Sunday's service a weekly holiday so that it's easy to remember.
Matthew is proving interesting. After meeting for the first time at church, he later randomly invited himself over to Abigail's, house and asked if she wanted to be his best friend. A bit confused, she accepted, and offered tea and conversation, before having to tell him to leave before things got inappropriately late. Who wants to be gossiped about after all?
Loyd is also turning into a good friend, but with very little flirting so far. They have gone roller skating together and Mary seems to be warming up a bit to Abigail. Paul, however, seems so far entirely uninterested and while the two have talked, he was much more interested in the other bachelorettes in town last Sunday. We'll see how things develop.
I think Matthew is ready to throw a dinner party for the locals and see what happens...
Oh I'm not picking, I'm letting her pick. Right now Paul hasn't shown much interest at all, he barely bothers to speak to her... So we'll see what happens. I'm about ready to update Abigails second week in Willow Creek (just have Sunday left) and there were some rather juicy development this week that will be interesting to see...
As for the world, the map is from 20th Century Plumbob (here). To make it more cohesive, I've just bulldozed all buildings and used trees from the base game live edit catalogue to make the nature feel more "full" until I replace the trees and plants with new buildings as time moves on.
The week started like normal. She tended her plants (she found she actually enjoy gardening) and her chickens, sold a few eggs, cooked a few meals and dreamt of having time to read and finish a book:
But most of all she taught her students:
The thing she enjoys the most is reading for the children:
Then on Wednesday, out of the blue she got this missive from Matthew Godeau:
She barely new how to respond. A date? Unchaperoned? How inappropriate! Of course she said yes, but made sure the two of them had their date in a public setting. They went to Magnolia Park, where they talked and talked for hours:
There was some flirting, especially from Matthew's side, but Abigail is trying to be a respectable woman and not be too hasty. After all, who knows what a man like Matthew is after? Is it proper romance, with marriage in mind? Or just some romp in the hay that would wreck her reputation? He already has gotten the very inappropriate habit of showing up unannounced in her home to see her. Romantic? Perhaps, but it could start a whole lot of rumours!
On Saturday, Ophelia hosted a dinner party. She'd made sure to invite Abigail on Matthew's insistence, but had an ulterior motive. Along side Abigail she invited the lovely Mary Brennan and her brother, along with Joseph Whittaker who she had seen flirting with Abigail last Sunday. Along side these he invited another local couple, the Duncans. After all, she needed someone to converse with as well.
As soon as Abigail arrived, she knew she was out of place. They were all so dressed up! In clothes Abigail couldn't dream of being able to afford for herself. She even started talking to the help for a moment, while the others chatted with each other. As they sat down to the main course, Ophelia made sure Matthew was placed between Mary, who she hoped he'd grow fond of, and Abigail in the hopes that she'd pale in comparison. She placed Joseph immediately in front of Abigail, so that the two could get more acquainted with each other.
Her plan failed, as Matthew barely looked at poor Mary all through dinner.
For desert, Ophelia shifted things around, sitting closer to Abigail, repeatedly insulting her dress (or lack thereof, as Ophelia would put it). Poor Abigail felt really hurt and embarrassed. Joseph, to the rescue, it seemed as he started flirting with her, something Matthew did not take lightly! Finding his jealous streak, he was infuriated, and reacted by publicly declaring his love for Abigail right then and there. Definitely not what Ophelia had in mind!
The dinner party ended soon after, and Abigail went home feeling romanced and embarrassed at the same time. Her feelings for Matthew is growing stronger, but slowly. She does not want to rush into anything without proper conduct after all. Still during Sunday's service she daydreamed of weddings, and didn't pull back when Matthew after the service kissed her hands. Unfortunately, Ophelia showed up right then, yelled at poor Abigail and argued with her son. Abigail left. She had enough drama.
She did actually get introduced to Paul this Sunday, but he seemed much more interested in talking to the other ladies in town. Loyd was friendly as ever, as was Joseph but he did not flirt with her today (who can blame him after Matthew's reaction the day before).
So after week two, Abigail is still dreaming of marriage and romance, but it's taking such a long time. Does she dare to trust her feelings about Matthew? Could she stand his offensive mother? What about Joseph? Should she just put him out of her mind? Or should she hold back and take things slowly and see what happens in the future? So many questions going into week three...
Then Tuesday came around, and left Abigail in turmoil. At first, she tried a new method of teaching that proved very successful on the students, but very unpopular with the school board. As a result, Abigail was mercilessly fired!
In the 1890s it was extremely easy to be fired, and there was no job security to speak of. As a teacher, Abigails home is also tied to her work. If she is no longer a teacher, someone else will move into the house and she will need to vacate the property more or less immediately. What to do! Abigail has no family to fall back on, finding a new teaching position when you've been fired from one is next to impossible. She'd be destitute and left on the streets!
The first thing Abigail did was cry:
Once she'd cried she tried to figure out a way to salvage the situation. What are her options? Well marriage, and Matthew has publicly declared his love for her. Surely? If she pushed? Perhaps? Or at least help her to some new employment? She sent him a missive asking for a meeting. it was bold, perhaps too bold, because Matthew responded by turning her down!
The embarrassment!!! And now what? She's out of a job and home, and the one man she hoped could help her won't even see her. Was it too much? Was it one thing to be flirting with a working middleclass teacher, and another to be associated with an unemployed nobody? Was his mother involved? So many questions, and yet Abigail had no time to think about any of them. She's now desperate. She decided to turn to the reverend.
Most country schools at this time was owned and run by the parish. Perhaps the reverend could help her out and persuade the school board to give her her job back? But the reverend wanted to do no such thing. Instead he preached to her about facing the consequences of her actions and finding acceptance.
At a complete loss for what to do, Abigail went to the park, walking around aimlessly trying to think of a way out of her predicament. That's when she ran into Joseph. Heartbroken and hurt, she confides her problems to her friend, and finally she finds someone who sympathises with her plight:
More so, Joseph has a solution to all her problems:
With two young children at home, one of which is about to transition from a toddler to a boy, a governess is needed. So far they've been raised by their father and the house maids, and a teacher is greatly needed. A mother figure with their best interest at heart. A position as governess was a common job for middle class women, and while it is not Abigail's first choice, it is her only choice and the best one she has. She moves in the very same day.
The first meeting with the children goes well and she finds her place in the household:
Matthew keeps acting strange, however. He comes over on her first night, but doesn't speak to her at all. Then he sends her a strange missive about some dream he's had:
Abigail is now wondering if something is seriously wrong with him. Is he ill? Insane? Or just strange?
On Thursday it was time for Thanksgiving, and Joseph had invited the neighbors. This time dinner was a much nicer affair (mostly because Ophelia wasn't there), the only loved declared came from a husband to his wife, and no one made a fuss over Abigail's dress being more simple than the others. After dinner, Abigail stayed at the table with the women:
While the men pulled away into the drawing room, as was the custom at the time:
On Saturday it was Frank's birthday. Birthdays were a relatively new thing to celebrate in the Victorian era, prior to the 19th century no one really cared about birthdays, but in the mid-19th century, the wealthy started throwing lavish birthday parties for their children. Abigail insists that Frank gets a party and invites the neighborhood children. There is cake, an entertainer playing the piano, games and a puppet show, and gifts of course. It's a huge success:
On Sunday, Abigail is nervous about going to church. It will be the first time all week she'll have the chance to speak to Matthew. Will he be his normal flirty self, ready to declare his love for her, or his more recent distant self? It turns out to be the latter. After being insulted by Ophelia, Abigail boldly walks up to Matthew, who greets her, says a few words, then leaves to talk to others. He could not be more distant if he tried.
Joseph is more willing to talk, and opens up about his grief for his lost wife, and suddenly the two are sitting very close in the sofa. Is it love in the air? Or is Joseph just lonely? Time will tell.
Joseph Whittaker is definitely one of the latter, and as such he has taken inspiration from the British royal family, and is one of five Americans at this time to introduce a Christmas tree into his home. Christmas starts on Christmas Eve, when the tree is decorated and the family attend church together.
Normally this would be done at night, when Frank is asleep, but Joseph wanted to include his son. They had quite fun decorating the tree together, and perhaps they started a new tradition all on their own?
For Abigail this particular Christmas Eve comes with a surprise, as Joseph suddenly kiss her!
Now being a governess and being kissed by your employer is definitely not risk free! As a governess you can lose both job and reputation by falling for your employer, especially if they do not mean to marry you. Now Joseph doesn't seem the type, but he also seems very conflicted. That night he stands for a long time contemplating while gazing on the portrait of his lost wife Ruth:
But he also stands for a time outside Abigail's door. Will she need to lock it to keep him out at night?
Christmas day comes with no resolution to the situation. They exchange gifts:
Meet father Winter:
And eat a fabulous turkey dinner cooked by the house maid Lisbeth before she was sent home to her family for the day:
However, any attempt from Abigail to breach the topic of the future, and of Joseph's intentions, is firmly avoided by him. What does he want? Why did he kiss her? Abigail doesn't know what to think, and she feers for her own position. She really does love Joseph, and she thinks they could have a good marriage and a good life, but if he cannot move past his former loss, if he does not have honest intentions, she is the one who stands most to lose. Whether she accept his advances or refuse them, her reputation and livelihood can be lost.
As boxing day rolls around, the day starts like normal. Abigail teaches numbers to Ida:
The entire family goes ice skating:
But then, out of the blue, Abigail gets a telegram with a very important message:
Now this is a revelation, and changes the entire playing field. With money of her own, she has the option to leave if she wants to. She does not need to put herself at risk, and she can afford, a simple and less affluent, but descent life of her own. She is no longer in need of Joseph for her very survival. She is a woman of options and means. It gives her an entirely new position of strength in this dance of theirs.
Joseph seems to know this too. After the boxing day ceremony at church, he visits Ruth's grave. It's time to make up his mind. Should he live in the past, or move forward in life? Have more children (he does want them), and make a life with Abigail? If he does not, he might lose her forever. Suddenly she is not the only one who stands to lose something.
As new years eve rolls around, an event that is not celebrated as much as it is today, something new happens in the Whittaker household. For the first time since Ruth's death, Joseph picks up his violin and grace the family with a little concerto:
He even includes a little serenade to Abigail:
And finally, the moment Abigail has been waiting for comes, and as 1890 turns to 1891 Joseph goes down on one knee:
Obviously Abigail said yes! So now the question is not who will she marry, but what dress will she wear? I've tried to do this with as little CC as possible, and the game leaves me with three reasonable options:
The first one is a bit too slim for 1890s (perfect for 1900s) in its figure (so is number 3 but with a wider skirt) but both are good representations of the new fashion of wearing lace, something made popular by Queen Victoria herself (she was also the one to make white the go to color for weddings, mostly because lace looked better in white). The second one has a more time typical 1890s shape of the skirt itself, but has no sleaves. Wedding dresses were quite covered up at the time. So pros and cons to all, but which one should she wear? Help me choose.
Next week they're hosting their engagement dinner!
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
I don't know what website you got your rules from, but maybe it's because you're a history teacher you ignored the very ludicrous "no wallpaper and no upholstered furniture" rules for the 1890s that I've seen on several of the "decades challenge rules" sites. They definitely had both wallpaper and upholstery in the 1890s!
Anyway I love the story so far! It's so interesting seeing how the chance cards/calls are keeping the story from being super linear, it's fun to see how you roll with everything!
As for rules, even I don't know where I got my rules from. I read through them, thought this sounds like fun, and ignored them LOL. Mostly, because as you say, they are quite often wrong. I read the 'no working women, no single women living alone' and went "I'll ignore that!" Because what did women do who had no family? They lived alone (or with other single women) and they worked for a living. And as you said, there were definitely both upholstery and wallpaper in the 1890s. Parquet flooring, however was a bit of a novelty, and only for those with money. I tried to represent that in the Whittaker home with the parlor, with the parquet floor around the edge of the room. That was often what people did, they put the new expensive parquet around the carpeting to make it look like they had the full floor (basically cheating). I just had to incorporate that.
Also, I've never been good at following rules in general.
The rules I've ignored and why:
A lot of the objects that should be off the grid in game, simply aren't (like the hanging gas lamp, several candles, wash basins and so on), which makes your options too few. I go for the things that look like they could be off the grid for the poorer households. However, for the richer households, electricity was increasingly common in the wealthier households in the 1890s. In Louisiana (Willow Creek) The Southwestern Brush Electric Light and Power Company was incorporated in New Orleans June 11, 1881. It stands to reason that the wealthier, and more progressive home owners would install at least some electric light.
The first WC was patented in the US in 1775. The idea of indoor plumbing (again for the rich only) was increasingly popular in the first half of the 1800s, and in the 1850s Chicago started working on a sewer system for the entire city. It stands to reason that some richer people would have indoor plumbing already in 1890, while those who are poor had outdoor plumbing, sometimes under horrible circumstances.
These two are just plain wrong, as we discussed before. Again, it was a matter of what you could afford. A poor family would not have wall paper, a rich person would not sit on wooden stools.
Again, ridiculous! If you've ever read Jane Austen you know that parties, balls and visits were a frequent part of social life even in the early parts of the 1800s. In the 1890s, definitely so! Again it was a matter of class, not the era. And of course you didn't throw wild dance parties with DJs or stereos, there were violinists, and piano players for the balls and guitars and home made instruments for the hay loft parties of the farmers!
Rules I'm intending to break:
Again this was a matter of class, not era. The rich started taking holidays by train during the Victorian Era. The ultimate trip was to go Europe, but that was only for the very rich.
I'm soon done with playing the first week of 1891 (so January and February) and will likely post an update to Abigail's story tomorrow.
Now onto this weeks' affairs. It's been an eventful week in the Whittaker household, and it started dramatically with a fire when the gas lighting in Abigail's bedroom malfunctioned!!!
Fires were of course common in the 1890s, with many wooden houses, lots of fabrics and mostly live flames, yet it wasn't until this very year, 1891, that New Orleans saw fit to actually pay their fire fighters. Before this year they had all been volunteers. Still Louisiana did have a working fire brigade, and while the furniture in Abigail's room didn't survive the fire, the house and the rest of the family did.
For Abigail a few uncomfortable nights are spent in the maid's quarters at night before new furniture can be delivered.
Joseph, however, goes into a worrying frenzy, not able to let the fire go. He is constantly tense and fearful of new fires. What to do? The solution comes in a revolutionary new and modern contraption: the radiator! (functional CC, found here).
Radiators were invented in the middle of the century, but became a hit after the invention of the system known as the "Bundy Loop". In the second half of the 19th century, cast iron radiator systems became hugely popular in America. Still fireplaces were seen as prettier and had a natural place in the home, and Abigail is not a great fan of these new contraptions. It's one thing in bathrooms and other rooms where fireplaces have no place, but in the bedroom!?! But Joseph is insistent. Abigail gets to keep the fireplaces in the drawing room and dining room, but all fireplaces in the bedrooms are removed and replaced. As a concession to Abigail fake fireplaces are also installed in some rooms. To at least give the appearance of the real thing. (Fake fireplaces looked a lot different in reality to the boring wooden frame we have in game, and were much prettier, but they were popular so the wooden frame from the holiday pack will make a fair representation of the idea).
Unwittingly, Joseph's push to keep his family safe from fire brings with it another perk. The new radiators are not at all as dirty as the old fireplaces. Recently, Joseph has noticed a distinct decline in the quality of air in the area, a very common problems in the cities of the time. Now Willow Creek is just the type of place one would move to in order to get away from the pollution in the cities, but with WC growing bigger, and everyone relying on fireplaces for heating, the air has taken a turn for the worse lately. The snow is brown, and air smells foul:
By changing the dirtier fireplaces (industrial footprint +5) to the slightly cleaner radiators (industrial footprint +3), Joseph does quite a bit to help lower the levels of pollution in the area by plugging up four of his fireplaces. Win-win, says Joseph. Ugly, says Abigail.
Through all of this, Abigail and Joseph is planning their engagement party! Abigail decides to spend some of her newly acquired money on a new dress for semi-formal events:
Joseph would most likely be happy to pay for her new dress, but Abigail says that is not appropriate. There were strict social rules for gift giving during the engagement period, one were that any gift be returnable should the engagement be called off. A dress was custom fitted, and not returnable. Abigail pays for her dress herself. The rest of the money she saves up, as she knows how precarious her situation can become. Should Joseph have a change of heart, or if he were to die, Abigail has nothing but the money that is in her name. Even after marriage, Frank will inherit Joseph's money. Abigail will be dependant on Frank's good will when that day happens. Only her own money, and any valuable jewellery or other gifts that Joseph gives her are hers on the day she is left alone. Not spending her money lightly is of crucial importance.
In the middle of preparations, on the very day of the dinner, Abigail gets a familiar missive from Matthew.
This time she has no problems with saying no! How inappropriate can he be to make such a suggestion when he was no where to be found when she actually needed him!?! Abigail decides she does not like self-absorbed sims!
The dinner itself starts out well enough with some conversation in the living room:
But dinner is chaotic and at one time I found Abigail sitting alone in the living room knitting instead of entertaining their guests!!!
I suppose she had something to say about guests who would just not sit down to eat but insisted on going outside to look at the snow or inside the kitchen to speak to the help. After free will was turned off, dinner quieted down, and everyone managed to stay seated. A few toasts were held to the engaged couple's honor:
The women and men then separated and sat down to hold their own conversations:
Abigail does have some trouble feeling truly at home in this group. She decides they need to expand on their circle of friends.
The day after the engagement dinner, Joseph gets an offer from a theatre who wants to make a stage production of one of his books, his first ever sci-fi book. The offer does have its drawbacks, however, and since Joseph is well aware of how other people's work has been misused (Dicken's for one did not get one penny of all the popular plays made on the basis of his Christmas Carol), he turns the offer down. He has no interest in fame, he's quite comfortable with his present life as it is.
He does, however, accept the promotion that comes with his new found success:
With Valentines Day coming up, and increasingly popular new holiday in the US, he takes Abigail on a date to the newly founded local museum.
Once there, they run into Dolly Despre, the maid in the Godeau house. Somehow, in spite of her loyal trait, they managed to persuade her to ditch the Godeau house and come work for them. Lizbeth was asked to resign. (Seriously, do not ask me how, she just was there instead of Lizbeth when I loaded the game this morning).
For Abigail, it's of course easier to have a maid that does not remember her as the governess, but comes in with the view of her as the future Mrs Whittaker. Besides, Lizbeth hated cooking, while Dolly is a natural cook. Joseph is quite happy with the new more French inspired food. (We'll see what the game decide, tomorrow Lizbeth might be back, who knows?)
Next week it's springtime, and most importantly Ida's birthday. She's growing up to be a girl. The rules says she's supposed to get creative as her first trait, but I'm not so sure, I think I'll roll a dice and see what the game decides (it has done a marvelous job so far). Regardless, Ida's education will be guided towards the more creative talents, of sewing, knitting and playing instruments. Useful pursuits for a girl. Weather she likes it or not, well that is an entirely different story. To be told later.