Found her. Someone kept saying something about Ma and her chicks.... Could maybe file this under "Found photos that don't deserve a whole thread..." Maybe this was a common custom on the farm, the chicks doubled as pets?
I would bet home raised chickens were a valuable commodity in the 1930s. Eggs and meat, much needed vital protein. Both of my great grandma's, still in the 1960s and '70s referred to going to town grocery shopping as "going to town to do the trading". In their younger years they used to take eggs, cream and butter to the General Store and trade for other things they needed, but couldn't raise themselves.
OMG ! She looks like my beloved and much missed grandmother ! I actually burst into tears ! I grew up in a working glass neighborhood and several of the older people still had chickens in their backyards. I fact we used to play in a chicken house one old lady neighbor had. Drove my mother nuts because we kept ringworm .
For many rural women their "egg money" was the only discretionary income they had control over. It was used for a range of purposes from occasional "fripperies" and luxury items, to gifts, to an emergency stash for unexpected expenses or income shortfalls, to making up for the family income spent on the "twin evils of drink and gambling".
