#ts4decades

[300yearschallenge]

In the spring of 1750 a letter reached the Olafsson farm.

Inside was a two page letter written in slightly shaky handwriting and containing a number of spelling errors.

All the same, it brought the family a great deal of joy.

It read:

Dearest family,

This is Viola Olafsson writing. I hope you're all well and happy since we last saw each other!

I bet you're wondering where I am and what I've been doing so let me tell you - I have a job!

I work at a inn that is run by a very nice lady named Karolina.

She owns the entire place! And is very honourable and respectable and good at business.

I really admire her. And I promise I would never have been allowed to work here without aunt Violetta agreeing to it, so that means it is perfectly fine.

I work as a musician, playing the fiddle in the evenings on a small stage in order to entertain Karolina's patrons.

They're mostly rich merchants, so I wear a beautiful green gown and wear powders and tints on my face.

I bet you all can't imagine how fancy I look!

When I'm not playing my music I usually help out with smaller, simple tasks such as feeding the chickens or taking care of Karolina's dog.

Karolina has other workers who do the cleaning and cooking, so all in all my workload is pretty easy.

As a payment for my services I get free food and my very own set of rooms on the top floor of the inn.

It is perhaps not the fanciest rooms but they're far roomier than the old attic back home and all mine!

To top it all off Karolina has been teaching me to read and write.

It's really hard, but I think I'm getting pretty good at it. Karolina says I am a very headstrong young woman, I hope that means I'll become good at this whole writing thing in time.

You may be thinking that I have no need for such knowledge, but mark my words!

One of these days I'm gonna own and run my very own inn and then all of this knowledge will come in handy!

All in all I'm very happy here.

I don't make a lot of money to use on my own, but given the free room and food I figure it's worth it.

Still, I'm sure you will be happy to know I'm saving as much as possible so that I may be able to come visit everyone at some point in the future.

Until then, imagine me fancy and happy.

Much love,

Viola.

PS. I have written down the address at the back of this page, so that Ulf can write back. .

.

.

Historical Info

While I know it's not technically within the challenge rules to have an unwed woman move out of the family household and go off on her own, I felt like it just fit Viola too well to have her do this and be the showcase for what an unmarried woman might do for work.

Our view of western history is often that before feminist theory took off properly there was no way for a single woman to make her way into the world, but that's actually not entirely correct.

While women were definitely severely limited in their societal movement in terms of laws and the norms of society, it still wasn't uncommon for there to be women who worked for themselves.

This source examines women in Brittony and what they did for work, and while Sweden isn't in Brittony it's still an interesting read.

The source found that most unmarried women who worked for themselves either worked as domestic servants or within the mercantile industry (aka running shops or making things for shops to sell).

I learned that "in Nantes, one third of the innkeepers and mercers, and half of the whole-cloth merchants and fish vendors, were women" and so I decided that the most logical place for Viola to take up work would be at an inn run by a single woman.

I couldn't find any exact sources on it but I reckoned it wouldn't be impossible to imagine that a single woman would see someone as driven as Viola and choose to employ her as some sort of protégé/servant/musician.

[omgimlookingforcc]

[VICTORIAN FAMILY POSES] Sul sul simmers! I got inspired by some old victorian pictures on the web, so I created my first posepack to share with you! You will need Andrew’s Poseplayer and the teleport mod to work Hope you like it <3 DOWNLOAD (NO ADS, Mediafire): http://www.mediafire.com/file/rg6k4mtmefcv4c4/Victorian_family.package/file

[jjcanbewhoever]

“You should’ve heard this toddler earlier.” Elizabeth complained. “I was trying to take care of him and he just wasn’t listening! So disrespectful.” She said to Merideth.

She put her hands to her mouth then said, “Oh that’s terrible, a proper disciplining should work,” “I’ve tried, many times before, it doesn’t work.” Elizabeth replied. “It works on my child.”

“If my husband let me discipline him the right way I would, but he doesn’t know how to take care of his own child!”

Merideth laughed then said, “He’s very focused on his career, I’ve heard from my husband that he’s a terrific worker, you should be proud. Without him you wouldn’t even be able to take care of that child!” “Your right” Elizabeth said. “Maybe I should be a bit more appreciative.

She hugged him and said, “How was work today?” “It was great today, we got to do a little bit more reading then writing, which is always better.” “That’s good.” She replied. She loved being more appreciative to her husband, it made both of them feel more special.