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Maria Mafalda Teresa Chanler

b. 1935

Born
1 Apr 1935, Barrytown
Country of birth
United States

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
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Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Barrytown

    Birth, Barrytown

  2. Child born: Alexis Stenbock-Fermor

    Birth, Paris

  3. Child born: Xenia Stenbock-Fermor

    Birth

What was it like?

The world around Barrytown, 1935: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Maria was born the same year as Elvis Presley, Woody Allen, and Alain Delon.

Who ruled

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt

    President of the United States, 1933–1945 · United States

  • Harry S. Truman

    President of the United States, 1945–1953 · United States

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower

    President of the United States, 1953–1961 · United States

Born the same year

  • Elvis Presley

    American singer and actor (1935–1977)

  • Woody Allen

    American filmmaker, actor and comedian (born 1935)

  • Alain Delon

    French actor (1935–2024)

  • Julie Andrews

    British actress, singer and author (born 1935)

  • Edward Said

    Palestinian-American professor (1935–2003)

  • Brian Clough

    English football player and manager (1935–2004)

Fashion

Depression-era clothing and household costs

During the Great Depression, a typical practical dress for women cost $4.50, and mothers often managed to feed a family of six on just five dollars a week.

DIY repairs during the Depression

Families during the 1930s often repaired their own clothing using treadle sewing machines and prolonged the life of worn-out shoes by inserting cardboard into the soles.

Music

String band performances at community events

String band musicians often played at dances, fairs, and festivals to earn a living, sometimes performing for little or no pay just to gain a regional reputation. Common ensemble instruments included fiddles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, and harmonicas.

Around 1942–1942

Admission Price for a Dance

In 1942, a wedding dance at the Burke Auditorium in South Dakota charged admission of ten to twenty cents.

Getting around
Around 1938–1942

Railway travel times in the 1930s-40s

In 1938, a train journey from Brattleboro, Vermont, to New York City on the Washingtonian took less than five hours. In 1942, the Montreal Limited traveled from New York to Montreal in just over nine hours.

Around 1936–1949

Cars offered safety for Black travelers

During the 1930s, Black Americans frequently used cars to travel to avoid the discrimination and humiliation encountered on public transportation. To help plan these trips, they used the Negro Motorist Green Book, starting in 1936, to find safe places to stop for food and lodging.

Daily life

High Cost of Domestic Appliances

A new washing machine could cost between $60 and $200, which was significant given that a typical factory worker might earn only $100 per month.

Around 1930–1930

Gas Stoves Remained Most Popular Cooking Method

Despite the rise of electrical appliances, gas ranges remained the primary way to cook, with 13.7 million homes using piped gas in 1930 compared to less than one million using electric ranges.

Food

Feeding a family for five dollars weekly

During the 1930s, a careful mother could feed a family of six for five dollars a week. She often stretched meat with gravies, potatoes, and homemade bread, or made a single pot roast last for an entire week.

Staple foods and their prices

Buttermilk was a staple beverage for many families; creameries often gave it away for free, and families sometimes used it for everything from drinking to baking. By 1932, a bag of flour cost 16 cents and a loaf of bread sold for 5 to 10 cents.

Prices and wages

Income and food habits in the 1930s

During the mid-1930s, families of wage earners and clerical workers earned an average of $1,524 per year, though half lived on $1,458 or less. To save money, many stretched meals with homemade bread or used 25 cents worth of round steak to make a filling stew for the entire family.

Stretching the life of shoes and clothing

Shoes were a major ongoing expense, and when soles wore through, families often inserted cardboard to prolong the life of the footwear. Women's silk or rayon stockings cost about 72 cents per pair in the mid-1930s.

Work

Common jobs for ordinary Americans

Common jobs included work in farming, factories, clerical and sales positions, and domestic service. Millions of people also worked as laborers in unskilled roles such as farm hands or servants.

Long and varying working hours

Some delivery boys worked 12 hours a day for 6 days a week, plus Sunday mornings, totaling over 75 hours weekly. By contrast, production workers in manufacturing often saw their average workweek fluctuate between roughly 35 and 50 hours throughout this period.

During their lifetime

  1. 1954

    Supreme Court Ends School Segregation

    In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that state-sponsored segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

  2. 1955

    Polio Vaccine Developed

    The polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, helped eliminate the frequent epidemics that once paralyzed thousands of children each year.

  3. 1956

    Interstate Highway System Created

    In 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act, which authorized the construction of 41,000 miles of highway over 20 years.

  4. 1964

    Civil Rights Act Passed

    The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to outlaw discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

  5. 1981

    AIDS Epidemic Identified

    In 1981, the AIDS epidemic was first observed in the United States, deeply affecting public health and social life.

  6. 2010

    Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster

    The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in 2010, killing 11 workers and causing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.