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In 1888, a great blizzard hit the US East Coast, from the Chesapeake Bay region on up through New England and even into Canada’s Atlantic provinces. Snow fell up to four feet deep and high winds made huge snowdrifts, burying whole houses. Caroline Emerson (1891 to 1973), a teacher and a writer, takes the Great Blizzard of 1888 as the beginning of her fictional story about a New England family of four and the incredible technological changes they saw in the years up to about 1905.
Jimmy was only four years old in 1888 as his little sister Nan was born at home in the middle of the blizzard. They couldn’t call or use their car to get nursing help because there were no telephones or cars in their town. They couldn’t turn up the thermostat to keep the new baby warm because there was no central heat. And they couldn’t turn on the faucet to get warm water for the baby’s bath since there was no indoor plumbing and water heater! As Nan and Jimmy grow up, their father gradually brings changes to their house – indoor plumbing, a furnace for central heat, a telephone, and a car, all of which were coming into American homes at that time. In what is probably the most interesting aspect of the book, Emerson describes the effect on the family and the town of all these changes. The book ends as an early airplane drones across the sky. Mother draws the line at changes with airplanes, but little does she realize that technological change was only accelerating. First published in 1936, Father’s Big Improvements is a light-hearted and happy story looking back on the time period 1888 to 1905 and all the incredible technological changes that came to American towns and families. The reading level is upper elementary school.