Home Management: What an experience!!!

A 6 week stay in the Michael’s Home Management House for “a practical application of household managerial skills” was a requirement for many senior Home Economics majors in the 60’s…and—40 years later--the quirks and lessons of those 6 weeks are still ingrained in the memories of the participants! Here are a few tales shared by Lana Lawrenz Anderson and Erica Gustafson Granchalek of their residencies:


"Miss Charlotte Rose, the House supervisor, was quite a character. She ate very slowly at meals and no one could leave the table until everyone was done. She would take second helpings and it was an excruciating wait for her to finish. However, we learned quickly and we all took seconds ourselves, so there would be very little left when the serving dish was ready to be passed to her.

She liked egg for breakfast--but not too much. She asked me to hard cook one for her. I then had to peel it and cut it into quarters, as she only ate one quarter of an egg a day. We were assigned rotating duties during our stay: Cook, assistant cook, waitress, downstairs maid, upstairs maid, etc. She seemed to be quite pleased that the cook would spend most of the day in the kitchen during their assigned time. However, I would bop in and whip up something quick that we prepared at the restaurant that I worked in during summers. She was very discouraged that dinner could be done in a short time.

Since she was allergic to hair spray, we had to go downstairs to the little room behind the kitchen to put hairspray on our bouffant styles. Fortunately, that room had a fan that could exhaust the fumes.

We always had to prepare a table center piece from things found around in nature. We were not allowed to spend money for it. Cagily, we would have a friend send us flowers when we were in the house, so that we could create an attractive centerpiece. (Not all of us came prepared with seashells, etc,to put on the table.) I did love all of the china sets--at least 4 sets for dinner meals, beside the everyday ones in the kitchen. I liked the array of dishes so much that I have several sets of china, too. I do recall Miss Rose coming to the classroom on rainy days. She would sit down and take out tissues to wipe off the bottom of her shoes before putting on her galoshes."

Lana Lawrenz Anderson




"Miss Rose was a real character who was some what stuck in the Victorian era, but who managed to put the fear of God in all of us who lived in that house for a seemingly unending amount of time (six weeks I think....)

I think that one of the best stories ever--one that I will never forget--was the time that Carol Kitzmann Trimberger and I were sitting around the kitchen table, in the Home Man House, smoking an illicit cigarette. We were blowing the smoke directly into the exhaust fan, when we lit something on the surface of the kitchen table on fire. Can you imagine? Sort of like igniting the high altar of a church. I couldn’t quit laughing. I knew our lives were on the line, and I just couldn’t quit laughing.

Guys who were dating anyone living in the Home Man House were affected as well. My husband, Dale, remembers the detailed procedures to which one needed to adhere prior to entering the house. When it came to rules, Miss Rose was an equal opportunity enforcer.

I also remember Miss Rose used to tell all the married ladies that they should refrain from sex at least one month each year.

These recollections are just the tips of the ice berg-- I’m sure there are many, MANY Home Management stories. Get a bunch of alums in a room, and the memories could fill a CD…and provide a multitude of laughs!"

Erica Gustafson Granchalek