American immigrants in the early 1900s were held in quarantine on Ellis Island. The society ladies sponsored Settlement Houses which taught ‘modern’ living. The Settlement Cookbook was one of their projects.
All four of my grandparents were immigrants. All except my paternal grandmother learned English to an acceptable or better degree. My paternal grandfather spoke, read and could write 5 languages, including English and Spanish. His family spent 9 years in Argentina, which was the only country then that didn’t charge for a visa.
On my mother’s side, both grands came over at 18 and were allowed in as workers. The other side had 2 kids and grandma was pregnant, so a sponsor, a job + a visa were required. 6 kids combined in my parents’ generation, all assimilated, all were enthusiastic Americans. They even refused to teach us Russian, Yiddish or Lithuanian because they didn’t want us to be greenhorns. I picked up some Yiddish, but by the time my brother was born 5 years later, they stopped using it around us, so I forgot.
These people came from rural areas with dirt floors and weekly baths, wood heat and wood cook stoves. They were all born in the 19th century in Eastern Europe. They figured things out quickly. They wouldn’t discuss life in Europe. If I asked, the answer was “It’s better here.” End of discussion.
Exactly! Eastern Europe and Ireland were both difficult places in which to live 100+ years ago."It's better here" was the typical attitude of immigrants back then regardless of what horrible place they came from.OTOH,if the democrats have their way it won't be long before we'll be dialing "1" for Spanish,"2" for Chinese,"3" for Arabic and "4" for English.
And it sounds like Canada might be headed in the same general direction.
“”dirt floors and weekly baths, wood heat and wood cook stoves””
Probably not so much different from other elders on this site. Except for the “dirt floors”, I grew up with all of the above in upstate NY!