Comments on: What Latter-day Saint Women Should Know, 1906 (II)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:06:34 +0000

That’s what’s so fascinating to me, meems — people, on the whole, don’t change, no matter how much we change our surroundings!

By: meems

meems — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:55:31 +0000

Ardis — this is lovely and timely advice! I think following some of these messages today would be well worth it. One that struck me funny was the one that says:

Many of the fads and fancies which become the rage are introduced by those, the mention of whose name and purpose would bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of others who are often the first to adopt them.

This reminded me of a conversation I had this afternoon when a friend called her daughter’s favorite store the “prostitute shop”, since so many of the fashions looked like they were inspired by “women of ill repute.” Sounds like nothing has changed?

By: kevinf

kevinf — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:28:07 +0000

I was a landlord for about three months while bridging from the first home we owned in Taylorsville, UT, to a newer home in Kaysville. It was truly one of the worst experiences of my life, and I ended up evicting a young couple with a two week old baby. They were renting from me while they arranged financing to buy our home (they told me), but then made no payments after the first month’s rent, didn’t pay the utilities, let the lawn die, never took out the trash or did any cleaning in the house, all the while working with the real estate agent on another house somewhere else, without informing me. I vowed never to be a landlord again.

On the other hand, my only experience renting from a slumlord was when my daughter attended Ricks College (pre-BYU-ID). She lived in an apartment in an old house that had been divided up into apartments, and was one of several on the same street owned by the same individual. The room she and her roommate shared was a basement room with no windows, which I believe was a code violation. While we were there visiting one weekend, a leaky pipe started dripping through the sheetrock on the ceiling and on to a computer and some books on one of the girls desks. They had been trying to get the landlord to come and look at it for a couple of days, so I took a quick look. When I touched the soaked sheetrock, a big chunk fell out, revealing a bad pipe joint that had been wrapped with duct tape, and a small cereal bowl had been taped underneath the joint to catch the leaks. It turns out that the landlord had done a quick repair a year or two before and sealed it back up with the bowl still inside.

This landlord had been notoriously unresponsive to many of the girls living in those apartments on that street, and when some of them went to the housing board to complain, he turned out to be chairman of the housing board that regulated and oversaw approved housing.

He was also in the bishopric of the student ward that my daughter attended, and used to get mad if the girls didn’t call him “Brother xxxxx” during the week. I told my daughter he was “Brother xxxxx” at church and church activities, but when she dealt with him as the landlord, he was “Mister xxxxxx”, to avoid confusion.

For her second year, she found different housing, and was much happier.

I’ve been on both sides, and didn’t enjoy either experience.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Apropos slumlords — My grandparents rented a home on SLC’s west side in the mid-1920s. Along with the general disrepair of the house, the barren yard was riddled with tunnels dug by the boys who had lived there previously, and who had lined their tunnels with sheets of corrugated iron. My grandfather spent months digging that up and hauling away the rubbish and fixing the house, and my grandmother, with green thumbs up to her elbows, worked just as hard landscaping the grounds.Whereupon the landlord raised the rent, because the property was worth so much more now.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to be a landlord, given the habits of so many of those I’ve shared a roof with. Ugh.

By: queuno

queuno — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:21:14 +0000

So slumlords can blame it on the renters… Provo slumlords must still be living in 1906 (OK, that actually makes sense!).

By: Anne (U.K)

Anne (U.K) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:28:20 +0000

I spy some ‘modern’ thinking in there-insomniacs imitating the breathing of one who is asleep, the advice on dish cloths,and so on, although taking a bath ‘midway between meals’ has me beat!

Thanks!