Jeff's grandma used to draw the ads in catalogues back in the days before they used photographs. She sent photo Christmas cards before they were a thing, and would draw they background design for the card. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get 9 kids to pose for a picture?!
How did people do it, seriously? I can barely manage two kids.
You could drink and smoke back then and no one cared lol.
She always tells the story about going to her doctor because she had three or four kids to take care of and couldn't keep her eyes open. He prescribed her some miracle pill that gave her tons of energy. She took them through all of the rest of her pregnancies and even shared with her husband while he finished up his masters.
When the boys started highschool, the school sent home a list of drugs for parents to be aware of and her magic pills were on the list. She was like, "I was taking uppers and didn't even know it! Thank God they all turned out okay!"
My grandma raised 6 kids in a dry county in AL and adapted by drinking gin on the rocks. Clear liquid with no ice = water. Clear liquid with ice cubes = gin. Sounds like her magic pills got her through, lol.