Cheaper by the Dozen

The book Cheaper by the Dozen written by Frank B. Gilbreth,
Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey was the life story of the
Gilbreth family before Mr. Gilbreth died. Frank Gilbreth,
Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth were two of the twelve children.
Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth, both industrial engineers, ran a
firm, Gilbreth, Inc. which was employed as "efficiency
experts" by major industrial plants in the United States,
Britain, and Germany.
 
Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth had twelve children, six girls and
six boys. The names of the children are Anne, Ernestine,
Frank, Bill, Lillian, Martha, Jack, Jane, Fred, Mart, Bob,
and Dan. The older children's job is to take care of the
youngest and the mother took care of the intermediate
children and babies.
 
Nothing was consider more a sin than wasting time, that is
why the father, Frank, times himself trying to go as fast
as he can with almost everything. He timed himself
buttoning his shirt to see which way is faster, top-bottom
or bottom-top. He timed himself shaving to see which way
took longer, using two brushes to apply the shaving cream
of one. He found that two were faster. Frank, the father
also experiment on which ways was faster, using two razors
of one. He found that one was faster, because with two he
cut himself so many times it took him twice as much time to
cover the cuts up.
 
The book talked about how smart Frank, the Father was. He
painted mores code on the walls of their summerhouse to
teach it to his children. When the children decoded the
message written on the wall, it revealed a clue that tells
the child who decoded it where a prize was hidden. He
painted also all of the planets and stars you can see in
the sky on the walls of their summerhouse to teach his kids
astrology.
 
A neat power that the father, Frank, had was that as soon
as he look at a person he would know their nationality.
When ever the family would go somewhere were you would have
to pay by the person, such as a toll bridge, Frank, the
father, would take one look at the person and know that
their nationality was Irish. The father, Frank, would say,
"do my Irishmen come cheaper by the dozen?" The owner would
probably say, "Irishmen? If you are Irish, you should not
pay a toll on my road. Your trip is on the house."
 
At the end of the book the father, Frank is called for work
in Germany. He decided to walk to the train station, which
is only a few blocks away from their house. When he arrived
at the train station he called Lillie, the mother and told
her that he was fine, but before he hung up she heard him
fall to the ground. The mother told all of her neighbors to
go look for all of the children who were out playing.
Frank, the boy, thought that one of the girls was hit by a
car. When the children finally arrived home they saw the
second youngest child, Jack, sit on the front step saying,
"Daddy's dead."