A Hundred Years Ago

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, December 18, 1911: Got up about five o’clock this morning. I milked this morning in entire darkness, but I guess I’ll wait until it gets lighter after this. Ruth left about half past six this morning intending to take the early train. Don’t know what I’ll do without her. Am beginning to miss her already. I consoled myself by going to Watsontown and buying Xmas presents. I got Mater a half doz. tumblers. Ruth a pair of gold collar pins. Besse a gold hat pin and Jimmie a horn to make some noise with. After going over my list of things I bought I found that one of the clerks had cheated herself out of fifteen cents.

Advertisement Source: Kimball’s Dairy Farmer Magazine (September 15, 1911)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Whew, Grandma had a long day. It doesn’t sound like fun to get up at 5 a.m. to milk cows on one of the shortest days of the year.

And, it’s kind of cool that Grandma missed her sister Ruth so quickly after she left–or at least wished that her sister was there to help with the work. In so many diary entries, Grandma seemed annoyed or frustrated with her sister; and refers to her as Rufus, her highness, etc. It’s been fun to try to decipher the complex relationship between the sisters.

At least Grandma had a  fun shopping. I love the line about the clerk cheating herself out of 15 cents. Grandma would have noticed that type of mistake even when she was elderly. She strongly believed that if you watched your pennies that the dollars would take care of themselves. (Actually she probably also worried about the dollars.)

Even when Grandma was very old, if she saw a penny lying on a sidewalk, she would bend down to pick up.

I also always pick up stray pennies whenever I see any—and remember that I learned the importance of every single penny from Grandma. I tell my children that I’m still young because I can still bend and pick pennies up. My children retort that I must be old if I think that a penny still has enough value to make it worthwhile picking up.

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16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Friday, December 15, 1911:Our entertainment is over at last. That dialogue went off alright. I didn’t forget any of my part although I was rather doubtful about it. As I rather expected before hand, we all received a Christmas present from Jake. It was a post card with his picture on it. Last year he gave girls little china dishes with Japanese on them and the boys match holders containing matches.

Maybe the boys got a  China Bald Head Match Holder or a China Scratch Me Match Holder the previous year. Ugh–Somehow giving match holders just don’t work for me.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

A hundred years ago today was the last day of School for Grandma before the Christmas break. Winter breaks apparently were longer back then than they are now.

It sounds like the students had fun doing the dialogue—Grandma had been working at learning her part since the 5th.

I can’t imagine a teacher giving students match holders today. I wonder why the boys needed them—to light stoves or candles? . . . or perhaps some of them smoked.

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16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, December 14, 1911: Oh dear! I do wish it would snow. I’m getting tired of tramping through the mud all the time. Get provoked at a problem in Arith. It looked so easy, but I couldn’t get it. I’ll try tomorrow again and perhaps I’ll succeed.

Men probably wore boots like this when tramping around the farm through the mud. Grandma probably had galoshes that she pulled over her shoes. (Source:  Kimball’s Dairy Farmer Magazine, September 15, 1911)

FARM COMFORT

Sloshing around in wet and mud is no fun, but a pair of good, stout rubber boots, which you always depend on, makes it a lot easier.

Get the easy, comfortable, long-wearing kind—the

Woonsocket

ELEPHANT HEAD

Rubber Boots

We have been making rubber boots for 45 years, often as many as 10,000 pairs a day—in the only exclusive rubber boot mill in the U.S.

We make boots for men, women, and children: hip boots, knee boots, short boots—all kinds. One man who bought a pair 28 years ago wrote us that they were still good.

All Dealers.

WOONSOCKET RUBBER Co.

Woonsocket, R.I.

[An aside--I can't even imagine a company today advertising that a pair of boots might last 28 years. I guess that some things were just made better a hundred years ago!]

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Yuck—the mud sounds awful. This is the third time that Grandma’s mentioned mud in her December diary entries . . . and the eleventh time that she’s mentioned it since she began the diary in January 1911.

(If you would like to read her previous entries on this topic—type the word mud into the search box near the top of this page.)

Mud was a huge problem a hundred years ago.  There would have muddy areas between the house and barn on the farm.  And, the roads, both in McEwensville and the surrounding rural areas, were not yet paved in 1911.

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16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, December 4, 1911: Pa took us to school this morning. Such a time as I had waiting on him, but we got there in plenty of time. You see our old clock was the cause of it all, being over half an hr. fast.   

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Maybe the family needed to get a Big Ben clock for Christmas. The December 15, 1911 issue of Kimball’s’ Dairy Farmer magazine had an alarm clock advertisement.

The ad text says:

Big Ben

Merry Christmas! Here is Big Ben.

May he wish you many of them!

Don’t waste a minute of this merry day. Have the presents ready Christmas eve. Hang each stocking up. Arrange the presents that won’t go inside in little piles around each stocking.

Then when all have gone to sleep, sneak into each bedroom a joy-faced Big Ben.

He’ll ring the merriest Christmas bell you have ever heard and get the family down to see the presents bright and early so the whole day will be yours to fully enjoy.

Big Ben is a gift worth the giving, for he is a clock that lasts and serves you daily year after year.

He is not merely an alarm clock—he’s an efficient timepiece—to get you up or to tell you the time all day—a clock for bedroom, parlor, library or hall.

Big Ben stands seven inches tall. He’s massive, well poised, triple plated. His face is frank, open, easy to read—his keys large, strong, easy to wind.

He calls you every day at any time you say, steadily for ten minutes, or at repeated intervals for fifteen.

He is sold by jewelers only—the price is $2.50 anywhere.

If you cannot find him at your jeweler’s, a money order sent to his designers, Westclox, La Salle, Illinois, will bring him to you express charges paid.

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