16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, August 18, 1911:The Frontz kids were here today. Had some quabbles down in the run about the minnies, which they were trying to catch. There was a boisterous wind storm this afternoon. Ruth went to a party tonight. I was invited, but didn’t care very much about going.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’m not sure who the Frontz kids were—but the diary entry suggests that they were younger than Grandma. They probably came out to the Muffly farm from McEwensville to catch minnows in the creek. The minnows would then have be used as bait to catch larger fish (perhaps in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River at Watsontown.)
Grandma used lots of regional dialect in this entry. Minnows were referred to as minnies, the creek was called a run, and quabbles are similar to squabbles.
A perfect kid’s summer afternoon — catching minnows followed by a boisterous thunder shower. Just perfect.