16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, September 16, 1911: This Saturday was rather dull. I did some mending this afternoon I have four or five problems. I should have worked tonight, but will procrastinate if until tomorrow or some other convenient time only so I have them done by Monday noon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It’ sounds like a boring afternoon. . . I wonder if Grandma felt down because fall was fast approaching and straw hat season was over:
During the first couple of years (1850-1852) that my gggrandfather was in Springdale, he made straw hats and baskets, as well as willow baskets, for extra money. He also made these hats for himself and his children and baskets for general household use.
It’s really cool how people made and used hand-crafted items in the old days. It’s one of the wonderful things about the old days–
This was a very interesting and useful post. I have lots of photos of people wearing straw hats, and I figured the photos were taken during the summer. I’ve never really thought about a “season,” but it might be worth thinking about when trying to date photos. It’s worth considering that photos may have been taken in the summer but also could have been taken as late as September 15.
Thanks for the post!
When I’m going through the microfilms next spring, I’m going to have to watch to see if the paper says when strawhat season begins.