16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, September 20, 1911: Guess this was our teacher’s last day, and I’m not sorry. Our real teacher is coming next Monday so I have heard. Papa and Mamma and Jimsey went to the fair this afternoon. I expect to go tomorrow if the weather is favorable. We have Thursday and Friday off for the fair.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The students at McEwensville High School have had a substitute teacher since the beginning of the school years (see yesterday’s post for more details).
McEwensville High School and the primary school shared a building (the high school was on the second floor; Grades 1-8 were on the first). Apparently the primary school didn’t have classes a hundred years ago today—since Grandma’s little brother Jimmy went with her parents to the fair. I wonder why the high school had school. You’d think that two schools would have been on the same schedule.
Well as least she got Thursday and Friday off—and is ready for some fun.
Seems to me that substitute teachers are either loved or not. This one seems to be of the “or not” variety.