How to Crack Black Walnuts

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

Thursday, November 9, 1911: Nothing to write.

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

A few weeks ago Grandma mentioned hulling walnuts. At that time I gathered some black walnuts and hulled them. I then spread them out to dry. My husband I have now cracked some of them and taken the nut meats out.

We put them into a vice to crack them–and had problems with the walnuts flying all over the garage.

We then covered the walnuts with a piece of cloth before cracking. This worked really well at containing everything. Once the shell was cracked it was easy to get the nuts out.

The walnuts tasted great–just like I’d remembered from my childhood. The flavor is more intense than grocery store walnuts–but it is really good.

Historic Events That Had NOT YET Occurred in 1911

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

Wednesday, November 8, 1911: Such stinkers in Algebra as we are having at present is enough to make your head giddy. Of all my six studies Algebra is just about the hardest, excluding geometry, which we commenced to take up several days ago, and General History, which we begin tomorrow. Ma and Ruth are out tonight but I staid in.

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

I wonder what Grandma was going to study in General History.

Think of all the historic events that seem like they happened very, very long ago—but which had not yet occurred a hundred years ago.

Grandma WAS NOT studying the history of:

World War I (It began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.)

The Soviet Union (The Russian Revolution of 1917 ended the Russian Empire. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922.)

Prohibition (The 18th amendment which addressed prohibition was ratified in 1919.)

Women’s suffrage (The 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote was ratified on 1920.)

How New Mexico or Arizona–or for that matter Alaska or Hawaii–had become states (New Mexico and Arizona entered the Union in 1912; Hawaii and Alaska entered the union in 1959.)

The presidency of Woodrow Wilson (He would be elected in 1912 and take office in 1913.)

Radio (The first scheduled radio broadcasting was in 1916.)

The Panama Canal (It opened in 1914—though Grandma probably read newspaper articles about the building of the canal.)

The personal income tax (The 16th amendment which allowed the personal income tax was ratified in 1913.)

Insulin (Insulin was discovered in 1922.)

The direct election of senators by voters (Prior to the 17^th amendment being ratified in 1913 senators were selected by state legislators.)

Collar Pins and Other Misplaced Items

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

Tuesday, November 7, 1911: I’ve concluded it’s easier to lose things than it is to find them. The other day six one cent stamps disappeared, and now today I lost two collar pins, which I have no hopes of ever recovering them again.

Collar.pin — Collar Pins (Photo Source: The Youth's Companion, December 7, 1911)

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

Young people misplace things, too!

I know that Grandma was frustrated, but this entry makes me smile. Sometimes I worry that I misplace things because I’m getting older. This entry reminds me that we all—young, middle-aged, and old– lose items.

I’m not exactly sure what collar pins were—but they apparently were the rage in 1911. There were directions for making crocheted collar pins in the December 7, 1911 issue of The Youth’s Companion.

New Uses for Irish Crochet

. . . Gold or silver pins used to fasten collars are covered with a single crochet stitch of fine cotton. For a straight strip like the one shown in the illustration, make a chain the length of the pin to be covered, and work back and forth until you have the right width. . .

An effective ornament for the neck or for the meeting-point of a Dutch collar is shown in the illustration. This is made in single crochet stitch of coarse cotton; a fine needle is used in order to keep the work as close as possible. Two parts are made; the pattern chosen here is in the form of a square, with loops round each side of the square. These loops are made of the picot stitch. The parts are joined on three picot loops at the back and a strip of black velvet ribbon six inches long by one and one-half inches wide is passed through the opening in the design.

Sometimes I’m amazed at the serendipitous way I find materials for this blog. I’d looked ahead and knew a diary entry that mentioned collar pins was coming up. Since I didn’t know what they were. I googled “collar pins” but had little luck.

I’d pretty much given up on finding anything about collar pins when I was flipping through 1911 issues of The Youth’s Companions a few days ago because Grandma had written about getting a subscription. Suddenly an article on Irish crochet that contained the words collar pins jumped out at me–and I had the material for this post.

Old-Time Cold Remedies

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

Monday, November 6, 1911: It rained nearly all day and I had no rubbers along at school and Pa didn’t come for me either. I didn’t like the idea of walking home, but there was no alternative. Such a day of tribulations as it was, also had a time with the cows getting them to go where I wanted them to go. Have a cold now.

Recent rainy day at the building that once housed the McEwensville School.

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

Yuck— It sounds like Grandma had a rough day. First she got soaked coming walking home from school; then she had to deal with contrary cows. By the time she wrote this diary entry—probably in the evening—she was sick.

I wonder how Grandma treated her cold symptoms. Here are some old-time central Pennsylvania remedies:

Cough syrup: Mix together 1 tablespoon each of whiskey, glycerin, honey, lemon. Give 1/2 teaspoon for young ‘ums, 1 teaspoon for adults.

For sore throat: Take equal parts of honey and vinegar, gargle often.

For sore throat: Gargle with warm salt water several times a day. DO NOT swallow the salt water!

Recipes, Reminiscence, & Remedies: Mooresburg Bicentennial Cookbook (2006)

These old remedies are from a cookbook that was published by the bicentennial committee of a town about 20 miles from McEwensville, and are probably similar to the remedies that Grandma might have used.

Did More Females Than Males Attend Church a Hundred Years Ago?

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

Sunday, November 5, 1911: It was simply fine today. Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Carrie walked along home with me. I mean over here.

Grandma and Carrie would have walked down this road after Sunday School to get to the Muffly farm.

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

It sounds like Grandma and her friend Carrie Stout enjoyed a nice fall day.

Every Sunday Grandma wrote in her diary that she went to Sunday School or church. Occasionally she mentioned that her sister Ruth went to Sunday School—but I don’t think that she ever mentioned her parents or 6-year-old brother Jimmie going. Didn’t they attend? . . . or did Grandma just not happen to mention them?

According to the March 23, 1911 issue of The Youth’s Companion magazine women were more likely to attend church than men:

Careful compilation of statistics shows that seventy per cent of the audience both in church and theater are women. The only places where men are in the majority, apparently, are the offices and workshops—and even there the preponderance is not what it once was.

An aside–I always enjoy finding statements like this in old magazines, but I often wonder where the statistics came from. Maybe I’m cynical—but I can’t help wondering if the author merely went to a church service and a play, counted the number of males and females, and then calculated a percentage.

Remodeling Sister’s Extra Petticoat

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

Saturday, November 4, 1911: Did some sewing this afternoon, fixing over a black petticoat which once belonged to Ruth. Seeing she had four and I none, she was so benevolent as to donate me the fourth.

sewing.stitches.1 — Source of photos: The Dressmaker (Butterick Publishing Co, 1911)

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

Ah, this entry so aptly conveys the complex relationship between Grandma and her older sister Ruth.

I wonder what changes needed to be made to the petticoat. Was it torn?—Or maybe Grandma was shorter (or taller). . . or heavier (or thinner) than her sister.

Colleges and Public Service a Hundred Years Ago

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

Friday, November 3, 1911: Nothing very much doing today. Didn’t get any of my lessons out this evening. I wasn’t in a very studious mood.

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

Grandma so often worried about school—though she often seemed to not quite get around to studying. I wonder if Grandma ever considered going to college after she graduated from high school.

I suppose college seemed beyond the realm of possibilities to a farm girl in rural central Pennsylvania a hundred years ago. Less than 3% of the people were college graduates back then—and the rate would have been much lower than that for women.

There was an article in the November 6, 1911 issue of Youth’s Companion about why men—the article didn’t mention women—attended college.

Excerpts from

The College in the Service of the Nation

by

Arthur Twining Hadley (President of Yale University)

The American college serves the nation in three conspicuous ways: first, by training men for public office; second by establishing standards of professional success in private business which lead men to do what the public needs, instead of trying merely to make money for themselves; third, by promoting the search for the truth and the spirit of discovery and invention that are necessary for national progress. . .

When we think of public service, we naturally think of these meanings. So did the founders who established the earliest colleges. The founders of the collegiate school at New Haven [Yale] stated in the charter of 1701, that it was the purpose of their institution to fit youth for employment in church and state. . .

Every man, whatever his business can conduct it in such a way as to serve the public. The lawyer who pleads in the courts ought to be doing the same sort of service to the public as the judge who decides the cases. The physician can render and ought to render the same service in providing for public health that the watchman or the signalman provides for public security against accidents.

Any business however simple in its character, where a man thinks first of the work that he is doing and only secondarily of the pay that he is going to get deserves the name of profession.

One of the most valuable things that our colleges can do is to emphasize this ideal of public service, so that the professional element will count for more in men’s lives and the trade element will county for less.

A third way in which our colleges can render public service is by keeping alive the spirit of exploration and discovery-the spirit which leads men to test new methods of action and to pursue new lines of truth. I believe that this is the most important and necessary service of all.

So far as our colleges teach their students the love of pursuing truth for truth’s sake, without regard to the material reward, they fulfill their highest and most necessary duty in the service of the nation.