16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, December 8, 1911: Had such a vexatious time with Jimmie. He fell down in the mud at noon and he was covered from top to toe, but I succeeded in making a slight improvement on him. Then coming home he lost one of his rubbers and I had to go back after it.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The primary school was on the first floor of the McEwensville School building–and the high school was on the second floor. Grandma’s 6-year-old brother Jimmie was a first grader at the school. I suppose someone came upstairs and got her when Jimmie got muddy.
Little brothers can be a pain sometimes—but Grandma probably also sometimes did fun things with Jimmie. Maybe Grandma helped Jimmie make Christmas crafts.
Here are directions to make a paper Christmas tree.
Fold two sheets of green construction paper together and cut out 2 Christmas trees.
Unfold the trees and staple together on the fold. (A hundred years ago, they may have sewed the trees together on the fold.)
Cut “decorations” out of the old Christmas cards and glue on the tree. Glue the small buttons on the tree to make ornaments (Don’t use too many or the tree might get top-heavy and not stand properly.)
Stand the tree up, and use a small piece of decorative cord or other bric-a-brac to make a garland.
(An aside–One thing that I really like about the old days is how people routinely re-purposed items that were around the house to make decorations.)
A Hundred Years Ago 