16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, January 3, 1912: Want it to snow so bad, bo-ho. Ma spilt almost half a bucket full of milk in the pantry this evening and I had to gather it up. It took longer to do it than it does to write it. Trying to keep my new year’s resolution. Don’t want to break it.
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Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma’s new year’s resolution was to make better grades than she had during the fall–though it sounds like she’s already struggling with studying and doing her homework. (I guess some things never change—It’s barely into the new year, and I’ve not totally kept all of my 2012 resolutions.)
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, January 2, 1912: Started into school again after such a long vacation. Wasn’t glad it was over either. Want to study harder now and make better marks than I did the fore part of the term. That is a new year’s resolution I made yesterday. Bumped my head a little while again above the eye. Kinda sore. Isn’t this here scratching?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Time will tell whether Grandma was able to keep her resolution to study harder.
Today many people make resolutions to manage their money better in the upcoming year. I was surprised to discover that what people spend their money on has changed over time.A hundred years ago about 30% of a household’s expenditures were on food—today it’s approximately 12%.
But we now spend a higher percentage of our income on housing than was done in the past. In 1912 people spent about 15% on housing; today we spend about 34%.
Given today’s consumer culture, I was surprised to discover that we spend relatively less on apparel. A hundred years ago about 15% of household expenditures were for apparel; today it’s only about 4%. I suppose that it was more labor intensive to make clothes and shoes back then. Also, families were bigger so maybe households needed to spend more on apparel.
I got the 1912 data from an article in the January 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal on budgeting. For 2012, I used data from the 2010 Consumer Expenditure Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics since that was the most recent year available.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, January 1, 1912: Not getting tired in the least of keeping a diary even if I do not travel or do anything as interesting. I will still continue to write down the happenings as the days go by, as I did last year. Understand this is not the beginning of a new diary, but simply a continuation of the old one, guaranteed to be full of numerous mistakes and blunders, much to the writer’s annoyance.
1912
This is leap year and rightfully belongs to old maids and maidens, especially the neglected ones, like my snappy sister, etc.
January brings to us a new born year,
To do with as we will
So each worthy deed be done
And every glad and hopeful thought fulfilled.
New Year’s day for me had a rather doleful beginning, but brightened up as the day passed on. Carrie came over this afternoon and we went a skating or rather she did the skating and I the tumbling. I was just experimenting, being the first time I really tried to skate. Maybe I’ll buy a pair of skates pretty soon, as I haven’t any of my own. But the learning, however, isn’t much fun.
Ruth and I went up to Oakes this evening. It is so grand these evenings. One I could most read by moonlight.
New Year Post Card, circa 1912
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’ve now been posting these diary entries for one year—and like Grandma I’m not getting tired in the least. I enjoyed posting entries in 1911 and look forward to learning more about Grandma and her times during the upcoming year.
