17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, April 19, 1912: Dear me, I haven’t anything worth writing. I’m trying to get my sister to moved back to her own room.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma and her sister Ruth sometimes shared a bedroom—and other times didn’t.
Based on previous entries, I think that there probably was a double bed in Grandma’s room—and that they shared it during the winter months because there was no heat on the second floor of the house and it was very cold. But now it was spring, and Grandma wanted her sister to move back to her own room.
The previous year Grandma had similar problems getting her sister out of the room. For example, on June 29, 1911 she wrote:
I moved Ruthie’s belongings into another apartment and she herself is going to occupy that room for a time. Don’t know how long it will be though. I’m so tired now, I can hardly stand upright.
Quite normal for the times, but I can imagine it got tedious.
My cousins shared a room and double bed for years in the 1950s. Do you think her room was so fancy as the one above.
I doubt it. I picture Grandma’s room as being very basic. Then, as now, I picture the rooms showcased in magazines as being much nicer than the typical room.
I am a first born who shared a bed with sisters. My symphaties are with Grandma.
I shared my room with my sister also. She is eight years younger and I took care of her a lot. Didn’t mind…but not having your own space could get old. I can relate with Grandma also! I think she sounds like a kind and patient person.:)
I shared a room (but not a bed) with my sister growing up. I didn’t mind it as I was the younger one but I think she got tired of it. We would share a bed on the rare occasions we were left at my nanna’s house overnight to be looked after. I remember my sister marking a division down the centre of the bed by lumping up the underlay and told me I had to keep to my side of the bed, lol!