Was Grandpa at the Sunday School Picnic?

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

Saturday, August 31, 1912: The Lutherans had their S.S. picnic down at the park today. I got down there sometime after eleven. On the whole I had quite a nice time. Met three or four girls, four it was. Didn’t have to do the milking when I came home, as it was already done.

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

Was Grandma’s future husband (and my grandfather), Raymond Swartz, also at the picnic?

My grandparents were members of Messiah Lutheran Church in McEwensville when I was a child. I assume that Raymond was raised Lutheran, and that Grandma converted from Baptist to Lutheran when she got married.

Raymond lived on a farm just south of McEwensville and also attended McEwensville High School. He was three and a half years younger than Grandma—and did not seem to be on her radar screen when she was writing the diary.

When Grandma wrote this diary entry she was17—Raymond was 13.

Farm Chores

Did Grandma’s sister Ruth do Grandma’s share of the milking? Numerous diary entries mention times when Ruth got home late –and Grandma got stuck with the milking. For example, on June 12, 1912, she wrote.

I’m mad at that Ruth tonight. She goes away and leaves me with the milking.

I think this is the first time a diary entry suggests that maybe Ruth also got stuck with all the milking sometimes.