17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, October 20, 1912:
November brings us many things
And among them is Thanksgiving
The first of the snow
The winds that blow
And all that makes life worthwhile.
We organized a Literary Society at school this afternoon. I am one of the committee. Just what I wanted to be.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Assuming that Grandma wrote the poem—and didn’t copy it from somewhere—it’s amazing how enthusiastic she was about November. It seemed like she was feeling down in several October diary entries. I hope that November proves to be a better month.
Was the Literary Society like a modern book club? Was it a school club . . . or did a group of friends organize it? Did both males and females belong. . . or was it a girl’s only club?
I’m glad Grandma got the position she hoped to get. Committee member sounds like a worker bee position. Did the committee members help select books to read? . . bring desserts? . . . clean up after the meetings?
A Hundred Years Ago 
I am curious as to what the fifth book in your set is. I have books by Appleton and Zane Grey on my shelves and I think I have a copy of The Rosary. To many books to look through :-).
It’s Making Home Happy by Mrs. L.D. Avery-Stuttle. I haven’t read it yet–so I don’t know if it’s any good. Too many books to read. 🙂
That is one that I have not heard of :-). There are definitely too many books to read 🙂 I have a lot of unread books at home and still seem to buy more ;-).
I love old books. I used the spine of a book that looks similar to that Daddy Long Legs one in a recent painting.
I also love old books. The painting sounds really cool. I recently read the Daddy Long Legs book and really enjoyed it (stay tuned).
It’s great that you get to know so much about your Grandma’s younger years, what she did, and especially how she felt about things. I really like the poem, and it was lovely to see the sudden change in her tone as the month changed. 🙂
I am very fortunate to have the diary. It is fun to see how her mood changed with the new month.
I look forward to her monthly poems. Do you own these books? Old books are like old friends! I wonder what types of books she read too.
Yes–I just pulled a couple old books off the shelf to illustrate the post. Some I’ve read–others I haven’t. Some of them are books from my husband’s side of the family.
It sounds like a book club 🙂
Sounds like an old-fashioned name for a book club to me, too.
I love your old books there too, The Sears Catalogue used to have a bunch you could order back then, I got a kick out of some of the titles that could be ordered…like Thorns and Orange Blossoms by Berta M Clay. I’m sure now a publisher would recommend a Pen Name. ha.
A lot of them had really strange titles. And it’s always fun to see what the stories are about in old books (Some are surprisingly good and some are really bad.)
I was expecting the last line of the poem to read “And all that makes life worth living.” To rhyme with Thanksgiving.
You’re right, that would have rhymed. Maybe she got tired of writing before she got the last word down on paper.