17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, March 1, 1913:
The month of March, ah welcome sound
You bring to us a coming spring.
Where glimpse of leaf and budding flower,
Awake to us this glorious thing.
Today was a busy one for me. Ma got mad at me, but it’s over by this time. Rufus has gone up to Tweet’s to stay til tomorrow evening. I got my fee in advance.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
There’re lots of nicknames in this entry. Rufus referred to Grandma’s sister Ruth. Grandma often called her Rufus in the diary—especially when she was upset with Ruth. Tweet was their friend Helen Wesner.
I think that on a typical day Grandma and Ruth shared the daily farm chores, and each milked several cows. Grandma probably had to do all of the chores herself since Ruth was away—though it sounds like she made Ruth pay her.
Why did Grandma’s mother get mad? Since it was a busy day, maybe Grandma failed to do something or didn’t do it to her mother’s satisfaction.
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On the first day of every month Grandma included a poem in the diary.
I love these monthly poems. It doesn’t feel like a month since the last one already. The time flies by!
Time sure does fly. . . of course February was a short month.🙂
We share a connection with our ancestors when we eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring!
Some things never change.🙂
Grandma was pretty smart if she got her sister to pay her in advance to do her chores! Glad her mom wasn’t mad at her for long.
Well that’s funny she wrote so much on a busy day and less on the boring days….kinda like Blogging…when nothings going on there’s not much inspiration. Your Grandma might have had a BLOG if she was around today.
I like your analogy. I bet she would have had a blog if she was around today.🙂
I wonder how someone earns the nickname tweet? Cute!
ahead of her time!
It’s interesting to think about how Tweet got her nickname. . . Was she very chatty? . . . or did she have a high-pitched voice? . . .or did she enjoyed gossiping? . . . or . . .
Do you suppose kids “talked back” like they do nowadays? That would explain Grandma’s Mom being mad.
I bet your right about talking back. That would make sense.