18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, April 21, 1913: I’m not doing very much studying now since final examinations are over.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The final countdown—only two more days until graduation!
Now, that final exams were finished, I’m surprised that Grandma was doing any studying .
Was she still making final revisions to her commencement speech titled Relics of the Earth’s Past?
Was the speech about fossils? . . . dinosaurs? . . . evolution? Was it controversial?
Grandma graduated well after the publication of the Origin of the Species (1859), but well before the Scopes Trial (1925). If the speech was about evolution, how did she frame it?
She may have talked about the Bone Wars that were waged in the late 1800’s between Cope and Marsh. Or, maybe she was inspired by one of my favorite books that just happened to be published in 1912. “The Lost World” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Thanks for the information. I’d never heard of either the Bone Wars or The Lost World. But your comment, led me to “google” them–and I ended up writing tomorrow’s post on this topic.
Glad to be of help :-).
Another question from far away; is it usual for everyone in a graduating class to give a commencement speech?
No, it is extremely unusual for everyone to give a commencement speech. I think that they did it at Grandma’s school because it was such a tiny school with only six students graduating.
And they were all excellent students it would seem with something interesting to say 🙂
Grandma must have been SO excited to be graduating.
Some things never change–students both then and now are SO excited to graduate. 🙂
The studying was over, but I do hope she was practising her speech, time is running out!
I wonder if she had butterflys in her stomach. 🙂
I am sure it would have made for good writing. 2 more days and she will be a young lady and no longer a student – way to go Helena! 😉
In a previous diary entry she wrote that she’d soon be a “sweet girl graduate.” It’s such a quaint sounding phrase, but I kind of like it.
I like alot of the old sayings – but it is cute to think of someone 18 and almost an adult consider herself a sweet girl. 😉
I still think you have the coolest blog, Sheryl.
Thank you for your kinds words.
I suppose the whole community attended the graduation. I hope she does well with her speech.
I also would guess that the whole community probably attended the graduation. It probably was the place to be–and the only social event in town. 🙂
Too bad you don’t have a copy of that speech hey? You’re grandma must have been pretty confident to read out load in front of a crowd. I still get nervous