Month: April 2013

Recalling Past Events to Improve the Future: Let’s Make, Alter, and Repair Our Own Clothes

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

Wednesday, April 2, 1913:  About the same as the other days.

Triangle Shirt Factory Fire--March 25, 1911 (photographer unknown)
Triangle Shirt Factory Fire–March 25, 1911 (photographer unknown)

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

I’d like to thank Kristin at Finding Eliza for sharing a link with me that I found fascinating and provided the inspiration for this post.

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Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today I’m going to write about an important issue both a hundred years ago and today: poor working conditions for garment workers.

On March 25, 2011 I wrote a post about the hundredth anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City that killed many workers. The public outrage over that fire led to many safety and labor improvements in the garment industry (and other industries).

To commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, The Sewing Rebellion website included a downloadable pattern for the shirtwaist that was made by the Triangle Factory.

The Sewing Rebellion points out that many garment workers in other countries still work under very poor conditions, and encourages people to emancipate themselves from the global garment industry by learning how to alter, mend and make their own garments and accessories.

What goes around, comes around. It’s intriguing to think that instead of buying new clothes each season, maybe we could again learn how to make and alter our clothes.

April Fooled Some People

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

Tuesday, March 25, 1913:  

The beginning of April or the time to be fooled.

To make people mad and make people gay

It’s the time of the year which we all must fear.

So be very careful about what others say.

April fooled some people today. And got fooled some myself. We had quite a row tonight while practicing.

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

On the first day of each month Grandma began the diary entry with a poem.

I knew my elderly Grandmother. Her diary provides a window into what she was like as a teen. It’s fun to see how remnants of the fun, quirky teen in this diary were part of Grandma’s personality throughout her life.

Awhile ago several relatives wrote guest posts about their memories of Grandma.  My cousin Anne Marie wrote about an April’s Fools day when Grandma was in her late 60’s or early 70’s.

One April Fools Day Grandma took an old newspaper from her basement and carefully glued all of the pages together and quietly placed it in our newspaper box. I can still hear Mom laughing when she tried to read the paper that day and it didn’t take her long to figure out who the prankster was.

Photo from last summer of the house that Grandma lived in during her later years.
Photo of the house that Grandma lived in during her later years.

See more guest posts with relative’s memories of Grandma by clicking on the Family Memories category.

(This comment is a repeat of the comment that I made last year on April Fools Day. I apologize for being repetitive–but it seemed so appropriate and relevant for this diary entry.)

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The class play is on April 5. It sounds like the cast was getting really stressed out as the big day approached.  The previous day Grandma wrote that they almost decided not to have the play–but decided to persevere.