18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, August 11, 1913: Am busy planning.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma was planning for the Sunday School picnic. The previous day she wrote:
We have decided to have our S.S. picnic next Wed. . .
I wonder what she needed to plan. . . . activities? . . . what food to bring?
August would be the perfect time for watermelon.
Grandma probably wouldn’t have done anything as fancy as the suggestion for serving watermelon in Ladies Home Journal:
An unusually nice way to serve watermelon is to have the pulp removed from the whole melon which has first been cut in halves, and replaced on cracked ice in half of the rind arranged in bowl fashion. Cone-shaped portions may then be served individually in sundae glasses, or cut in cubes in sherbet-cups.
Ladies Home Journal (July 1911)
A Hundred Years Ago 
Definitely one way to eat watermelon, but I like this way 🙂
http://bramanswanderings.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/eating-watermelon/
I’m looking forward to Grandma’s entries about the picnic. It’s nice to see that something’s coming up that she’s looking forward to.
Mmm…I love watermelon. I can’t wait to hear about the picnic! Hope she wrote in detail about it!
That’s the first time I have seen watermelon in a cone shape. Wonder how it was done.
I like eating it the messy way, in large chunks, still on the rind, dripping as I bite, getting it all over my face and in my hair and spitting the seeds out as far as I can! That’s just me though…
While Grandma’s picnic at Sunday School would likely have been a bit more tame, this reminded me of the seed spitting contests at our family picnics. http://50figment.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/what-the-hell-happened-to-my-watermelon-seeds. Good times.
I love that idea – what fun!
I have never eaten watermelon in a sundae glass. That looks very elegant.
There are some great-looking melon desserts, but I want to eat it rather than play with it. Or share. I’m reminded of summers on the back porch or out in the yard, a big slice of watermelon, and juice dripping off our elbows–and seeing who could spit seeds the farthest. Fun times!
What an elegant way to serve watermelon!
I’m having so much fun with your grandmother that I’ve nominated you for the Team Member award over on .http://janethecaregiver.wordpress.com.
At my great-aunt’s engagement party, her mother served the watermelon in the little crystal cups! She (her mother) kept the original Ladies Home Journal magazine in a special case, along with one of the invitations, a fancy lace-trimmed napkin, and pictures of my great aunt opening her gifts. I was just a girl when I saw this collection, but it was very fancy, very pretty.
Aha! The beginning of the invention of melon balls and melon ball scoops!
I just took a 1/2 watermelon filled with fruit to a family luncheon. I did the zig zag edging which turned out way crocked. It’s harder than I thought.
What a neat idea. 🙂