19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, April 1, 1914:
When the flowers begin to peep from their hiding place.
T’will be known that spring is here, spring with all her grace.
When the birds will sing their songs in the tree tops high.
Oh, then we know that April’s here and will not pass us by.
April fool, wash your face and go to school.
—
Twasn’t nice and warm at all, at all.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I love the surprise ending to this diary entry. April sounds so wonderful in the poem— but reality didn’t quite match the April of Grandma’s dreams.
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I’m not living the April of my dreams here either this year!
Same here. . . I’m also not living the April of my dreams this year.
At least there’s an extra long weekend for the working folk.
It does have a few pluses.🙂
Sweet poem. My mom had a saying that “April borrows 12 days from March”; sounds like that was happening in Grandma’s world that year!
I love that saying. It so perfectly describes April. I’m going to have to try to remember it.
What a charming idea for a blog! And what a lovely way to honor your grandmother.
Thank you! I’m glad you like it.
From Grandma’s writing to reality please and thank you. Still snowing🙂
Oh dear. . . it’s sure been a long winter.
Omigpsh, that is the cutest thing! I was so into her spring poem and then, bam! It made me laugh. What a keen sense of humor she had. Or maybe she wasn’t laughing?!😛
Somehow I think she was laughing. . . in a grouchy sort of way.🙂
Oh how I love purple crocus! Beautiful photo! Blessings, Natalie 🙂
I’m glad you liked it. I also think that it’s a nice picture.
Love the old fashioned ’twasn’t’ and ‘t’will’!
I wonder if twasn’t and t’will were in common usage a hundred years ago, or if they were considered somewhat old-fashioned words even then.
I was also surprised by the end of her entry. I was thinking she must be enjoying a lovely beginning to spring!
It was a fun twist to the diary entry.
Grandma was a clever poet. Did you know that about her before you read he diary?
No, I had no idea. As far as I know she didn’t do any writing, other than the occasional letter, as an older adult.
Love the flowers.
They are pretty. Somehow the early spring flowers are special.
I love when we see flashes of Helena’s wit here!
So do I.
Sad that Grandma was still waiting for glorious spring. We have had it here yesterday and today – beautiful, sunny and warm, and so it matches her poem from 100 years ago..
I wish I was in Virginia! We’re still waiting for the glorious spring days to arrive.
Your grandma is a hoot. Love the ending.
She was. It’s fun to get glimpses of her sense of humor as a young woman from the diary entries.
LOL I like her sense of humor in this poem.
So do I.
Never trust April. I remember my brother driving in a near blizzard to bring my parents to my house for Easter dinner one year in CT
I agree. Some years winter seems to try to hang on for as long as possible.
Sometimes I think it’s sad the potential we leave behind — fail to develop. I know at one point I loved to draw, and was even pretty good at it. Long lost in the huge pile of other interests. I wonder what talents others have left behind in the process of “growing up.”
I have the same feeling sometimes, too. Sometimes I think that I want to again take up some of the things I did in my youth such playing the piano, doing needlework, etc–but somehow I seldom seem to actually make the commitment to doing it.
Did your Grandmother write the poem? There is something of her subtle humor to it.
I’m not sure whether or not she wrote the poem herself. The diary entry on the first of each month always includes a poem. At first I thought that she may have copied from somewhere; more recently I tend to lean towards thinking that she wrote them herself.
I feel that way, too. There is something unique in the “voice” of each poem that seems to be at one with your Grandmother’s way of looking at things and expressing herself.
Wow!! Beautiful flowers what are they??
They’re crocus. They are one of the first spring flowers to bloom around here.
paradise🙂