19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 23, 1914: Had to get up pretty early this morning. I usually get up late on Sunday morning. Went to Sunday School this afternoon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The trip to Niagara Falls is over, and it’s back to reality. I’m a little confused by this entry.
I have the impression that Grandma and her sister Ruth generally milked several cows each morning. Cows need to be milked at approximately the same time each day—so why did Grandma need to get up earlier than usual this morning?
Here’s my guess, but others may have other more plausible scenarios—
Maybe Grandma and Ruth’s parents gave them “Sunday mornings off” and milked the cows for the sisters so they could sleep in. However, their parents probably did all of their chores (including milking the cows twice a day) while the girls were on the trip. So maybe it was now payback time, and Grandma and Ruth lost their usual Sunday morning off.
What do you think? Does this seem like it is a possible scenario?
A Hundred Years Ago 
Yeah, sounds like payback time and a serious case of post holiday blues!
It’s always really difficult get back into normal routines after a vacation.
Sounds plausible.
It’s good to know that you think that it might be a reasonable scenario.
I think you may have solved that little mystery! Vacation’s over: time to get back to work!
sigh. . .
I suspect you’re right, but I was just as interested in Sunday School being held in the afternoon. I wonder if that was the custom in rural communities where mornings had to be devoted to ordinary chores as well as worship and so on. Interesting.
In the diary Grandma sometimes went to Sunday School in the afternoon–and other times went in the morning. I’ve never been able to figure it out. My guess is that her minister served a parish with several churches–and that the churches rotated service times on some sort of schedule. The church service and Sunday school times probably regularly rotated between more and less desired times so that members of all of the churches in the parish felt like they were being treated fairly.
I even did a post on this mystery a few years ago:
Sunday School Times: Morning/Afternoon
Yes, it seems that farm chores would be the best answer for having to get up early.
It seems like it would have somehow been related to farm chores–I’m just not sure exactly why this Sunday was unique.
wow…cows seemed to look the same even way back then! 🙂
My impression is that the cows in the drawing probably looked more like cows today than the cows on a typical farm a hundred years ago. I got the drawing from an advertisement in Kimball’s Dairy Farmer magazine. This magazine appears to have been aimed at people who used “scientific methods” to farm relatively large farms. I’ve seen many pictures in old local history books (and on other family history blogs) of dairy cows a hundred years ago that looked like they were mixed-breed cows that were all skin and bones.
you make a good point! cows from 100 years ago mostly looked overused and tired didn’t they?
That sounds very plausible Sheryl!
Diana xo
I’m glad you think that it is a reasonable explanation.
I agree. I figure the chores were switched out so the girls could go on that wonderful adventure.
I can remember when I was a teen growing up on a dairy farm, how my brother and I were always swapping chores so that we could do various school activities and trips.
Soumds logical to me….
It’s good to know that it seems like a possible scenario.
I just wish she had kept writing in detail as she did about the trip. But then, she didn’t know we’d all be panting for more information from her some 100 years later.
So do I. I agree with you that she couldn’t have foreseen the future, and that she was drifting back to writing in way that was more typical to how she wrote prior to the trip.
Sounds about right, I know if I was mama I would have the girls up early. But I am sure it was worth it. 🙂
Mothers need to be taskmasters sometimes. 🙂
I think I agree with you…this post takes me back to when I was a kid, and there was nothing worse than having to wake up early for additional chores 🙂
Sounds like you’ve had first- hand experience with being woken early to do chores. It’s good to know that the scenario I suggested sounds plausible to you.
Very plausible 🙂 Looking back, I think of how great it was to get an early jump on the morning and helping my parents…but at that time I just wanted to sleep in! Wish you a great week Sheryl 🙂
Like the others, I think you are right on target. It is so hard to get back to the routine after vacation!
Vacations are wonderful, but the transition from them back to day-to-day routines can be hard. 🙂