19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, April 15, 1914: Nothing much doing today.
The picture above shows the simplest variation of an old fence. The boxed in posts are finished with a square board with a ball placed on top of each one for decoration.
Ladies Home Journal (March, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Now that spring is here, I’m taking stock of my yard. It needs work. . . a fence might be nice.
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share some backyard fencing suggestions from the March, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
This is a good fence if the view beyond is particularly pleasing. and does not, therefore, need to be shut off.
In the fence above the monotony is broken by connecting two fence posts with a trellis on which a pretty hardy shrub can be trained.
Some of us possess yards in which plants will not grow. The fence above is a happy solution. Gay boxes of flowers are placed between the posts and ivy or other vines on top.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, April 14, 1914: Was housekeeper today. Mother and Ruthie went on a shopping tour. Oh my, they did bring the things home. Ruth got a hat of the latest creation, trimmed and bowed for the family’s spectations.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (March, 1913)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Maybe Ruth’s hat had a “wired frill”
. . . Interesting that Grandma’s sister Ruth bought a new hat after Easter. Easter, 1914 was two days prior to this entry. Maybe the hat was on sale.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, April 12, 1914: Went to Sunday School this morning. A whole gang of us went for arbutus this afternoon. Didn’t get any though, for it’s just in bud. We had quite a walk in the bargain.
Maybe the “gang” walked at this same spot a hundred years ago today. These woods and fields are across the road from the house where the Muffly’s lived.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma—names please. . . Who went with you? How many people? . . . all girls? . . . or were there some guys, too? . . .
What did you talk about? Did you joke and tease each other?
This was Easter Sunday. Two days prior to this entry you mentioned Easter hats, but when Easter actually arrived you didn’t mention it. Why?
—-
The previous Sunday (April 5) Grandma, her sister Ruth, and their friend Carrie Stout also searched for trailing arbutus:
We went for arbutus this afternoon, but only managed to find the buds. It is late this spring.
1914 must have been a late spring—just like 2014 has been a late spring.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, April 11, 1914: Nothing much doing.
Source: Watsontown Star and Record (April 3, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day Grandma went to shopping in nearby Watsontown. Did she walk past the Mansion House? It’s still around—though it’s morphed over the years from being a “modern” hotel to being a bar and grill.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, April 10, 1914: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. Don’t have a new hat for tomorrow. Well, you see it will be Easter, that’s why. Oh, I don’t mean tomorrow; I mean the day after tomorrow.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (April, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Whew, another ambiguous diary entry. . .
Did Grandma buy an Easter hat when she went to Watsontown. . . or didn’t she?
Source: Ladies Home Journal (April, 1914)Source: Ladies Home Journal (March, 1914)
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, April 9, 1914: Ruth and I have returned home after escorting Carrie back from where she came from. It’s awful nice out. The moon light makes it almost as light as evening.
Source: Wikipedia
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
A moonlit walk on a pleasant spring evening. . . What a lovely way to end the day!
Carrie Stout was a friend of Grandma and her sister Ruth who lived on a nearby farm.
Something doesn’t seem worded quite right with this diary entry. Grandma wrote that it was “almost as light as evening”–though she must have meant the daylight hours.
The picture above shows the simplest variation of an old fence. The boxed in posts are finished with a square board with a ball placed on top of each one for decoration.
This is a good fence if the view beyond is particularly pleasing. and does not, therefore, need to be shut off.
In the fence above the monotony is broken by connecting two fence posts with a trellis on which a pretty hardy shrub can be trained.
Some of us possess yards in which plants will not grow. The fence above is a happy solution. Gay boxes of flowers are placed between the posts and ivy or other vines on top.
