18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, December 19, 1913:Ruthie returned home this afternoon. The same Ruthie that went away last Monday. Wonder what she got me for Xmas.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1913)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I think that Grandma’s sister Ruth attended professional development meetings for teachers while she was in Sunbury—but it sounds like she also found a little time to go Christmas shopping.
What Did Ruth buy Grandma? . . . maybe some face powder?
I bet that Grandma was glad to have her sister home. Ruth had gone to Sunbury four days earlier and left Grandma with “all of the milking.”
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, December 18, 1913: Kept house again and was this time so unfortunate as to burn the coffee. Ma was in town shopping. Wonder what she got for me. All that I know is that it came from a jeweler’s.
Source: Holmes Company Advertisement in November, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Guessing is so much fun. . .
What gift did her mother buy her?. . . a pink cameo pendant? . . . a monogrammed scarf pin? . . . a watch?
Which jeweler did Grandma’s mother go to?. . . maybe Fielder’s in the nearby town of Milton?
Source: Milton Evening Standard (May 27, 1913)Recent photo of South Front Street, Milton
Burning the Coffee
Until I read this diary entry, I never heard of anyone burning coffee. What is burned coffee? And, what might have happened that caused it to burn?
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, December 17, 1913: Went to town this afternoon to do my Xmas shopping. I managed not to spend all the money I had taken along with me, and still bought the presents I had decided upon.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1913)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yeah! It’s always good when gifts cost less than anticipated.
Grandma, what did you buy? . . . . Maybe a game for your 8-year-old brother Jim that both you and he would enjoy playing?
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, December 16, 1913: Kept house today and found something to do nearly all day.
Source: National Food Magazine (December, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It’s funny how housework can expand to fill the time available. What did Grandma do to keep busy all day? . . pick up? . . . dust? . . . sweep the floor?
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m sharing a December, 1914 request for donations from the Salvation Army. I went grocery shopping today, and the Salvation Army bell-ringer was outside the supermarket. It’s interesting to see how it was done a hundred years ago.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, November 26, 1913: Ditto
Source: Ladies Home Journal (October, 1913)
Woman’s Work in preparing appetizing and wholesome food is lightened by this famous baking powder.
Light Biscuit
Delicious Cake
Dainty Pastries
Fine Puddings
It adds healthful qualities to food.
ROYAL Baking Powder
Made from pure, grape cream of tartar
Do not use alum baking powders. They may not always be distinguished by their price; but generally, powders that are sold for ten to twenty-five cents a pound, or a cent an ounce, are made from alum. Use in your food only a baking powder whose label shows it is made from cream of tartar.
Royal Baking Powder Co., New York
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a hundred-year-old advertisement for Royal Baking Powder.
On this date, both a hundred years ago and now, kitchens are filled with people baking awesome desserts in preparation for Thanksgiving Day.
I’m on the final countdown getting ready for Thanksgiving. I’m worrying about a lot of things (reminder to self: remember to dust the top shelf of the book-case; some of the guests will be tall)—Do I need to add baking powder to my list of worries?
The line about “women’s work” also grates on me–though I know that women did most of the cooking a hundred years ago.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, November 18, 1913: Nothing much.
Source: Watsontown Star and Record and Star (April 3, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Nothing much???? The previous day Grandma’s maternal grandfather died. What was Grandma thinking? Was her mother involved in the funeral preparations?
I found an advertisement by an undertaker in the nearby town of Watsontown. Her grandfather lived in another nearby town—Turbotville—so this probably was not the undertaker that the family used.
But, I don’t understand the ad. What does “a share of patronage is solicited” mean?
