18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, November 8, 1913: Nothing much to write.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a fun advertisement I came across.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, October 21, 1913: It’s been so rainy and dreary this week that I begin to feel awful grouchy. I certainly am under the weather these days. Any way October never was a favorite month of mine. I don’t have much to write about for her.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Did Grandma read Ladies Home Journal to while away the time on cold, rainy days?
And, now that the corn harvest was finished—and Grandma had been paid for helping husk corn—did she dream of using her money to improve her looks? . . . Maybe she wanted some of the hair switches advertised in the October, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
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18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, October 8, 1913:
10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write a diary entry specific for this date, I’m going to go off on a tangent—
I found this advertisement for tulip bulbs in the September, 1913 issue of McCalls magazine. I wondered if I could buy these old varieties so I googled them. Here’s what I found:
Crimson King
Nothing popped up when I googled “Crimson King tulip”. I wonder if the Crimson King tulip and the Red Emperor tulip are slightly different names for the same variety. The Red Emperor tulips are so common today.
White Queen
I couldn’t find any place where I could buy the White Queen tulip, but I did find a photo of them on The Tulip Gallery website.
Yellow Prince
I found a picture of the Yellow Prince tulip on the Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs website—though I don’t think that they had any bulbs available for sale this year.
Cottage Maid
I couldn’t find any place where I could buy the Cottage Maid tulip, but I did find a photo of them on the Hortus Tulipus Old Tulips website.
Keiser’s Kroon
The Keiser’s Kroon tulip is still sold by several companies—though it generally goes by its Dutch name, Keizerskroon. One source for the bulbs is Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs.
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18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, October 6, 1913:
10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yeah, Grandma. I’m glad that you’re happy about how much money you’re earning. Ten loads sounds like a lot.
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I asked my resident expert (aka, my husband) how many bushels of corn the wagon in the picture would hold. He estimated that if it was 10 ft. long by 3 ft. high by 4 ft. wide that it would hold about 100 bushels of corn. So if Grandma husked about 10 loads of corn, she husked about 1,000 bushels.
Grandma probably actually wrote this entry on the evening of October 8, 1913. She started husking corn on September 25 (14 days prior to this entry). She did not work on either Sunday, and I think that she didn’t husk corn on the day that her father went to the fair—so I believe that it took her 11 days to husk 1,000 bushels. In other words, Grandma husked about 90 bushels a day.
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18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, October 5, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Am now the possessor of a troublesome cold.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma, get well soon! Colds aren’t any fun. All the corn husking that you’ve been doing on cold, damp days probably made you more susceptible to the germs.
Do you have a sore throat? Cough drops might help.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, September 23, 1913: Don’t know how to express myself.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share an advertisement for a baby formula, Nestle’s Food, that appeared in the October, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
A few days ago I did a post that showed several pictures of the “right” and “wrong” way raise a baby. Readers’ comments about that post led me to do this post. It contained pictures from the October, 1913 issues of Ladies Home Journal where both the “right” and the “wrong” way showed the baby drinking from a bottle. Several people commented that it was interesting that breastfeeding wasn’t mentioned.
After reading the comments I looked at the magazine again–and I discovered that this ad was positioned right next to the picture article about the right and wrong ways to raise a baby.
Maybe I’m in a cynical mood today, but somehow it feels like the magazine was trying to please the advertiser, and that the advertisement drove the content.
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18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, September 12, 1913: I’ve forgotten for today.
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 ad for Colgate’s Ribbon Dental Cream that was in the March, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
Care of the teeth twice-a-day and every day is a good habit easily formed with Colgate’s.
COLGATE’S RIBBON DENTAL CREAM
DELICIOUS
ANTISEPTIC
ECONOMICAL
COMES OUT A RIBBON
LIES FLAT ON THE BRUSH
CANNOT ROLL OFF THE BRUSH
Its flavor is delicious—making its use a treat and insuring regularity.
Its antiseptic action is thorough—checking the germs which cause decay.
Its cleansing is safe—removing deposits and leaving the mouth non-acid without over-medication.
Every member of your household—man, woman and child—should have an individual tube.
Single tubes and boxes of half dozen at our dealer’s—or send us 2 cents for a trial tube and our booklet “Oral Hygiene.”
COLGATE & CO.
Dept. H
199 Fulton St., New York
Maker of Cashmere Bouquet Soap—luxurious, lasting, refined.
According to the Colgate website:
Colgate introduced its toothpaste in a tube similar to modern-day toothpaste tubes in the 1890s.
Until after 1945, toothpastes contained soap. After that time, soap was replaced by other ingredients to make the paste into a smooth paste or emulsion—such as sodium lauryl sulphate, a common ingredient in present-day toothpaste.
