19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, November 25, 1914: <<no entry>>
Source: Milton Evening Standard (November 23, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I thought you might enjoy this advertisement for carving sets. It appeared in Grandma’s local newspaper, the Milton Evening Standard.
Are you prepared for Thanksgiving? You won’t want your guests to think that your turkey was tough just because you don’t have a good carving set. 🙂
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, October 9, 1914: About once a week take the notion to write. Well, there really wasn’t anything important. Ruth and I went to an entertainment given in Watsontown. Some fine music I listened to.
Here’s a picture of Watsontown–though I don’t know where the Opera House was located. Perhaps the building no longer exists.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Welcome back, Grandma! We’ve missed you. The day-to-day happenings in your life are more important than you think.
Did you and your sister Ruth go to the Watsontown Opera House? I’ve heard that the theatre’s name is more presumptuous than the actual building—but that it’s the best place in town to see good performances.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, October 4, 1914: <<no entry>>
Source: Milton Evening Standard (October 1, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yesterday, I wrote about the suffragettes’ booth at the Milton Fair. Since Grandma again didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I’m still thinking about gender issues. Sometimes I’m amazed by the things that women could and couldn’t do a hundred years ago. Women couldn’t vote, but they could hunt—go figure.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, October 3, 1914: <<no entry>>
Source: Milton Evening Standard (October 1, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Is Grandma still remembering all the fun that she had at the Milton Fair earlier in the week? When she was at the fair, did she stop by the suffragettes’ booth?
I love how the women’s suffrage question was framed — Motherhood has become a public function; therefore women need to be allowed to vote.
P.S. There’s a new Friday Update on my author website, Sheryl Lazarus. com. This week I’m thinking about the nuts and bolts involved in developing a new blog that tells the story of my Great-Aunt Marion who was in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs).
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, September 29–Wednesday, September 30, 1914: Guess I’ll have to commence writing about the weather. Well the weather should come in for its share of notice. You see this is fair week. I mean one with a capital F.
Source: Milton Evening Standard (September 21, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma—
Yeah! It’s Fair (with a capital F) week! The Milton Fair will be sooo much fun. According to last week’s paper there will be a band, a public telephone booth, and fast horses . . . AND (sigh) to keep parents happy, the fair will have a moral tone with no wheels of fortune.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Tweet was the nickname of Helen Wesner. She was a friend of Grandma’s who was occasionally mentioned in the diary. Based on the diary, and other sources, here’s what I know about her:
Helen was three years older than Grandma. Helen never married—and worked on her family’s farm and in their small dairy processing plant that produced bottled milk. She died in 1976 at the age of 84.
Anyone with the nickname of Tweet had to have been a fun person. Here are two previous diary entries that mentioned Tweet or the Wesner’s.
The whole family was invited out for dinner today. We all went except Pa. It was up at Tweet’s place. We had something that I always had a curiosity to know what they tasted like. It was waffles.
Made a call this afternoon, so that the time wouldn’t be so tedious. I’m wishing and longing for a sleigh ride, now that there is sleighing.
Ruth and I went up to Wesner’s this evening. There were some other girls there too. Renewed my acquaintance with a former school mate whom I hadn’t seen for over three years I guess, until I saw her on Christmas eve. Had a good time.
A Hundred Years Ago 