17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, August 26, 1912: At last the day has dawned and back again to our studies we go. Have four new studies this year, so that may mean some energy expended upon them.
He is rather wide, wears a pair of pinchers, and has yellow hair. Not so very cross, but I believe he could be.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yeah! The first day of school finally arrived. Grandma’s been waiting so long for it to start again. I hope that she likes her new teacher.
According to The History of McEwensville Schools by Thomas Kramm, the teacher of McEwensville High School for the 1912-13 school year was Bruce Bloom.
Pinchers (pince-nez) refer to glasses that pinch the wearer’s nose.
According to Wikipedia pinchers were popular from 1880 to 1900, so Grandma probably thought that they were out-of style and old-fashioned when her teacher wore them.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 25, 1912: Won’t I be glad when tomorrow morn is here and this day is passed. Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Besse and Curt were here today.
Basket of cookies (Source: Ladies Home Journal, August, 1912)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
With entries like this, I always create stories in my mind–even if the diary text doesn’t really provide enough information to tell whether my imagination is right or way off base.
For example, for this diary entry I picture Grandma, and her sister and brother-in-law, Besse and Curt Hester, sitting on the porch on a beautiful summer afternoon nibbling cookies. There’s a bit of a breeze–just enough to make the day seem really pleasant.
The zinnias and hollyhocks are blooming in a nearly flower garden. And, the young folks are catching up on all the gossip–who just got engaged, the runaway horse in downtown Watsontown, . . . and that school was going to start for Grandma the next day.
. . . or maybe there were thunderheads in the sky so Grandma, Besse, and Curt . . . .
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, August 23, 1912: Didn’t do so very much today and didn’t go any place either.
Me walking down a road in McEwenville.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sounds like a boring day. Maybe Grandma should have taken a walk. I know that I always feel better after a brisk walk—and she probably would have felt better, too.
Today we constantly hear in the media that we aren’t active enough. Amazingly there were similar concerns a hundred years ago:
Walking is one of the most healthful forms of exercise. It may seem unnecessary to devote much space to a subject that everyone thinks they know all about, but the fact is that, with trolley cars, automobiles, and horses, a great many persons have lost the ability to walk any distance.
It is very easy to cultivate the street car habit. An excellent rule to follow if you are going anywhere is this: If you have time, and the distance is not too great, walk.
In walking for pleasure, avoid a rambling, purposeless style. Decide where you are going and go.
Walk out in the country if possible and on roads where the automobiles will not endanger your life or blow clouds of dust in your face.
Never mind the weather. One rarely takes cold while in motion.
To walk comfortably you should wear loose clothing and old shoes.
Walking just for the sake of exercise can easily become a tiresome occupation, but the active mind can always see something of interest, such as wild flowers, gardens, and all the various sides of nature study in the country, and people, houses, and life in the city.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, August 22, 1912:Rufus and I went over to Ottawa this morning. We did quite a bit of traveling around before the day was over. Uncle Sam took us for a drive down to Billmeyer’s Park and back.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma and her sister Ruth—Grandma calls her Rufus in this entry— probably took the train the ten or so miles to the small town of Ottawa (Montour County), to visit their uncle Sam Muffly.
Billmeyer’s Park, a popular wildlife park, was located a few miles from Ottawa, near Washingtonville.
According to the History of Montour County by Fred Diehl:
This park was maintained by Mr. Alexander Billmeyer, one time a member of the Pennsylvania State Legislative.
The park consisted of some twenty-five acres, mostly woodland, completely enclosed by a high woven wire fence, and contained at one time twenty elk, seventy deer, and hundreds of wild turkeys and squirrels. No hunting was allowed in the park. . . .
Along the enclosure was a 20-acre picnic area. On a Sunday a thousand people might be there, for it was free, and a spot renowned for miles.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, August 20, 1912: Oh I don’t know as it is worth the while to write anything about what I did today. It wasn’t very much anyway.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sounds like Grandma had a boring (but maybe somewhat frustrating) day. Did Grandma think positive thoughts on such days?
Here’s some a gem that I found in a hundred-year-old magazine:
They Can Who Think They Can
Learn to look at the bright side, the good things in life. Do not let the shadow of discouragement and despondency fall on your path. Never doubt for a moment that everything is not for the best in the end. If you believe firmly in yourself you will be given the strength to do some day what may now seem to be impossible.
Don’t get frightened and give up in despair if you do not arrive as soon as you would like. All conquerors of the best kind are slow, but to him who works faithfully and in the right spirit will be given the reward in good time.
Hold up your head and look the world in the face. Hold your ground and march bravely forward over all obstacles and the world will make way for you.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, August 19, 1912: Did quite a bit of sewing today. You see I’m getting some of my things out of the way for when school starts. It rained like everything this evening.
Source: The Dressmaker (1911)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
What was Grandma sewing? Maybe she did some hemming—of a new dress, or to remodel a hand-me-down and make it just the right length.
Here are directions from a hundred-year-old book about how to make a hem. (An aside: I had so much fun with the recent buttonhole post that I decided to do another post using the same book).
A hem is a fold made by twice turning over the edge of the material (Fig. 16). Make a narrow, even turning, and mark the depth for the second turning on the material with a coarse pin, chalk or basting, using as a marker a card notched the desired depth of the hem. Fold on the line, and if the hem is wide, baste at top and bottom.
Hold the edges you are going to sew on, toward you; place the hem over the forefinger and under the middle finger and hold it down with the thumb. Begin at the right end and insert the needle through the fold, leaving a short end of the thread to be caught under the hemming stitches.
Pointing the needle toward the left shoulder, make a slanting stitch by taking up a few threads of the material and the fold of the hem. Fasten the thread by taking two or three stitches on top of each other.
If a new thread is needed, start as in the beginning, tucking both the end of the new and old thread under the fold of the hem and secure them with the hemming stitches. Train the eye to keep the stitches even and true.
The Dressmaker by The Butterick Publishing Co. (1911)
These directions seem awfully complicated and the drawing doesn’t look exactly right–but then, I guess that I probably couldn’t easily explain exactly how to tunnel through the cloth and then take a small stitch every half-inch or so.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 18, 1912: When I woke this morning, it was with the knowledge that it was raining, but that didn’t keep me from going to Sunday School. Don’t let that deceive you though for I’m not a very _____ ____ after all, even if I do go to S.S. rather regular.
Diary entry for August 18, 1912. (Click on it to enlarge for easier reading.)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This diary was found in Grandma’s house after she died in 1980. At that time, it was passed around to various relatives so that we would each have an opportunity to read it. When I had it, I made a copy before passing it on.
Sometimes the copy is really hard to read. I can’t decipher two words that Grandma wrote a hundred years ago today.
It looks like it says puatla bona. But I can’t find those words in a dictionary, so maybe I’m not reading it right.
Based on the context, I think Grandma was saying something about not being very religious, even though she regularly attended Sunday School.
But I’d feel more certain if I could read those two words. Any ideas??
