Chores for Each Day of the Week

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, July 10, 1912: Did some ironing this forenoon and puttered around this afternoon.

ironing.B — Picture Source: Approved Methods for Home Laundering

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Each day of the week used to have its own tasks. An old booklet called Approved Methods for Home Laundering published by Proctor & Gamble said that most of the ironing should be done on Wednesday.

Plan for the Week’s Work

MONDAY

1.            Put the house in order.

2.            Plan and cook for Tuesday.

3.            Sort clothes.

4.            Mend clothes (rents grow in washing).

5.            Take out stains.

6.            Soak soiled clothes.

7.            Lay fire for morning.

8.            Fill boiler.

9.            Get tubs and other things ready.

TUESDAY

1.            Light fire and heat water.

2.            Make soap solution.

3.            Do washing.

4.            Sprinkle and roll clothes.

WEDNESDAY

1.            Iron and bake.

2.            Do thick starching.

THURSDAY

1.            Finish ironing.

FRIDAY

1.            Put house in order.

SATURDAY

1.            Bake and plan for Sunday.

There was some variation from one list to the next in which things should be done on which days. (This list doesn’t quite match the recommended tasks for the various days of the week in the old Round and Round the Mulberry Bush ditty.)

Porch Furniture a Hundred Years Ago

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, July 8, 1912: Nothing much to record. My head feels sort of heavy like.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

My head feels heavy like, too. I think it’s the hot weather. On days like this, I wish that my house had an old-fashioned porch that I could sit on.

Here are some drawings of furniture for summer porches from an article called “The Little House Summer Porch: Making the Living Porch Attractive” in the July, 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

Finally Received Bible!

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, July 7, 1912: Went to Sunday School this morning. Received my Bible after having been learning verses for about a year and a half.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Whew, Grandma finally received her Bible. She learned 700+ verses to get it—and some weeks she learned more than 20 verses. For example, on December 23, 1911 she wrote that she was trying to learn 27 verses that week.

She sure was persistent—I never would have stuck with it.

Grandma completed memorizing the verses on May 26–and received the Bible the previous week (June 30), but they kept the Bible to put her name on the cover .

Found Lost Cows

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, July 6, 1912: Ruth and I hunted our cows for a change this afternoon, and found them at last after hours search safe in a neighbor’s barnyard.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Whew, how in the world did the cows wonder so far afield (no pun intended) that they were lost for several hours?

I bet that Grandma and her sister Ruth were really relieved when they found them. I wonder which sister was supposed to be watching them. (See previous posts about the need to watch the cows to ensure that they stayed in the pasture and didn’t wonder off—see, for example, June 22 and May 18).

It sounds like the Muffly’s had nice neighbors (or at least neighbors who didn’t want stray cows wondering around their corn and wheat fields destroying their crops).

Finished Picking Strawberries

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, July 1, 1912:

In the shadow of a shade tree,

There the weary often be,

After they have been well roasted,

In the hot sun of July.

Stopped picking strawberries today. All my earnings, about $4.00 in all, I still have and expect to keep until I spend them.

strawberry plants — Strawberry Plants (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma apparently has—at least occasionally– been picking strawberries for money since June 10. I assume that a neighboring farmer paid her to pick them.

$4.00 would have been worth a lot more a hundred years ago than it is worth today. I wonder how Grandma eventually spent the money.

Poem

On the first day of every month Grandma included a poem in her diary entry.

Oops–Sometimes I Misinterpret a Diary Entry

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, June 30, 1912: Oh dear, June is my favorite month and here the last day is almost over. Went to Sunday School this afternoon. I received my Bible today, but haven’t got it yet, as my name was to be written in it, but I suppose I’ll get it next Sunday.

The old McEwensville Baptist Church that Grandma probably attended was located somewhere on the lot that contains this yard and house.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

I’m amazed how often I’m taken by surprise by diary entries. Today is one of those days.

Before I started this blog I read the entire diary. I remember many of the “big” events in the dairy, but never noticed or don’t remember many of the smaller details.

Now I only work a day or so ahead—and sometimes realize that things weren’t exactly as I had thought.

Today I was surprised that Grandma still did not have her Bible.

Grandma memorized more than 700 Bible verses and the reward was a Bible. I had thought she’d received it on the first Sunday in June because she’d written on Sunday, May 26:

Went to Sunday School this morning. I’ve finished learned verses for my Bible which means I have learned the required number. I expect to get it next Sunday.

I now realize that she did not receive the Bible when anticipated—and she was still waiting for it.

A Hammock!

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, June 28, 1912: Mother went to Milton this morning. I had been talking hammock to her for the last couple weeks at least, and behold you when she came home if she didn’t have one.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Awe–It would feel good to relax in a hammock right now.

After all the work harvesting hay, it’s awesome that Grandma’s mother bought her something fun that she really wanted.

Based on the previous day’s entry, it seems has if hay harvesting was in full swing. A hammock must have seemed like the perfect thing to relax in after a hot day of making hay.

An aside—I’m a little surprised that you could buy hammocks in rural Pennsylvania in 1912. Sometimes I tend to think that stores had fewer products than they actually had a hundred years ago.