Category: Other

How to Play the Game of Life: Hundred-Year-Old Advice

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

Wednesday, June 25, 1912:  Nothing extraordinary done.

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

I think that Grandma was in a rut when she wrote this entry.

Here’s some advice hundred –year –old advice about how to get out of a rut:

Dare to be different; dare to take a decisive step to carry out your plans and ideas yourself. Fight your own battle, make a new road if necessary.

Ask no favor of anyone and you will succeed a thousand times better than one who sticks in the old beaten path, and who is always beseeching someone’s influence and patronage.

Aren’t you tired of the rut, tired of walking in file as convicts walk together in stripes? Cultivate enough individuality to refuse to be sewed up in the universal patchwork. The onward sweep of progress in this age has prepared the way for nonconformists. Why not get into line?

As in a game of cards, so in the game of life. We must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists not so much in winning as in playing a poor hand well. Do not ask for a new deal, but play the cards given you.

You were not born to solve the problems of the universe, but to find out what you have to do and then do it with all your might, because it should be your duty, your enjoyment, or the very necessity of your being.

How many of us exhaust ourselves and wear out our friends by chafing against the chains of the unalterable, by complaining of the cards that are dealt to us in the game of life.

Play the game the best you know how to play it, give your life, your energy, your enthusiasm to the game.

National Food Magazine (June, 1912)

A Chicken for Supper

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

Tuesday, June 25, 1912:  My Daddy gave me a lecture today. The cause was the killing of a hen whose death I might have prevented had I made more use of my eyes. We had her for supper.

The chicken that we had last night for supper.

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

What happened? How did Grandma not notice something that led to the death of a chicken?

I asked my father about this entry. He thinks that the chicken might have been injured by a dog.

In rural areas dogs often are allowed to roam free—and perhaps a neighbor’s dog wondered onto the Muffly farm and attacked a hen. Maybe Grandma didn’t notice the dog –or ignored it.

In any case chicken for supper sounds good—so good in fact that I decided to roast a chicken for dinner last night.

An aside—When my children were in soccer and little league, I often put a chicken or roast in the oven before games (as well as some baking potatoes)—and the meal would be ready to eat when we home.

Old-time Tips for Washing Dishes

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

Saturday, June 22, 1912: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. I managed to get through with the dishes and then went for the cows. I found them having a picnic in the corn field, and they were quickly dispatched to safer premises.

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

Here’s some advice from the early 1900s for doing the dishes. It is abridged from a 1902 cookbook.

Do not be afraid of hot water in washing up dishes and dirty cooking utensils. As these are essentially greasy, lukewarm water cannot possibly have the effect of cleansing them effectively.

After you have washed your saucepans, fish-kettle, &c., stand them before the fire for a few minutes to get thoroughly dry inside, before putting them away. They should then be kept in a dry place, in order that they may escape the deteriorating influence of rust.

Never leave saucepans dirty from one day’s use to be cleaned the next.

After washing up your dishes, wash your dish-tubs with a little soap and water and soda, and scrub them often.

Do not throw anything but water down the sink, as the pipe is liable to get choked, thereby causing expense and annoyance.

Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book (1902)

Cows Escaped

Whew–the cows escaped from the pasture, again! This must be at least the fourth or fifth time in 1912. (It’s happened so many times that I’ve lost track of the exact number.)

Pulled Little Brother’s Baby Tooth

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

Thursday, June 19, 1912: Pulled a tooth for Jimmie. It was the first one to go, and then he got another yanked out before the day was over.

Jimmie Muffly

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

How did Grandma pull her little brother’s baby tooth? Did she tie a string around it and pull? . . . twist and wiggle the tooth back and forth with her finger?  . . . give it a quick tug?

100 Years After the War of 1812

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

Wednesday, June 18, 1912:Ma went to Milton today. She bought me an umbrella. Went to Watsontown this afternoon, and some of my money went to.

Recent photo of downtown Watsontown. It’s about a mile and a half west of the Muffly farm.

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

Grandma must have decided that she needed an umbrella after the rain the previous Sunday prevented her from attending Sunday School.

What did Grandma buy when she went to Watsontown?

_____

Since the diary entry is self-explanatory, I’m going to go off on a tangent.

I’m not sure why, but when I see something in the news I often view it through the frame of the diary.

For example,  in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal there was an article which said that the War of 1812 began 200 years ago on June 18. I guess it’s obvious that the War of 1812 occurred 100 years before Grandma’s diary entry–but I’d never thought about it that way before. In other words, the diary was written at the midpoint between the War of 1812 and the present.

I t also made me  think about how the Civil War began 151 years ago (51 years before this  diary entry)—and that War War I had not yet occurred in 1912 (it started in 1914).

Patent Medicine Cartoon

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

Tuesday, June 18, 1912: I seemed to have had sort of a hard time today.

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

Sounds like things still weren’t going well. The previous day Grandma wrote that she didn’t feel well, but that no one took it seriously.

Yesterday, I posted an old advertisement for a patent medicine. A hundred years ago, they were controversial and were just beginning to be regulated by the government.

Here’s a cartoon about patent medicines that appeared in the September, 1910 issue of National Food Magazine.

A SUGGESTION FOR AN “AD” FOR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING BABY KILLERS:

BEFORE TAKING

“That’ll make it stop crying, 50 cents, please.”

—

AFTER TAKING

<<drawing of crying mother>>

Didn’t Go to Sunday School

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

Sunday, June 16, 1912:  It rained today. Wanted to go to Sunday School this afternoon, but the walking I felt sure would be simply terrible. Besse and Curt were out this evening.

Recent rainy day photo of the house Grandma lived in when she wrote the diary.

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

The weather doesn’t sound good—

Mud would have been an issue since the road between the Muffly farm and McEwensville wasn’t paved a hundred years ago.

Grandma seldom skipped Sunday School—I think this was only the second time since the diary began in January, 1911.

Grandma mentioned several times in the diary that she didn’t want to miss Sunday School because each week she memorized Bible verses—and that if she memorized  700+ verses that she’d get a Bible.

Well, Grandma reached her goal on May 26 and received her Bible two weeks prior to this entry on June 3. Apparently she was less motivated to attend Sunday School now that she had the Bible.

Besse was Grandma’s married sister, and Curt was her husband.