16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, August 17, 1911: Was so sorry I had to work today, when yesterday I didn’t have to do hardly anything. I guess it is a good thing not to have everything you want sometimes. I’m afraid I’d take all the play and not enough work.
Recent photo of Muffly house.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day lots of friends attended a picnic that Grandma held at her home. She’d spent more than a week planning it—and it was a huge success.
I suppose that she needed to clean up after the picnic—and that her parents had lots of chores for her to do now that the big event was over. Based on the diary entry, it appears that her parents have inculcated the value of work into their daughter.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, August 16, 1911: That picnic was a success after all, even if I did have doubts as to its number. They were all there, that were invited except Carrie, but I don’t care a snap. We had lots of fun, went in wading, and did so many things. Some of the girls put on trousers, and then they pretended they were our beaus, only we didn’t happen to bring any along with us, so we accepted the girls in their place. Had almost as much fun.
Maybe the picnic had a watermelon theme--"A watermelon party in midsummer provides a good chance for pretty table decorations. " Ladies Home Journal (July 1911).
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yeah, the picnic was a success!
In a weird way, I’m relieved that it turned out well. I know that it makes no sense for me to care about how an event that occurred a hundred years ago went—but Grandma spent so much time planning it (it was first mentioned in the diary ten days ago) and was so worried that people won’t come.
It sounds like fun. Friends wading in the creek on the Muffly farm and doing many other fun things.
I wonder how fancy—or laid-back the picnic was. One moment I can picture 16-year-old Grandma making party favors and decorating tables for the picnic—then the next moment I think, no way and that it was a very informal pot luck picnic.
The previous day, Grandma went to town to buy nick-knacks for the picnic which suggests that she may have had a theme or at least did a little decorating.
Or maybe the picnic was held on the porch. (Photo source: Ladies Home Journal, July 1911).
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, August 14, 1911: He passed by here this morning, but I didn’t see him though. Miss Carolyn was over this evening. I had a taste of several cantaloupes this evening. They were the first taste I had of them yet, and I guess it will be the last. Too bad, isn’t it.
A hundred years ago green-fleshed cantaloupes were more popular than they are today. ( Photo source: Wikemedia Commons)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
In 1911 people ate by the seasons, and the various fruits and vegetables were wonderful fleeting tastes. Since Grandma had her first and last taste of cantaloupe for the year a hundred years ago on this date, I guess that the cantaloupes in the Muffly garden didn’t do well that year.
Maybe it had been too dry (or wet), or maybe the Spring had been too cool and the seeds hadn’t germinated well, or maybe pests had damaged the plants and they produced few melons, or maybe the soil was not well-suited for melon raising.
A hundred years ago people ate by the seasons–sometimes there was a surplus of some fruits and vegetables (and everyone tired of the food) and other times a crop did poorly–and people savored every bite. I bet that when Grandma wrote this entry that she was already looking forward to the 1912 cantaloupe season.
People
“He” probably refers to a guy Grandma had a crush on. In other recent entries she referred to B. and B.G.—but never used a complete name.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, August 12, 1911: What with rubbing against fresh paint, and watching the painters I managed to have something to do, but this won’t occupy me very much longer, as the house will soon be painted with its last coat.
Recent photos of the Muffly farm. Whew, the freshly painted house and barn must have looked awesome in 1911.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Ready-mixed paints became widely available in the late 1800s. The July 26 diary entry mentioned that the barn was being painted red—and now the house was being painted.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, August 8, 1911: Went over to see Carrie on an errand, but came back in about fifteen minutes as I had a rebellious heifer to keep out of the orchard.
Recent distant view of the Muffly fields from the road near her friend Carrie Stout's home. (I wonder where the orchard once was.) Today it would be impossible to see the Muffly fields once the leaves are on the trees--but maybe it was more open back then.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The Muffly family seemed to have a lot of problems with the cows getting into places where they weren’t supposed to be. Twice during the summer of 1911 Grandma wrote about cows getting into the corn (July 10 and July 25), and on May 26 she wrote “I’m through watching cows for the present time—at least. That was my duty for one wk.”
I continue to think that the family would have used barbed wire to fence the pasture but maybe they didn’t. And, even if there were fences maybe the cows were able to escape (cows can be very adept at finding holes in fences).
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 6, 1911: Went to Sunday school this morning. Carrie and I took a short stroll this afternoon. We had intended to take a longer one, but we decided that it would be too hot. We talked about getting up a picnic, and the thought may be carried into execution. Who knows.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma mentioned the hot weather several times during Summer 1911. The other times I could find articles in old newspapers which confirmed that the weather had been very hot on that date. But I can’t find anything in 1911 newspapers about unusually hot weather on August 6. Maybe the sun just felt really hot to Grandma and her friend Carrie Stout even though the temperature wasn’t particularly high.
In the process of looking for the weather in the August 6, 1911 issue of the New York Times I noticed an article that began:
Narrower Skirts Next Autumn—So Says Rumor, but No One Has an Idea What the Arbiters of Fashion Will Decree
Rumor is rife these days. It is said that skirts are to be narrower than ever in the Autumn; that all waists are to be excessively short; that divided skirts will be the rule . . . .
New York Times, August 6, 1911
Hmm—I’ve heard a rumor that the arbitrators of fashion are saying that narrower skirts are in for this upcoming autumn.
When I read the New York Times article, I remembered that I’d seen these drawings of a type of narrow skirt–the trouser skirt–in the June, 1911 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, August 5, 1911: Am still driving my swift steeds, but it isn’t for very long. One thing I am glad of is that it isn’t dusty a bit, but will soon be.
Is this the field where Grandma drove the horses?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma was probably leading horses that were hitched to a roller that leveled plowed earth in preparation for planting winter wheat seeds.
Grandma mentioned that she was learning to drive horses in the August 2 diary entry (see that posting for a photo of a horse-drawn roller).
I think that Grandma was being sarcastic when she called the horses “swift steeds.” In the previous diary entry she said that the horses were not fun to drive because they were old and slow.
