15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 3, 1911: I was invited to a dance tonight, but didn’t go because I didn’t have any one to go with. Ruthie went to Helen Wesner’s party. I would have liked to have gone too, but I wasn’t invited. I guess I am not out yet. I’ll have to sleep alone tonight for it isn’t very likely that Ruthie will get home before daylight. She’ll be lazy tomorrow.
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, March 1, 1911:
Blustering March, month of spring,
We bid you welcome here.
You bring the sunshine and the flowers.
Hurrah for the third month of the year.
I was invited to dine out this evening and accepted the invitation. It was up at Gauger’s. My beauteous or rather vain sister was up also. It was, as I supposed in honor of the senior class. I had quite a pleasant evening. I played Flinch part of the time. My partner and I winning two games.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
A hundred years ago Flinch as a popular card game. According to Amazon’s website the game is still available– though I’m not familiar with it.
Flinch is played with a deck of 150 cards. The cards go from 1 to 15. It is kind of a cross between double solitaire and “go fish.” It can be played with partners—though partners are not necessary.
Each player receives a stack of face down cards. The first player turns over a card. If it is a “1” it is put in the center of the table. Otherwise the player puts it face up on the table in front of him- or herself.
Once the first person is finished the next player turns over a card. If the card is one higher than the top card in the center of the table, it can be placed there–or if the card is one above or below a card in front of another player it can be placed on top of that card. If the card doesn’t go anywhere, it is placed face up on the table. Play continues until a player goes out.
If a player fails to notice that a card can be put on a previously placed card, the other players yell, “flinch.”
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Grandma’s sister Ruth and Bill Gauger were both senior’s at McEwensville High School They will marry several years later.
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, February 25, 1911: Mother got mad at me this morning and chased me around with a stir stick. I always seem to get into some kind of trouble on Saturdays. I went up to Oakes this afternoon. I didn’t want to go, but Ruth wanted me to take home some papers and cards of theirs. So at last I went. I stuck fast in the mud several places, but succeeded in extricating myself. I have been for the past few days, and still am, the owner of a very sore thumb on my right hand. I guess it is either a ring-around or a run around.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’m not positive what a stir stick was in Grandma’s day, but I think it was a wooden spoon.
I’m slightly appalled by this entry. I recognize that times were different and that physical punishment was used more frequently one hundred years ago than it is today—yet I’m still surprised that it was used to discipline an adolescent.
Being chased by her mother with a stir stick was unusual enough from Grandma’s perspective to merit mention in the diary—yet it doesn’t seem like she is particularly surprised by the action. This suggests that her mother periodically hit her.
Methods of punishment shape individuals’ attitudes toward authority and obedience. I wonder how being chased by a stir stick affected Grandma.
——
The sore thumb mentioned in the entry refers to the finger that Grandma cut six days earlier.
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, February 24, 1911: I tried to get up this morning without awakening my bed fellow, but all in vain. We tried to make her believe she was dreaming of Him. I didn’t have a lesson out for this morning, for I didn’t study any last night, because I wouldn’t very well, but I made up for it some this evening. I managed to get through my lessons somehow. Ruth has gone to a sleighing party, thorough the mud tonight.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma, her sister Ruth, Blanche Bryson, and Edith (last name unknown—but she married Harry Reynolds in April, 1911) had a sleep-over (see yesterday’s posting).
In the late 1800s and early 1900s:
Young women routinely spent the months preceding their marriage almost exclusively with other women—at neighborhood sewing bees and quilting parties or in a round of visits to geographically distant friends and relatives—Ostensibly they went to receive assistance in the practical preparations for their new home—sewing and quilting a trousseau and linen—but of equal importance, they appear to have gained emotional support and reassurance.
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg (1978)
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, February 20, 1911: A glorious snow came today, hurrah for the sleigh rides through the fleecy snow. I had a swift ride home from school this evening.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sleigh rides sound awesome. There was probably a building anticipation of fun as the snow fell throughout the day. Grandma may have considered herself too grown-up, but some of the students probably enjoyed sledding during the lunch break.
In Grandma’s day, the school at McEwensville housed an elementary school on the first floor and a high school on the second. About 20 years after this diary was written my father attended elementary school in the same building. He talks about pulling his sled to and from school on snowy days so that he could use it during recess. (He walked nearly 2 miles each way and it seems like it would have been a hassle to pull a sled—but he assures me that it wasn’t).
Dad says that older students and younger students paired up for fast rides down the hill behind the school. Last summer when Dad and I were taking photos Dad was amazed that the sledding hill is now covered with trees—and and that it didn’t look nearly as long or steep as he had remembered it.
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, February 18, 1911: Strange to say, I don’t believe I was a bit sleepy today, but I didn’t get up so very early this morning. It has been so quiet today, but I don’t think I was, for it seems I am stirring at something that I have no business to. If I would only stir at my neglected studies.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
No wonder Grandma slept late since she didn’t get home from the party until 2 a.m. (see yesterday). Why is her head still spinning with ideas, and she is “stirring at something that I have no business to?” Did a guy show an interest in her? . . . Is he the boyfriend of someone else? . . .
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, February 17, 1911: I went to a party this evening in McEwensville up at Watson’s I had a very pleasant time. It was almost two o’clock when I got home.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma must have actually written this diary entry the day after it is dated. Sounds like a fun party— but, whew, 2 a.m. sounds late for a 15-year-old. I wonder how Grandma got home. . .
Did she walk the mile and a half home? . . . alone? . . . with her sister? . . . with someone else? Or maybe someone gave her a ride in a carriage? If so, who?
Did Grandma sneak into the house so her parents hopefully won’t notice how late she was out?
