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

Wednesday, October 20, 1914: << no entry>>

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

Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I thought that it might be fun to take a look back at what she wrote in previous years on three dates in October. In 1911 and 1912 she was a high school student. She was at  home working on the farm in 1913.

 1911

Wednesday, October 18, 1911: Grandma and Aunt Alice were here today, but I didn’t get to see them because they had gone when I got home from school. We had a review in Latin today. An easy examination it was.

<<< I’m still amazed that Grandma studied Latin in school–and that she sometimes found it easy!  >>>

Thursday, October 19, 1911: That’s all.

<<< Even back in the days when Grandma was a student, some days were boring. >>>

Friday, October 20, 1911: Got out of school early this afternoon. I gathered some walnuts after I got home. Mollie gave me a kick in the back while milking another cow this evening. I’ve named Ruth’s twin calves, one Brutus and the other Caesar, but I can’t tell which is which.

<<<Ouch! A kick in the back had to hurt.  . . I can see that what Grandma was learning in Latin was carrying over to her home life.>>>

—

1912

Friday, October 18, 1912:  These days are beginning to be so much agreeable.

<<< Why were the days more agreeable? >>>

Saturday, October 19, 1912:  Had to pick taters this afternoon. Thought perhaps I’d get out of it because it rained last night, but didn’t get out of it any way.

<<< In 1914, the potato harvest was a little earlier–Grandma mentioned gathering potatoes on  October 2.. Was the weather different in 1914? >>>

Sunday, October 20, 1912:  Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Mrs. Besse was here when I came home, but didn’t seem to make a very long stay of it.

<<< Besse was Grandma’s married sister. She lived in the nearby town of Wastsontown. In the early years of the diary she and her husband Curt often visited on Sundays. I wonder why Besse didn’t visit as often in 1914 as she once did. >>>

—

1913

Saturday, October 18, 1913:  At last my job is finished. I call it about 600 bushels more or less. This will add some to my spending money.

<<< Grandma was husking corn. Maybe, in 1914, she’s again busy husking corn (and making money) and too tired to write .  . >>>

Sunday, October 19, 1913:  Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Then it commenced to rain, but got home alright after all.

<<< Sounds similar to many Sunday posts scattered throughout the diary.>>>

Monday, October 20 – Friday, October 24, 1913:  It’s been so rainy and dreary this week that I begin to feel awful grouchy. I certainly am under the weather these days. Any way October never was a favorite month of mine. I don’t have much to write about for her.

<<< Interesting. . . I’d forgotten that Grandma also lumped a number of days together in the diary in 1913. October sounds like it was  a rough month in 1913. I hope it’s going better in 1914. >>>

 

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

Monday, October 19, 1914: << no entry>>

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

Sigh. . . Grandma didn’t again write anything a hundred years ago today; but I came across a fun opinion piece in the August, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal that I thought you might enjoy. Apparently suburbs were a relatively new concept back then, and some of the basics were still being figured out—like how to name the roads.

“Avenues” in the Suburbs

Can anyone give a good reason why we persist in creating “streets” and “avenues” in our new suburbs when what we are really creating are “Ways,” “Roads.” and “Lanes,” and should so name them.

We say when we move out to the suburbs that we do so because we want “to get out of the city,” and then we deliberately drag the nomenclature of the city with us. A “street” is essentially a word that we associate with a city thoroughfare: It is, in fact, according to a dictionary definition, “a public highway with buildings on one or both sides, in a city.”

An “avenue” is, according to dictionary authority, “a wide or principal street: a broad thoroughfare.” Now try to imagine any of the so-called “avenues” in our suburbs as “side or principal streets,” or “broad thoroughfares.” Perhaps you live on such an avenue: a “Maple Avenue,” say, a city block or two long and twenty feet wide! Would it not more truly reflect its real character and its surroundings had it been called “Mapleway,” or “Maple Road”? And, above all, should we not be using our language a little more correctly?

One progressive little community is taking hold of this erroneous nomenclature and has changed “Home Avenue” to “Homeway”: a one-block “Maple Avenue” has become what it is: “Mapleway,” bordered with maple trees, and “Chestnut Avenue” has become “Chestnut Lane.”

Why not be right instead of wrong in the use of the language, particularly when it is just as easy to be right?

Whew, the author got really carried away with the quotation marks. I got tired of typing them every time an “avenue”, “street,” or other “road” was mentioned.

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

Monday, October 12, 1914:  Nothing much doing. Have a blister on my finger from giving it too much exercise. Adieu till something happens as the days go by.

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

LOL Grandma—I love your sense of humor, but PLEASE find something worthwhile to write soon. Writing in your diary may be losing meaning for you, but we hang on every word you write and need to hear your daily words.