19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, July 10 – Friday, July 11, 1914: Forgot the particulars of these days.
Did Grandma go up to McEwensville to visit friends?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma’s had a dry spell lately—the previous four days (July 6-9), she merely wrote “nothing doing.” Now, apparently on July 12, she wrote an entry that explained away the 10th and 11th.
. . . or maybe she went shopping in Watsontown?
Why weren’t all six days combined into one entry? It almost seems like Grandma actually wrote the “nothing doing” for the first four days on the 9th—then again set the diary aside for a couple more days.
. . . or led a horse as the hay was unloaded into the hay mow?, , , or sat in the house and dreamed of more exciting days to come?
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, July 8, 1914: Nothing doing.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (July, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since nothing was happening in Grandma’s life, I thought you might enjoy some pictures in a hundred-year-old article titled, Good Houses Spoiled by Bad Painting. The pictures show the “right” and “wrong” ways to paint a house.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, July 7, 1914: Nothing doing.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (June, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t have much to say a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share some pictures of floral arrangements in baskets.
According to the June, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal:
If one can afford to have only a few receptacles for flowers, then baskets would well be chosen. Nowadays the shops show inexpensive shapes to meet every requirement, and the clever woman will not find them difficult to make.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, July 5, 1914: Our new preacher took up his charge today. Am glad that one is secured at last.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (March, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The McEwensville Baptist Church had a few difficult months. It hadn’t had a minister since January—and it must be have been a relief to finally have a new pastor.
—
Did Grandma wear a hat to church? . . . with feathers? Did she know that some bird species were endangered because of the demand for feathers?
Our Girls’ Hats
The new feather law prohibits the importation into this country of feathers of wild birds, and it is being rigidly enforced.
We hope that our girls, everywhere, will realize what it means to wear the plumage of song-birds in their hats. Beautiful and becoming hats can now be made without the sacrifice of our feathered friends.
The appalling destruction of birds for milady’s hat is proved by figures from the last six feather sales in London this year: Crowned pigeons, 21,318; macaw wings, 5,794 pairs; quills of the white crane, 20715; hummingbirds, 4112; birds of paradise, 17,711; Of the kingfisher, one of the birds of bright plumage to be found on the English and Irish lakes, the skins of no less than 215,500 were on sale.
Isn’t that a terrible arraignment against the vanity of women who adorn themselves with the plumage of the birds?
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, July 3, 1914: Had a jolly good time out in the hay field. You see if you have to work, you might just as well make a good time of it.
Photo source: Wikimedia Commons
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma—
More details, please. It’s hot, hard work out in the hay field. It’s awesome that you had fun, but how did you make it fun? . . . Were you teasing and joking with other workers? . . . Who else was helping make hay? . . .
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, July 2, 1914: Ruth and I trotted up to town this evening. Didn’t want to go very bad, but Sis insisted.
McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hey Grandma —
Did you have fun? What did you and your sister Ruth do?
(I apologize if “Hey” is just too informal a salutation to use with my grandmother, but I think of you as the teen who wrote this diary—and somehow hey seemed just right in conjunction with my questions.)
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, July 1, 1914:
July has come to us once more.
Bright with days of the summer time.
Laden with joys that we all may find.
Filled to the brim and running o’er.
It’s a sad way to begin a month, if you’ve forgotten all the things you did. Guess I didn’t do much for the day by the sound of the entry.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The poem and the rest of the diary entry seem so diametrically opposed. Even though the month began slowly, maybe Grandma was hopeful that the reminder of the month would be busy, fun-filled, and generally awesome.
“sad way to begin a month” vs. “bright with days”
“forgotten” vs. “laden with joys”
“didn’t do much” vs. “filled to the brim and running o’er”
Monthly Poem
For more information about the poems that Grandma included on the first day of each month, see this previous post:
