18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, February 2, 1914: Really there’s nothing doing for today. Got a paper, so I digested that this afternoon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Milton Evening Standard (January 5, 1912)
Grandma may have read the Milton Evening Standard. It was published in a nearby town. This is part of the front page for January 5, 1912, so it’s not the issue Grandma would have been reading, but it gives an example of typical headlines—
Politicians arguing about who will replace a deceased court clerk before he is even buried.
Cold Weather
A high salary offer for a baseball coach
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Whew, was getting a newspaper the exception rather than the rule in the Muffly household? I am amazed that Grandma considered it worth noting in the diary when she got a paper.
I’d always assumed that Grandma read one of the local newspapers every day—but maybe she didn’t.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, February 1, 1914:
Something nice for you, I’m thinking
Yet somehow my thoughts will stray
Every one is so much rubbish.
Tis a failure that I say.
Sunday school was this afternoon instead of this morning. I rather liked the preacher they had. Ruth and I. I was going to say since that is a phrase so often, but doesn’t fit in here after all. Well Ruth staid up at Helen’s and I went up to attend some kind of C.E. Union, any way that is my definition of it. Said services are to be held every night this week. Thurs. night is when we girls take part. Came home with Ruth since that was what I went up for.
The road Grandma would have walked to McEwensville.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This is a long entry for Grandma—yet it also seems particularly disjointed and I have difficulty following her train of thought.
Monthly Poem
Grandma began the month with a poem—as she did on the 1st of every month. Many monthly poems were about the season or typical weather (the harvest in October, sweet summer in August).
What was Grandma trying to say in this poem? The first line may refer to Valentine’s Day—or the unidentified guy she liked who she referred to as “he” in other entries. But then the poem seems to take a darker turn.
Sunday School
The church must have had a substitute pastor or a preacher seeking a call. The previous preacher at Grandma’s church preached his farewell sermon on January 4.
C.E. Union
C.E. Union referred to the Christian Endeavor Union. It is a nondenominational evangelical organization that periodically held events in McEwensville. On October 30, 1912 Grandma wrote about attending a Christian Endeavor convention in McEwensville.
The last few days Grandma was practicing a speech. It sounds like she would give it at a Christian Endeavor event later in the week.
Friends
Helen Wesner and Carrie Stout were friends of Grandma and her sister Ruth.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, January 30, 1914: Was over to Carrie’s this afternoon. I’m off on a vacation now. My music teacher didn’t come this morning.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I wonder why Grandma’s piano teacher didn’t come. Was the weather bad?
Grandma seems like she was acting a bit childish in this entry. You’d think that she could continue to enjoy playing the piano—and not take “a vacation” even though her teacher didn’t assign any new songs to learn.
Sometimes Grandma seems like an adult—other times like a kid. . . maybe that’s just the way 18-year-old are.
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Carrie Stout was a friend of Grandma’s who lived on a nearby farm.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, January 29, 1914: Am learning a speech, sometimes I manage to say quite a bit, and then I get stuck.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm. . . Grandma apparently was going to give a speech at church. The previous day she wrote:
Ruth and I went up to town this evening. I am in some kind of a thing that’s to be given in the church. Went up to practice . . .
What was the topic? The minister at her church had recently left, and a new one had not yet been called. Maybe parishioners were trying to fill the gap.
The previous spring, back when Grandma was a high school senior, she was energized when she was in the class play, and when she was a graduation speaker. Hopefully this speech will be equally rewarding.
Here’s a few previous diary entries about how she felt about the play and the graduation speech:
Day of Class Play
. . . Our play went off pretty well, although we did make some slight mistakes. I cut quite a splash after I was all fixed up . . .
. . . At last I arrived at the church. We marched in and so on up to the front of the church, where we took seats in uncomfortable chairs and managed to sit out the evening. I recited my essay without a mental breakdown and then at last all was over, after which came congratulations and well wishes. . . .
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, January 28, 1914: Ruth and I went up to town this evening. I am in some kind of a thing that’s to be given in the church. Went up to practice. We had quite a bit of fun even if we did have to work some at making crosses.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
What fun!. . . Spending a winter evening with friends sounds wonderful. What was the upcoming event at the church that Grandma was practicing for? And, what were the crosses she was helping make?
Maybe they were making crocheted cross bookmarks. I can remember occasionally getting crocheted crosses that church members made when I was a child.
There are lots of different types of crocheted crosses. Directions for making one type are at Moms Love of Crochet.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, January 25, 1914: We didn’t have church this afternoon as there isn’t any preacher yet. Staid a while after Sunday school and then came home.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Recent photo of McEwensville–Was it beginning to get dark when Grandma started walking home from Sunday school? She would have needed to get home in time to milk the cows.
What did Grandma do when she “staid a while after Sunday school?”
Did she chat with her girlfriends? . . .
Hmm . . . another random thought. . . On January 16 Grandma wrote that she had a good time at a party because “he” was there. Did “he” attend her church? . . . Maybe she “staid” to talk with him.
—
This is the third Sunday that Grandma’s church didn’t have a minister. On January 4, 1914 she wrote:
Our minister is going to leave soon. He preached his farewell sermon today.
Was it difficult to get—and keep—ministers in small country churches a hundred years ago? . . . They probably couldn’t pay very much.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, January 24, 1914: Went to Watsontown this afternoon, though what I went for rather puzzled me after I got started. Was in to the movies. The old pictures are rather hard on my eyes.
Had a nice time coming home through the rain without an umbrella.
Something I almost forgot. Rode downhill three or four times with Jimmie this morning. The road was nice and icy and we went quite a distance. The fun didn’t last very long for me however. I came to the conclusion that I was most too old to ride downhill.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
If I squint my eyes I can almost see Grandma and her little brother Jimmie sledding how the road in front of their house. Jimmie enjoying every moment; and Grandma having fun, but worried that she looked silly and that her friends might see her acting like a kid.
Awe, to be young again. . . I wish that I was so young that 18 felt old.
