Walking Home with Friends on a Moonlit Night

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

Sunday, October 12, 1913: Went to Sunday School this morning. Ruth and I went up to church this evening. It was so nice and moonlight. Some of the girls walked down the road with us coming home.

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

This diary entry makes me feel both good and worried. Let me explain.

First, why it makes me feel good—

I can picture Grandma, her sister Ruth, and their friends ambling down the road from McEwensville toward the Muffly farm on a beautiful ,unseasonably warm, October evening.

I don't have an evening picture of the road that went from McEwensville toward the Muffly farm, but here's a daylight picture of the road . — I don’t have an evening picture of the road, but here’s a daylight picture of it.

I imagine a group of five or six girls in long skirts chatting and giggling about guys, friends, clothes, work, and all of the other important things that teens talk about. And, in my mind, I envision that as they neared the midpoint between town and the Muffly farm that the group separated with Grandma and Ruth continuing on—and the other girls returning to McEwensville.

Now why it makes we worry—

This entry reminds me that Grandma often had to walk home alone in the dark after church, community, and (before she graduated) school events. Some of those nights were in the dead of winter—and it must have been excruciatingly cold.

Maybe people were just used to walking at night in rural areas back then, but I worry about her safety. (I know it’s a hundred years too late to worry—but I do it anyhow). Did Grandma ever feel scared during the mile or so walk home through the dark countryside?

Were Children Paid for Working on Their Family Farms a Hundred Years Ago?

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

Saturday, October 11, 1913: Received part of my pay today. It amounted to twelve dollars. I feel quite rich now. This surely ought to help me out in a pinch.

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

Grandma—

You’ve sure worked hard husking corn, and you deserve every penny you earned. According to an online inflation calculator, $12 in 1913 would be worth about $285 now.

You are extremely fortunate to be paid for doing farm labor. Your parents must have been progressive thinking. Many young women working on their family farms probably received no compensation.

—

I’d like to thank Gallivanta for giving me the idea for this post. Let me share a story—

Gallivanta reads this blog and regularly makes comments. And, I’ve discovered her blog, Silkannthreads. She recently did a post on the lack of appreciation of the domestic work that women do, and on how women generally are not paid for this work (doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.).

I made a comment on her post, and she responded:

. . . By the way, I have been thinking how great it is that Helena is being paid for her work during the corn harvest. She is not being treated as free family labour.

And, a light bulb went off in my head—

Wow, I’ve been feeling sorry for Grandma, when I should have recognized that she was incredibly fortunate to be paid.

Thank you, Gallivanta, for giving me valuable new insights.

—

You may also enjoy reading a previous post that I did on teaching farm kids the value of money.

The Secrets of Sight Reading Music

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

Thursday, October 9, 1913: About the same as other days.

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

Grandma was still husking corn using a hand-held corn peg. She’d been husking corn since September 25.

In the past Grandma often struggled to practice her piano lessons.—even when she didn’t seem particularly busy. On the days when she “worked for wages” and had lots to do, did she somehow still manage to find time to practice the piano?

—-

I can remember taking piano lessons for six years when I was a child—and I didn’t like practicing much either. But my goal was to be able to sight read music, so that I could just play songs that my friends might ask me to play.

I never reached that goal and ended up seldom playing the piano once I quit taking lessons.

Did Grandma also want to sight read music? I can’t remember her ever playing the piano, so my guess is that she also never reached that point.

I recently was looking at an old issue of The Etude magazine and came across these tips for sight reading music. Some parts of it really resonated with me and I thought you might also enjoy it:

The Secrets of Sight Reading

Far too much attention seems to be paid to technique these days, and far too little to musicianship. There are scores of young pianists who can play the Liszt Second Rhapsody with much dash and seeming brilliance, but who cannot read a fourth grade piece at sight.

The fact is a musician is not a musician until he can read.

A knowledge of harmony is not essential to good sight reading, but it unquestionably helps very frequently a work that is peppered with accidentals will absolutely fog a student who has no knowledge of harmony, while one who has will go sailing along with the utmost abandon.

A good sight reader reads music phrase by phrase, not note by note.

There is a tendency these days among publishers and editors to avoid putting in too many signs of expression. The less gifted musician needs some signs, but too many fluster him and he ignores them altogether. Nevertheless, it is essential when reading at sight to be careful to observe all fortes and pianos, crescendos, diminuendos, rallentandos, etc. Music which has not variety of expression has no life.

Playing wrong notes is a crime in a piece that has been studied, but in sight-reading a wrong note now and then can scarcely be avoided. If you play a wrong note, however, do not stop, and do not let it get you “rattled.” Go on as if nothing had happened.

The Etude (March, 1914)

Sign. . . I wish I’d somehow learned those lessons about sight reading when I was young.

Love Sonnets of a Shop Girl (Sonnet XIII)

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

Friday, October 3, 1913: Working for wages.

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

Grandma worked long days on her father’s farm husking corn. Did she ever wish that she had a job in town—maybe as a clerk in a store?

Postcard showing Marsh Shoe Store, Milton a hundred years ago (postally used December 1910). — Postcard showing Marsh Shoe Store in the nearby town of Milton a hundred years ago (postally used December 1910).

It wasn’t all fun and glamor working in a store. Here’s what one of the sonnets published in 1913 in Love Sonnets of Shop Girl had to say:

Sonnet XIII

That floor-walker’s getting’ too breezy;

He hangs around me all the time.

I’ve wanted to let him down easy,

But he doesn’t get wise—he’s a lime.

I don’t like the way that he treats me –

You’d think that he owned me, the slob!

You’d think, by the way that he meets me,

I owed him my life—and my job!

.

He’s got to quit callin’ me “Baby”

And “Sister” and “Honey” and “Pet.”

I’ve quarreled with Terence; but maybe

He wouldn’t be tickled to get

A chance at this floor-walker Willie,

Who tried to get merry with muh!

Oh, wouldn’t he wallop him silly!

And then for the ambulance—huh?

.

But I won’t tell Terence; I merely

Will speak to this floor-walker gink,

And tell him, quite plainly and clearly,

Exactly the things that I think.

I don’t want to act at all shady,

But if he get uppish—the yap!—

I’ll lift up my hand like a lady

And bounce him a biff on the map.

Love Sonnets of a Shop Girl by Berton Braley was published in a 1913 book called Sonnets of a Suffragette. The entire book is available on the Internet Archive.

A Day to Relax and Develop Film

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

Thursday, October 2, 1913: Ma and I staid at home today, while the rest of the family attended the Fair. To while away the time I got at my pictures and was quite satisfied with the result.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913) — A woman developing film (photo source: *Ladies Home Journal*: May, 1913)

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

Grandma–

Yeah! You got a free day when you could relax and enjoy your hobbies.

When I first read this diary entry, I felt sad that you didn’t get to go to the Milton Fair—but when I reread it I decided that you didn’t care.

You’ve worked so hard helping with the corn harvest—and I bet it feels really good that when your dad took a day off to go to the fair, you also got the day off.

You enjoy photography so much, and I can just picture you developing a roll of film and getting some awesome pictures.

What a Difference a Year Makes

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

Tuesday, September 30, 1913: These days have come and gone. They ground me working on my job.

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

Grandma–

You work so hard on the farm—husking corn, digging potatoes, rolling fields in preparation for planting wheat—the list could go on and on.

I know that your life working on the family farm is fairly typical of the lives of many young unmarried women a hundred years ago. . . so I assume that your life just feels normal to you.

But . . .sometimes I wonder if your current jobs and tasks are fully utilizing your knowledge and skills.

Exactly one year before you wrote this entry, you were a high school senior and wrote:

Our class had a meeting this evening after school. I had the misfortune to be elected secretary. But better, or rather it suits me better to have been that, than president or treasurer would have suited me.

September 30, 1912

You always write in such a matter of fact way. I hope you feel good about what you are doing—and that you think that your work suits you well.

1913 Publisher’s Weekly Bestsellers

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

Sunday, September 28, 1913: Went to Sunday School this morning. Most of the people went away this morning leaving Ma and me at home. I got pretty lonesome for awhile, but afterwards got company.

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

I suppose Grandma and her mother had to stay home to feed the livestock and milk the cows. Where did everyone else go?

Before the company came, what did Grandma do? Maybe she read a book. When I’m lonely I often read books.

A few weeks ago, I gave you a list of 1913 books that are still popular according to Goodreads.

I’ve found another list of books—the Publishers Weekly list of 1913 bestselling novels.

The lists are very different—many of the 1913 bestsellers were written by authors I’ve never heard of –and many of the books that stood the test of time were sleepers a hundred years ago.

Bestselling Novels in 1913

1. The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill

2. V.V.’s Eyes by Henry Sydnor Harrison

3. Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter

4. The Judgment House by Gilbert Parker

5. Heart of the Hills by John Fox, Jr.

6. The Amateur Gentleman by Jeffrey Farnol

7. The Woman Thou Gavest Me by Hall Caine

8. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

9. The Valiants of Virginia by Hallie Erminie Rives

10. T. Tembarom by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Hmm. . . I read Pollyanna when I was a child. I think that it’s the only book of this list that I’ve ever heard of. I wonder if people still read it.

I googled The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill, and discovered that there were two Winston Churchill’s—the British statesmen and the American novelist who wrote this book.