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

Sunday, August 2, 1914:  Went to Sunday school this morning.Besse and Curt came out towards evening. They brought ice and we made ice cream.

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

mmm. . . Ice cream and cake sound good.

It’s weird, but I have a vague sense of changing technology and transportation across the 3 1/2 years that I’ve been posting the diary entries.

Grandma’s family often made ice cream on Sundays when her married sister Besse and her husband Curt came to visit. However, I think this is the first time they had ice cream during the summer.

In the past they always made it during the winter when ice was readily available. I think that they got the ice out of animal watering troughs or from the creek. For example, on January 22, 1911 Grandma wrote:

Went to Sunday school and church this morning. Made ice cream. That is my sister made it and I assisted. I got the ice. Besse and Curt came out this evening. Just when Ruth and I were having a little spat all to ourselves.

(Grandma sometimes had ice cream during the summer at a festival—and once at a friend’s home— but never at home.)

Besse and Curt lived in nearby Watsontown. My take is that technology and transportation were changing—and that it was easier (or at least less expensive) to get ice during the summer months in 1914 than had been back in 1911.

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

Saturday, August 1, 1914:

The summertime is passing on,

To summers that have gone before.

Life is an ever-changing scene,

Which we would fair explore.

Am beginning to count the days until the 17th beams upon my horizon. Ruth and I went to a festival up in town given for the benefit of the church.

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

Grandma—

There are hints about so many things in this diary entry—but so little substance. What is going to happen on the 17th? What did you and your sister Ruth do at the festival? Did you see the person mentioned in yesterday’s diary entry?

. . . Went to a surprise party this evening. It was over at Carrie’s. Enjoyed myself as much as I usually do. I think no doubt remains as to the state of my feelings concerning somebody.

July 31, 1914

I assume you wrote the poem, but you’re only 19—and in some ways the monthly poem sounds like it was written by someone much older.

For more information about the monthly poems see this previous post:

Monthly Poem in Diary

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

Thursday, July 30, 1914: About the same as the other days.

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

Since Grandma did not write much a hundred years ago, I’m going to share another set of’  ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures that were in the April, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal. The title of the article was: “What was Done in Some Towns and What You And Do in Yours.”

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

Monday, July 27, 1914: I just finished writing several letters. So you see I am in the mood for writing this evening. A regular down pour of rain drenched the earth this afternoon. Am glad of it, for I realized how deep the dust was, when I went off on an errand of Pa’s this morning. I took the nearest cut and went across the field. This involved climbing fences or crawling through them as the case happened to be. I chose the latter, when I found a place large enough to admit my ponderous body. I still cling to the idea that I am big and fat, but nevertheless I am losing weight as the summer advances, so you see, the time may come, when I will be reduced to normal weight.

The people here have gone to bed, so I will shut up for awhile.

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

Grandma-

How much you weigh? It can’t be very much. What is a “normal weight” for your height?

On March 23, 1914, you wrote:

Got a streak of sewing today. I get the streaks quite often in many variations. Another one is to get rid of some of my superfluous fat. 140 pounds (January) is entirely too much for a girl of my age. I don’t weigh that now, since I lost six and gained about three. Intend to take advantage of the other three and fight for dear life.

And, on March 29, 1914 you wrote:

. . . Am rather tired of dieting by this time. Have lost ten pounds.

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My memory is that Grandma was quite short—probably 5 feet 1 inch . . . maybe 5 feet 2 inches. She probably was a little taller than that as a teen, but she definitely was not very tall.