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.
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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.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, January 23, 1914: Don’t remember what I did today. My memory is rather leaky.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (January, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sounds like a slow day. Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share some dress pictures from 1914 issues of Ladies Home Journal.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (October, 1914)Source: Ladies Home Journal (October, 1914)Source: Ladies Home Journal (October, 1914)
This is the fourth year that I’ve shared dress pictures from Ladies Home Journal. You might also enjoy some of the previous posts.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, January 22, 1914: Ruth and I went to town this evening to hear a talk given by a Jew in the Reformed Church.
St. Johns’ United Church of Christ, McEwensville (It was St. John’s Reformed Church in Grandma’s day.)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous summer, on June 1, 1913, Grandma wrote a diary entry that was very similar to this one:
Went to Sunday school this afternoon. Took my time a getting home. I heard some of the best speaking I have ever listened to this evening. A converted Jew talked about some of the customs of the Jewish people in the Reformed Church at McEwensville.
I can’t figure out why a church would have two presentations less than eight months apart about Judaism, and why Grandma would be interested enough in the topic to attend both presentations even though she was a Baptist.
These diary entries make me want to learn more about Jewish culture in the US a hundred years ago, and how Jews were perceived by Christians in the early 20th century. Of course, these diary entries were written years before World War II and the holocaust. . . .
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, January 21, 1914: Can’t give much of an account of myself for today.
Source: National Food Magazine (April, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Winter gets long. It’s time to start thinking about a vacation. During the 3+ years that I’ve been posting the diary entries, Grandma has never traveled more than 15 miles or so from her home. Did Grandma ever dream of visiting a city? . . . Maybe New York City?
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a fun advertisement for the Biltmore Hotel in New York City that was on the back cover of the April, 1914 issue of National Food Magazine.
I’ll take one of those $2.50 a night rooms. . . . well, now that I’m thinking about it, I’d be willing to pay a little extra for a room with a bath. 🙂
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, January 20, 1914: Ditto
A recent photo of McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a few fun quotes about the dangers of over-eating from a hundred-year-old article:
A Greater Curse Than the Saloon
The saloon is a curse, we say. And it is. But when we speak of the saloon as the greatest curse in America we are beside the facts. Statistics plainly prove that overeating kills more people.
Kidney diseases and heart troubles are tremendously on the increase in America. Nor is the rush and strenuous life of America alone to blame. Nor is it alcohol. Both are contributing forces, but the greatest of all is the inability, particularly of men, to eat rightly.
The majority of men overeat. A man at forty cannot do the work of a man at thirty any more than he can at fifty do the work he did at forty. And he cannot and should not eat the same food in quantity. He does not need it.
Physicians agree that after a man or a woman has turned the corner at forty the system no longer needs the same quantity of food required in early manhood or womanhood. It actually does its work better on smaller amounts.
It is an old but true saying that “we dig our graves with our teeth.”
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, January 19, 1914: Nothing much doing this day.
Picture Source: Ladies Home Journal (April, 1912)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share part of an interesting article on the causes and cures for insomnia that appeared in the March, 1914 issue of National Food Magazine.
To My Sleepless Friend
It is certainly true that thousands lose their health and many die every year through lack of sufficient sleep. Prolonged sleeplessness means nervous trouble of some kind and should not be neglected.
Rest Destroyers
The habitual use of stimulants and drugs.
The worrying habit.
The overwork habit.
Habitual overeating, or taking food at bedtime that is difficult of digestion.
The “wide-awakes” who cannot sleep themselves and disturb the rest of others.
The “fond mother” who wakes the baby to exhibit him to a friend.
The “early-to-bed” who interferes with the “late-to-bed’s” morning nap.
To Cure Insomnia
Strict attention to diet is an absolute necessity.
Weak, easily exhausted persons require food at short intervals (about every two hours).
The heartiest meal of the day should not be eaten later than 2 p.m.
Liquid nutriment or fresh, ripe fruit should be taken between meals.
No uncooked fruits should be eaten after the dinner hour.
Avoid
Condiments and spices; strong acids; food that is difficult of digestion for you; tea, coffee and alcoholic drinks, usually.
As Sleep Inducers
A cup of hot water or hot milk before retiring.
A light sandwich (minced meat or chicken).
Never go to bed hungry, nor with an over-loaded stomach.
Lay aside business worries and other cares at sunset.
Take a walk, some light exercise, after the evening meal (one hour later).
Substitute muscle fatigue for brain tire.
When you go to bed, relax the muscles, lie on the right side, and think of something pleasant.
Finally
Don’t keep yourself awake trying to get to sleep. Give up the idea that you cannot sleep. Seek rest and repose first, and sleep will come naturally with time.
