18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, December 17, 1913: Went to town this afternoon to do my Xmas shopping. I managed not to spend all the money I had taken along with me, and still bought the presents I had decided upon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yeah! It’s always good when gifts cost less than anticipated.
Grandma, what did you buy? . . . . Maybe a game for your 8-year-old brother Jim that both you and he would enjoy playing?
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, December 16, 1913: Kept house today and found something to do nearly all day.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It’s funny how housework can expand to fill the time available. What did Grandma do to keep busy all day? . . pick up? . . . dust? . . . sweep the floor?
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m sharing a December, 1914 request for donations from the Salvation Army. I went grocery shopping today, and the Salvation Army bell-ringer was outside the supermarket. It’s interesting to see how it was done a hundred years ago.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, December 15, 1913: Ruthie left for Sunbury this morning, also left me all the milking, but I’m pretty hardened to that.
Row 1: Rachel Oakes (middle), Blanche Bryson (right). Row 2: Ruth Muffly (left) Source: The History of McEwensville Schools by Thomas Kramm (Used with permission)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma and her sister Ruth typically shared the milking chore—and when one of the sister’s went somewhere, the other had to do all of the work.
Is there a bit of annoyance in this diary entry? . . perhaps Ruth missed milkings more frequently than Grandma.
Ruth was a teacher at a nearby one-room school house. I think that she went to Sunbury to attend a teacher’s meeting.
Schools had longer Christmas breaks back then –and teachers sometimes attended trainings during part of the break. Sunbury is the county seat of Northumberland County, and is located about 15 miles from McEwensville.
Ruth had also gone to Sunbury in December of the previous year:
Our dearest Ruth left for Sunbury this morning and my heart is rather sad.
There is a photo in The History of the McEwensville Schools 1800-1958 of Ruth and the other 11 women who attended a teachers’ meeting in Sunbury in 1913. I’m not sure whether the photo was taken at the December meeting or whether it was taken at an earlier teacher’s meeting in Sunbury that took place in May.
The other two women identified in the photo were Rachel Oakes and Blanche Bryson. Both are mentioned in the diary. They were friends of Grandma and Ruth—as well as teachers. You may enjoy these previous posts about Blanche Bryson:
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, December 14, 1913: Went to Sunday School this morning. My nice new hat blew off. By good fortune it didn’t land in a mud puddle, but on the grass. Came back and pinned it on for I hadn’t gone very far. Mother doesn’t know it.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Whew, thank goodness it didn’t fall into the mud puddle.
It’s probably the hat that Grandma bought on November 15, 1913:
. . . I went to Milton this morning on a shopping tour. I got the daintiest hat I’ve ever had for a while. It is black velvet, trimmed with old rose ribbon and pink velvet flowers.
Sometimes I wish that I was an artist. Somehow the picture I used to illustrate this diary entry seems particularly lame when the descriptions were so vivid.
I can picture it in my mind—the beautiful black velvet hat trimmed with ribbons and flowers, the expression of horror on Grandma’s face as a gust of wind tore the hat from her head (and then the look of relief when it landed in the grass), ominous black clouds, the trees with bare branches (and Grandma’s coat and skirts) blowing in the wind. . .
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, December 13, 1913: Nothing much going on here today.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a gift idea: bed jackets.
I associate bed jackets with elderly women –but they apparently were popular gifts for young women a hundred years ago. Ladies Home Journal included pictures of them on pages that contained homemade gift ideas. Bedrooms were cold and drafty back then, so everyone apparently needed bed jackets.
They were sometimes called coming jackets, negligee jackets, or sacques in old issues of Ladies Home Journal.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, December 12, 1913: Not as a pupil, but as a visitor, I entered again the dear old M.H.S. this afternoon. The school room looked the same as in those by gone days when I myself was a pupil and a blockhead (sorry to say, but I am the latter yet.)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma graduated from McEwensville High School the previous spring. She probably went back to the school to see a Christmas show put on by the students. In previous years Grandma participated in the shows. For example, on December 15, 1911 she wrote:
Our entertainment is over at last. That dialogue went off alright. I didn’t forget any of my part although I was rather doubtful about it. . .
The McEwensville Schools had a high school on the second floor and a primary school on the first floor. The show may have included students from both schools. If so, Grandma’s little brother Jimmie probably was in the show.
___
Grandma—
You ARE NOT a blockhead! Don’t put yourself down.
PLEASE—THINK POSITIVELY ABOUT YOURSELF. You are darn smart—I can tell that even a hundred years later from reading your diary.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, December 11, 1913: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. Admired the Xmas fixings and other things, but I’m not going Xmas shopping until next week. Then I won’t have to keep them so long.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Watsontown is a nearby town that was a little larger than McEwensville.
Watsontown is a charming town, but the downtown area is very quiet today. It was a little busier when I was a child, but it wasn’t a major shopping destination. In some ways, it’s difficult to imagine a time when Watsontown had “Xmas fixings” worth admiring.
