Cakewalk Games at Festivals

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

Saturday, August 23, 1913: Ruth and I went to a festival up at McEwensville this evening.

The festival probably was held in the small park next to the McEwensville Community Hall.

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

What fun! I love small town festivals. There’s so much excitement and energy—good friends, great food, fun exhibits, and fun games.

I bet that Grandma and her sister Ruth played the Cakewalk game. It used to be a popular fund-raiser game at festivals, but I haven’t seen it in years.

People would donate homemade cakes to be used as game prizes.

The game is kind of like musical chairs. Numbered squares are laid out on a circular path. Music is played while the participants walk around the path. The music then stops, and a number is called out. The individual standing on the square with that number wins a cake.

Tickets are sold to participants. The number of squares in the path equals to the number of tickets sold. For example there might be 20 squares. The game is run multiple times until all the cakes are gone—with 20 people participating in each game.

Layered_cake_with_cream — Source: Wikimedia Commons

An aside–when I was preparing this post I googled the term cakewalk and was surprised to discover that the game that I remember isn’t what the word generally means. Cakewalk had it originals on slave plantations in the South in the 1800s. According to The Free Dictionary cakewalk is “A 19th-century public entertainment among African Americans in which walkers performing the most accomplished or amusing steps won cakes as prizes.”

Old Hydrox Cookies and Other Sunshine Biscuits Advertisement

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

Friday, August 22, 1913: Nothing much doing.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1913)

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a hundred-year-old advertisement for Hydrox cookies and other biscuits made by Sunshine.

Hydrox cookies bring back warm fuzzy memories, and I was disappointed to discover that they are no longer made.

According to Wikipedia they were first made in 1908 by the Sunshine Company. For some unknown reason the cookie’s name was derived from the atomic elements that make up water: hydrogen and oxygen.

Sunshine was sold to Keebler and later Kellogg. Hydrox cookies were discontinued in 2009.

Hope Chest and Crocheted Items

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

Thursday, August 21, 1913: Am trying to learn to crochet. I’d like to be able to do that ever so very much.

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

The diary provides no indication that Grandma had a boyfriend—but did she dream of a boyfriend and eventual marriage?

Many young women a hundred years ago had hope chests that they filled with items they made in anticipation of a future marriage.Did Grandma want to make crocheted items for her hope chest?

Linens and nightgown with crocheted trim (Source: Ladies Home Journal, 1912-1913)

Should Pianists Study the Violin?

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

Wednesday, August 20, 1913: Worked more than usual at my music this afternoon. A cousin of Ma’s came, so then I didn’t practice any more.

Photo Source: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

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

Yeah, Grandma! I’m glad you’re working hard while practicing the piano. It’s hard work to learn to play the piano when you start lessons at age 18. Hang in there!

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I continue to be fascinated by a column called “Piano Questions Answered by Josef Hofmann” that appeared periodically in Ladies Home Journal a hundred years ago. Here’s another question.

A Pianist Should Not Study the Violin

I have heard that the study of the violin interferes with the touch of a good pianist? Is this so? J.P.F.

There are two reasons why no one can play the piano and violin equally well. The violinist strives to harden his fingertips in order to make his tone definite, while the soul of a sensitive and refined piano touch lies in the softness of the fingertips. The ear is another factor in the matter, for the acoustic pictures peculiar to the two instruments are so thoroughly different from each other that the ear must get accustomed to the tone quality of the piano to produce the best results by exploring its possibilities. The technic, literature and tone quality of the two instruments are too different to admit of a mastery of both, though the piano is not nearly so harmful to the violin as the violin is to the piano.

Ladies Home Journal (May 1, 1911)

If you missed it, you may also enjoy a previous post that contained a couple more questions and answers from the piano column in old Ladies Home Journals.

Piano Questions and Answers from a Hundred Years Ago

Need to Remember: July 27, 1912 – August 19, 1913

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

Tuesday, August 19, 1913: Went to a party over at Stout’s this evening. Had quite a nice time. July 27, 1912 – Aug 19, 1913: I can’t forget that.

The Stout home was located near here. It burned down years ago–and Interstate I-180 now cuts through the farm where the Stout’s once lived.

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

Carrie Stout was one of Grandma’s friends. She lived on a farm that was midway between the Muffly farm and McEwensville. Who else was at the party?

Grandma, why are the dates special: July 27, 1912 to the day you wrote the diary entry (August 19, 1913)? What was so memorable about the starting date? Did something end?. . .or would it continue into future days?

Visited Uncles

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

Monday, August 18, 1913: Left Alma’s this morning and walked over to Ottawa. Called on my uncles this afternoon. Came home on the afternoon train. I met quite a few people while away.

Recent photo of the road Ruth and Tweet would have walked down as they approached the Muffly farm. — Recent photo of where Grandma would gotten off the train. A hundred years ago there was a whistle stop for the Susquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick Railroad at a mill that bordered the Muffly farm. (The mill was torn down years ago.)

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

This was the last day of a three-day trip that Grandma took to Montour County to visit her cousin Alma.

They visited their uncles, Samuel and George Muffly. Samuel and George were brothers of Grandma’s father, and lived on a farm at the very small hamlet of Ottawa. According to the 1910 census Samuel Muffly was a 43-year-old single male, and George was a 34-year-old single male.

A Dog in Church

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

Sunday, August 17, 1913: I missed going to Sunday School this morning at McEwensville for the first time since January. Alma and I went to church this morning at Turbotville. While in church a dog came in and made his way up front and from there onto the pulpit, walked around awhile and then went out. I couldn’t keep from smiling.

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

And, a hundred years later, I also can’t keep from smiling as I picture the dog on the pulpit. 🙂

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Alma lived about 15 miles from the Muffly’s in Montour county. The trip must have been a multi-day expedition. The previous day Grandma wrote that she took the train to Alma’s.

Grandma’s sister Ruth probably had to do all the milking while Grandma was gone. (Grandma so often had to Ruth’s milking, that it seem fair that it was now Ruth’s turn.)