Mother and Daugther Disagreements About Practicing the Piano

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

Thursday, August 7, 1913: Ma threatens me with my music and wants me to practice more.

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

Whew, an 18-year-old and her mother in a battle of wills over practicing the piano feels like a recipe for disaster.

Grandma only began taking lessons in June. Yet this is the second diary entry where she mentions that her mother wanted her to practice more. One July 26 she wrote:

Ma wanted me to keep digging at my music this morning. I don’t like to practice very well.

Grandma was a young adult—and you’d think that she won’t have begun taking lesson unless she was really motivated to learn to play. And, that she would have been responsible to making her own decisions about whether or not to practice.

However, Grandma’s mother bought the piano for her in the Spring (and undoubtedly spent a lot of money on it), so I suppose that she felt like she also had a stake in ensuring that Grandma practiced.

Hundred-Year-Old Directions for Making and Marketing Sun-Preserved Preserves

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

Wednesday, August 6, 1913: That’s all.

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

Yesterday, I shared an article about “new’ gadgets a hundred years ago that can be used to making canning easier. Since Grandma didn’t write much in this diary entry, I’m going to dig deeper into one statement in that article. It said:

Canning is a great improvement over the old-fashioned way of preserving fruits pound for pound, and if canned properly fruits will retain their fresh and natural flavor.

Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

I wondered what that meant and then came across another article about Sun-preserved Preserves. That article contained a letter from a reader explaining how to make and market sun-preserved preserves.

Sun-preserved Preserves

The thing I knew I could do better than most people was to make preserves. My specialties were sun-cooked strawberry and cherry preserves.

I chose only the finest, most perfect fruit, seeding the cherries carefully by hand. I weighed the fruit and made a syrup of an equal amount of the best granulated sugar, using just enough water to melt the sugar and prevent burning. When the sugar was melted I dropped the fruit in carefully and let it boil, about five minutes in the case of the strawberries and ten minutes for the cherries.

I then removed the preserves to a large platter and placed them out in the sunshine, covering closely with large pieces of glass. It may be necessary to use mosquito netting also. About two days of direct sunshine usually cooks the preserves sufficiently. I tried to put them in glass jars while still hot from the sun’s rays. This is not necessary, but they are nicer if canned before the juice sets.

The next problem was to find a market for my wares, which were strictly first class, and, beautiful in shape and color. For these I must ask a good price.

I lived about a hundred miles from a large city, in a village where there was no market for my goods at any price, so I took to scanning the society columns of the city papers and thus listed the names and addresses of the people I wanted to reach. To these I wrote personal letters describing my preserves and setting my price. To a few prominent ladies I sent small samples. The responses were numerous enough to give me several very busy summers.

Ladies Home Journal (July, 1913)

Sometimes when I read old recipes like this one I just roll my eyes and throw up my hands. These directions don’t sound like they would produce a safe, sanitary food—yet Sun-preserved Preserves apparently were considered a gourmet food a hundred years ago. So I googled “Sun Preserves” and found a New York Times article that explains how to make them using modern processes and procedures.

Cherry Stoners and Apple Parers a Hundred Years Ago

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

Tuesday, August 5, 1913: What would you write, when you had nothing to write about?

With the cherry stoner the fruit is stoned by the pressure of two steel fingers worked by a handle. The cherries are fed automatically two at a time as long as the hopper is kept filled, and the operation separates the fruit and the stone into different receptacles.

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

Hmm . . . that’s a dilemma for me sometimes, too. What do I write about, when I have nothing to write about?

Well, sometimes I browse through old magazines and see if I get any ideas . . .

I found a fun article in May, 1913 issue Ladies Home Journal that presented some of the newest canning tools and gadgets. Maybe Grandma spent the day canning fruits or vegetables.

An apple parer, corer and slicer pares, cores and slices the fruit, and then, pushing off the apple is ready to repeat the operation. It can be used to pare without coring and slicing.

Hurrah! Not Much Field Work

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

Monday, August 4, 1913: Guess I won’t have much to do in the fields now for awhile and I’m not very sorry. One of Ruth’s former teachers was here to see her this morning.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (July, 1911)

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

It’s a nice feeling when the work slows down. Maybe Grandma even had time to sit on the porch and read a novel. The wheat and oats harvest probably just ended—so there was a brief respite before other crops needed to be harvested.

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Why did one of Grandma’s sister Ruth’s former teachers come to visit? Was it a social visit or was it related to Ruth’s job? (Ruth was a teacher at one of the one room school houses in the area.)

A Boring Sunday with No Place to Go

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

Sunday, August 3, 1913: Went to Sunday School this morning. Didn’t go any place this afternoon although I would have liked to.

Recent picture of the house and yard where Grandma lived when she wrote the diary.

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

Grandma—I bet that you wanted to be part of the action (whatever that was back then). It’s no fun when everyone else is busy and you’re stuck at home with nothing to do.

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I can remember how slow Sunday afternoons sometimes seemed to pass when I was a child. My parents were glad to have a day when they could rest, but I was BORED!!

When the Wind Blows Over the Wheat Stubble

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

Friday, August 2, 1913: I don’t remember exactly.

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

It almost sounds like Grandma didn’t write this entry until the following day since she can’t remember what she did on August 2. Since she didn’t write much a hundred years ago today–—I’m going to go back to her diary entry on the 1st.

It was a relatively long entry and included her monthly poem for August:

The month of August with skies serene

Smiles upon this world again.

Let us welcome her with open arms,

For sweet summer cannot always reign.

I also can sense that sweet summer will end too soon. The days are getting shorter. . . and the wind is blowing over the wheat stubble.

A question—Does anyone know the poem that has a line that says something like: When the wind blows over the wheat stubble, Fall can’t be far away.

My father used to always say a poem with those lines on late summer days when there was just a hint of fall in the air. I think that he memorized it when he was in elementary school—but I can’t find it when I search online.

Almost like Oz

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

Thursday, August 1, 1913:

The month of August with skies serene

Smiles upon this world again.

Let us welcome her with open arms,

For sweet summer cannot always reign.

A big thunderstorm came up this afternoon. Just before it got here, I had gone off to one of the neighbors and Ma not knowing where I was had quite a hunt for me.

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

Grandma! You should have told your mother where you were going. Didn’t you know that she’d worry even though you are a grown 18-year-old woman?

Your words make me think of Aunt Em hunting Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

I know that you won’t have seen the movie –it wasn’t made until 1939—but did you read the book? According to Wikipedia, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum was published in 1900.

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For information about the monthly poems sees this previous post:

Monthly Poem in Diary