Free Transportation for Veterans to the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettsyburg

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

Thursday, June 26, 1913: A busy bee, I cannot be by the looks of this entry.

Source: Milton Evening Standard (June 26, 1913)

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

Another quiet day for Grandma—but others felt a sense of excitement. Civil War veterans who lived in central Pennsylvania were preparing to head to Gettysburg to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

A hundred years ago today, the local newspaper, The Milton Evening Standard, had a front page article about how veterans were to pick up their vouchers to travel to Gettysburg (see article above).

A month earlier there was another article about how the state of Pennsylvania would pay for the transportation costs of Civil War veterans who wanted to attend the huge anniversary celebration at Gettysburg.

Source: Milton Evening Standard (May 27, 1913)

1913 Kodak Camera Ad

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

Wednesday, June 25, 1913: Went up to McEwensville this afternoon to transact some very important business, or rather so it seemed to me.

Now what could it be? Nothing less than that I sent off for a camera. I’ve wanted one for a long time, but thought I could hardly afford it. I was reminded that I really wanted it only by finding a camera catalog up in the garret yesterday. And as I had earned almost five dollars during the last two weeks, I carried the project through.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

If it isn’t an Eastman, it isn’t a Kodak.

It’s springtime. Every field and park and woodland—every walk and ride, every joyous outing, invites your KODAK.

Eastman Kodak Co.,

Rochester, N.Y., The Kodak City.

Catalogue free at your dealers or by mail.

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

A camera sounds like a lot of fun. What a great thing for Grandma to spend her money on!

Grandma made quite a bit picking strawberries—and, of course, she had money that she received earlier in the spring as graduation presents.

Did Grandma Want to Become a Teacher?

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

Tuesday, June 24, 1913: Can’t say I have much for today either. These June days seem to have very little to do with me.

Recent photo of building that once housed the Red Hill School at the south end of McEwensville — Recent photo of building at the south end of McEwensville that once housed the Red Hill School where her sister Besse had taught

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

I can sense a bit of sadness or depression. What did Grandma mean when she wrote that these June days seem to have very little to do with her?

It may be a huge stretch on my part, but this entry makes me wonder if Grandma was hoping to hear that she’d gotten position as a teacher at a one-room school house. . . and that she was very worried that she won’t get one.

But, on the other hand, Grandma never wrote anything about seeking a teaching job. . . so maybe I’m letting my imagination run wild. . . .

However, both of Grandma’s older sisters, as well as several friends, taught at nearby one-room school houses after they graduated from high school, so it seems like she may have wanted a similar job.

Her sister Ruth (often call Rufus in the diary) graduated from high school in 1911. On June 30, 1911 Grandma wrote in the diary:

Rufus is going to teach school next winter, as she has just been elected to that office. Am glad.

And, according to The History of the McEwensville Schools by Thomas Kramm, Grandma’s oldest sister Besse taught at the Red Hill School at the south end of McEwensville from 1906 to 1909.

Walnut Chocolate Cake Recipe

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

Monday, June 23, 1913: Nothing much doing.

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today I’m going to go back to a post I did almost two years ago on August 13, 1911. That post was about the difficulty of interpreting old cake recipes using modern techniques, ingredients, and stoves.

The post included a lovely picture of Walnut Chocolate Cake from Lowney’s Cookbook (1907)—but I didn’t actually make the cake.

Somehow every time I flipped through the Lowney’s Cookbook that picture kept pulling me back. It felt like I’d wimped out—and that I still had some unfinished business with that recipe.

So I finally gave in—took a deep breath and made a stab at interpreting the Walnut Chocolate Cake recipe for modern cooks. Here are the results of my efforts:

Walnut Chocolate Cake

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup milk

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup walnuts, chopped (+ whole walnuts to decorate top of cake)

Chocolate buttercream frosting

Vanilla buttercream frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 X 8 inch cake pans. If desired, line with waxed paper to make it easier to get the cakes out of the pans.

Combine all ingredients except walnuts and icings, and beat with electric mixer until smooth. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (reserve remaining walnuts).

Evenly divide the batter between the two pans. Bake until done (approximately 30 minutes).

Remove cakes from pans while still warm (approximately 15 minutes after removing from oven). After the cakes are cooled put one cake on a plate and thinly spread with chocolate frosting. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup of chopped walnuts on top of the chocolate frosting.

Top with the second cake layer. Ice with the vanilla frosting. Decorate with whole walnuts.

The bottom line: The cake was heavier than the typical modern cake—but delicious, and well worth the effort of trying to interpret the old recipe.

1913 Quelques Fleurs Perfume Advertisement

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

Sunday, June 22, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon.

QUELQUES FLEURS

New Perfume HOUBIGANT

Abroad, the odor of the hour

Sample Bottle will delight you–25¢

Park & Tilford, 225 Fifth Ave., New York

“CAPTIVATED PARIS IN A DAY”

Source: Ladies Home Journal (October, 1913)

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

When I was young I used to put a little perfume on before going to church. (You never knew where you might see a cute guy who would appreciate perfume.)

Did Grandma also spritz on a little perfume before going to Sunday School?

This is what Wikipedia says about Quelques Fleurs perfume:

In 1912, the Houbigant presented Quelques Fleurs, the first true multi-floral bouquet ever created. Up to that time, floral fragrances had been mostly single flowers or were blended with herbs and other essences. The Genealogy of Perfumes cites Quelques Fleurs as a landmark innovation that established a totally new fragrance classification and influenced other compositions for years afterwards including many of today’s important fragrances.

Piano Lesson Was A Long Hour

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

Saturday, June 21, 1913: My music teacher came this morning, and I spent a long hour in taking my lesson.

Source: The Mechanics of Piano Technic (1909)

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

This is the second week since Grandma began taking piano lessons. Why did the hour seem long?

Was she learning “boring” but important basics like how to hold her hands and how to properly hit the keys?

I’m still looking for hundred-year-old music books for beginning piano students, but I did find a college-text on playing the piano:

The principal difficulty of piano playing we found to be the production of sufficient power, and the economical application of the power to all kinds of passages, with velocity and under delicate control. Tone quality may be harsh if the strings are unduly vibrated, or thin if the quantity of vibration be too small to excite all the overtones.

The Mechanics of Piano Technic by Ethelbert Warren Grabill (1909)

My Memories of Blanche Bryson Kramm

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

June 18, 19, 20: These days are filled with uneventful proceedings not worth mentioning.

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

Occasionally I miss the obvious, and this is one of those times. I recently realized that I knew one of Grandma’s friends in the diary (Blanche Bryson) when I was a child!

Since Grandma didn’t write anything specific for a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share that story with you.

Yesterday I shared information that Blanche Bryson’s daughter Jane Shuman, daughter Pam Cooper, and granddaughter-in-law Janet Shuman gave me about Blanche and her sister Margaret. Blanche’s married name was Kramm, and Janet wrote in an email:

“Grammie Kramm was 74 when I met her & still substitute teaching at Warrior Run in 1966.”

And, it was like . . . Whoa, my 4th grade teacher missed a lot of school, and for much of that year I had a long-term substitute named Mrs. Kramm. . . Blanche Bryson Kramm.

Mrs. Kramm would have been in her early 70s when I had her as a teacher, but she still had lots of enthusiasm, loved working with children, and knew how to engage them in learning.

I’m sure that Mrs. Kramm did a superb job teaching us reading and math, but–and this might sound silly, but I mean it in the nicest way– what I remember best about Mrs. Kramm is how she taught me to tear paper in a straight line without using scissors.

Let me explain—

During the time period when Mrs. Kramm was our substitute, there was a school program or assembly. Our class sang a song about popsicles and we held “popsicles” that we made out of Crayola crayon boxes that we attached a popsicle stick to and then covered with brown construction paper. (We made chocolate popsicles).

The music teacher had selected the song, and my classmates and I thought that making fake popsicle props was a bit babyish for us fourth graders.

Mrs. Kramm, however, decided that it was a wonderful project for fourth graders—if we learned how to tear paper neatly without using scissors.

I remember folding brown construction paper back and forth a couple times—and trying to tear. Oops—the tear veered off at a strange angle. . . .

I don’t remember many sheets of paper I ruined, but I do remember the pride I felt when I successfully tore a straight line. (It’s really easy, but it seemed hard back then.)

Fast forward to today— Every time I neatly tear a coupon out of a flyer at the grocery store, or tear off a registration form at the bottom of a larger sheet of paper, I think of Mrs. Kramm. . . aka Blanche Bryson Kramm.