18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, May 9, 1913: The weather has quite suddenly changed and it is very cold. That’s all I have to write about.
Forsythia
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Brrr—cold weather in May is no fun. But even cold days are almost tolerable when I see all of the beautiful flowers and flowering shrubs erupting into bloom. .
Today, I’m going to share pictures of flowering scrubs that were in the April 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Some of the plants are still popular today—others I don’t recognize or seldom see anymore.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, May 8, 1913: Rufus was busy shining up the piano, desk, etc. with varnish. It’s rather difficult to keep from getting in it, and then you have to handle your fingers so gingerly. I’ve been warned several times.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The piano was almost new. Grandma’s mother purchased it on March 29, 1913:
. . . Ma bought a piano. I’m so glad for now I can learn to play.
The meaning of the word varnish must have changed over the last hundred years. When I think of varnish, I think of a lacquer; but it sounds like Grandma was referring to furniture polish.
Grandma called her sister Ruth, Rufus when she was annoyed with her. I can almost see Grandma’s fingerprints on the shiny piano wood; and Ruth’s exasperated expression.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, May 7, 1913: Haven’t done much today to make this entry interesting. Besse was out here this morning.
Besse (Muffly) Hester
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Besse was Grandma’s oldest sister. She was seven years older than Grandma—and would have been 25 years-old in 1913.
The diary and other sources provide lots of clues about what Besse was like.
Besse was married to a butcher, Curt Hester; and lived in nearby Watsontown.
According to the History of the McEwensville Schools, 1800-1958 by Thomas Kramm, Besse Muffly was a teacher at the Red Hill School, a one-room school house at the south end of McEwensville, from 1906-1909. She probably quit teaching when she got married.
Recent photo of building that once housed Red Hill School, the school where Besse taught. It is now a home.
Besse and Curt occasionally came out to the Muffly farm on Sunday afternoons. For example on March 2, 1913 Grandma wrote:
Went to Sunday School this morning. Besse and Curt were out this afternoon.
Besse also came out to the farm alone sometimes. For example, she helped with the cooking and serving when the threshers came:
Was in such terrible trepidation this morning, lest I would have to miss school and help Ma with the work, but Besse came to my relief. So glad I was. I missed those stacks and stacks of dishes for dinner, but have to confront them tonight.
Several places the diary mentioned Grandma, Besse, and their sister Ruth having fun together. For example, on April 15, 1911, Grandma wrote:
Besse was out this afternoon. We three kids went for arbutus and I got some this time.
Besse had also faced some difficult times. The previous year she had a baby that died shortly after birth. On April 9, 2012 Grandma wrote:
I was an aunt for one brief half a day yesterday, but didn’t know it until this morning. I was so disappointed when I heard it was dead. My little nephew was buried this afternoon. The baby I never saw. I feel like crying, when I think I am an aunt no longer.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, May 5, 1913: Got my proofs this morning. In one I look rather mad. Cleaned a closet this afternoon. Expect to get some more of it tomorrow.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It didn’t take Grandma long to get the proofs. Her graduation pictures were taken on May 1.
I love the pensive expression on Grandma’s face on the picture she selected. I wonder if she was pleased with this photo. . . and, what she looked like in the picture where she looked rather mad.
I hope that you don’t mind that I’ve posted Grandma’s graduation photo several times—but it seemed like it was such an important part of today’s diary entry and I didn’t want to make you dig through old posts to find it.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, May 4, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Although it is over a week since commencement, I received a present today. Making eighteen in all.
sewing bag (source: Ladies Home Journal, November, 1913)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm. . . What present did Grandma receive? . .
It probably was a small gift from her Sunday School teacher or another church member. . . maybe something handmade.
The November, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal suggested a few small gifts that could be made for 25¢ to $1. The magazine probably was thinking about Christmas when they published the article, but many of the gifts would have been equally appropriate as graduation gifts.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, May 2, 1913: My thoughts this evening are hardly worth writing about.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma—There must have been something worth writing a hundred years ago today. Did you ever try the menus that were published in Good Housekeeping magazine?
One of the foods listed on the May 3, 1913 menu is Baked Rhubarb with Orange.
Baked Rhubarb with Orange
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups Rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
3 oranges
Preheat oven to 375°. In a small bowl combine the sugar, mace, cloves, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Wash the oranges, and pare off the peel thinly; coarsely chop and then set aside. Remove white inner skin and seeds from oranges and halve. Cut halved oranges into 1-inch pieces.
In a large bowl combine the rhubarb, orange pieces, chopped orange peel, and sugar mixture. Put into a 2-quart baking dish.
Bake in oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until the mixture is hot and bubbly—and the rhubarb is tender.
Serve hot or cold.
Adapted from recipe in Good Housekeeping (May, 1913)
This dish is excellent. The orange peel and spices nicely balance the tartness of the rhubarb.
According to the old Good Housekeeping magazine:
Rhubarb thus prepared keeps well, and is good morning, noon, and night. As a breakfast relish, nothing is finer than a very tiny saucer of it.
Previous posts with other rhubarb recipes include:
