Second Dress is Started

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

Sunday, May 13, 1912:  Ma got my dress on the go at last and I’ll keep at her until she gets it made.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (June, 1912)

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

Hmm . . This entry obviously is referring to the second dress that was mentioned in previous entries. (It’s not the Indian linen one that a seamstress finished).

Was the plan always for Grandma’s mother to make this second dress or had Grandma originally expected to make it herself?

On May 8, she’d written:

Did some sewing this afternoon. I have so many things to fix over and a dress I want to get made, but it is slow about getting there.

When I look at pictures of dresses from a hundred years ago they look like they would be complex to make. Maybe Grandma and her mother reached consensus that her mother could more skillfully do the sewing task.

Weighted Down but Weighing Less

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

Sunday, May 12, 1912:  Went to Sunday School this morning. I had to go equipped with an umbrella. Carrie was over this afternoon. Catherine Rhone came down. We went after some lilacs and I guess we were well weighted down with them. I was weighed today weighing one pound less than I did a month ago. It is raining cats and dogs tonight.

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

Sometimes I absolutely love Grandma’s train of thought. She was writing about picking lilacs with her friends Carrie Stout and Catherine Rhone—and said that they were “weighted down” by the lilacs. That apparently reminded her that she’d lost a pound of weight. She seemed pleased—I wonder if teens worried about their weight back then like they do now.

Had to do All the Milking

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

Saturday, May 11, 1912:I had to do all the milking this morning. Made me so mad at Ma. She had to come out and pester me some. Did some sewing this afternoon.

The inside of a dairy barn a hundred years ago. The Muffly’s probably had fewer cows than the farm in the photo. (Photo Source: Kimball’s Dairy Farmer Magazine, February 15, 1912)

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

What could Grandma have possibly been doing incorrectly when she was milking the cows? . . . .Or maybe her mother came out to the barn because she was upset that Grandma had forgotten to do some housework (or had done it poorly).

Summer vacation was getting off to a poor start. Grandma had written the previous day that she was lonely and wanted to go somewhere. She’d also written that her sister Ruth had gone to the nearby town of Turbotville to attend a commencement ceremony. Ruth probably stayed overnight in Turbotville with friends—and left all of the milking for Grandma.

Sometimes you just can’t win. One thing doesn’t go right . . . and then another . . . and then. . .

“Had a Sorrowful Time Today”

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

Friday, May 10, 1912:I seemed to have had a sorrowful time today. I guess it was because I was getting lonesome and wanted to go someplace. Ruth went up to Turbotville to attend the commencement.

Recent photo of the Turbotville Community Hall. The building once was a high school. There is a large auditorium on the second floor and the commencement probably was held there.

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

Turbotville is another small town about 4 miles northeast of McEwensville.  I wonder why Grandma didn’t go with her sister Ruth to the commencement. Maybe someone gave a ticket to Ruth—but not to her.  It’s not fun to feel excluded.

This was the 4th day of summer vacation; and, boredom and loneliness seem to be really setting in.  I wonder if Grandma got into any disagreements with her mother, father, Ruth, or little brother Jimmie—or if she was just quietly moping and feeling down.

Over the Christmas holidays, she and six-year-old Jimmie managed to get into several fights.  For example, on December 26, 1911 she wrote:

Am beginning to get rather tired of this seemingly long vacation. When you don’t have anything interesting to do and you don’t go many places it is not very hard to get lonesome. Jimmie and I are turning into regular fight cats, so Ma thinks. . .

More Summer Dresses from a Hundred Years Ago

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

Thursday, May 9, 1912: I brought my dress home today. It is an Indian linen trimmed with wide embroidery, edged on both sides. I think it is very nice. Of course, I intend to get a far grander one next spring.

Photo Source: Ladies Home Journal (June, 1911)

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

This dress must have been really special. Grandma mentioned buying it (or maybe buying cloth and a pattern to make it) in nearby Milton on April 27.  On April 30, she went “uptown” to get it made (or maybe altered)—and on May 7 she went back to get it fitted.

Did the linen really come from India? In the days before modern transportation, it seems like it would have been expensive (and unusual) to import cloth from Asia.

(It’s also interesting that Grandma wrote about wanting to make a dress in the previous day’s entry.  She was going to have lots of new clothes very soon. )

Summer Dresses a Hundred Years Ago

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

Wednesday, May 8, 1912:Did some sewing this afternoon. I have so many things to fix over and a dress I want to get made, but it is slow about getting there.

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

A hundred years ago, Ladies Home Journal featured patterns that could be used to make dresses and other clothes. Did Grandma sometimes browse through the magazine and dream of gorgeous outfits that she might make?

Photo Source: Ladies Home Journal (June, 1911)

New Teacher for 1912-13 School Year

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

Tuesday, May 7, 1912: Went uptown to have my dress fitted this afternoon. The future teacher of the M.H.S. was elected last evening. He was up in the high school yesterday at noon. He is rather stubby, inclined to be stout and has yellow hair. Such I took in at a glance. I wonder what he will be like. Ahem.

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

Whew, McEwensville High School sure went through the teachers.  In February, 1912 a teacher resigned and was replaced by another teacher, Forest Dunkle.  In the previous day’s diary entry about the last day of school, Grandma mentioned Mr. Dunkle; but hadn’t indicated that he was quitting.According to The History of the McEwensville Schools by Thomas Kramm:

The high teacher turnover rate, especially at the High School prior to 1916 resulted in a new teacher almost every year. At least one teacher, and perhaps more, would not return to teach the following year because the school board refused to increase the teacher’s salary.

The book also indicated that the new teacher’s name was Bruce Bloom—and that he taught at McEwensville High School for just one year, 1912-1913. Hopefully Grandma will like Mr. Bloom and have a good senior year.