16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, December 25, 1911: Merry Xmas, Merry Xmas, but nobody wished me a Merry Xmas. I mean in person of course. I was wished a Merry Xmas on different post-cards throughout the week. I felt rather blue this morning. Could hardly realize it was Christmas, but felt better when I saw my presents. Ruth got me the one I wanted her to get: a bow tie. Besse gave me goods for a waist and a piece of neck wear. Mrs. Kerr, my Sunday School teacher, gave me a miniature suitcase filled with candy last evening. And lastly a dollar bill from my mother. Christmas is almost over now, but I am looking forward to New Year’s. Then I can have the commencing my second chapter. Oh what a fib I almost wrote. I was wished a Merry Xmas right this morning and I almost forget about it. I was rather merry after all even if we did not have company.
Christmas postcard, circa 1911
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, December 24, 1911:Succeeded in getting my verses learnt for today at least. Went to Sunday School this morning. After buying Xmas presents, I find it my horrendous duty to distribute them, so down to Besse’s I went to present her with my charming Xmas present. This evening Ruthie and I went up to McEwensville to attend the Xmas services at the Lutheran Church. B. was there. Today was different from all other days in this year, I believe. I didn’t have anything to do with the dishes all day.
Messiah Lutheran Church, McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I can just picture a teen writing this entry–with its total focus on the things that are important to a 16-year-old. Who was B.? . .
But I’m going to focus on the Christmas Eve service–
When I was a child I regularly went to candlelight services at Messiah Lutheran Church — the same church Grandma attended on Christmas Eve a hundred years ago. I wonder if the services changed much over the years.
In the middle part of the last century, I remember singing wonderful old-time carols —We Three Kings, Joy to the World, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Come All Ye Faithful, Hark the Herald Angels, . .. . ..
We’d end with Silent Night after all of the lights had been extinguished except for the candles we were lighting.
(Of course, there was no electricity in 1911—so the church would have been lit with lanterns and candles for the entire service.)
I don’t know why, but I have strong memories of one year when an elderly woman didn’t extinguish her candle at the end of the service, and took the flickering light out into the cold night.
I remember asking my mother why the woman didn’t follow the directions—and my mother said that the old lady was remembering Christmas’s from long ago and that we should let her be. I looked at the woman and could see how happy she looked as her face was illuminated by the flickering light.
Traditions, like Christmas Eve services, can so wonderfully pull the young and the old together.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, December 23, 1911:Went after my Xmas tree this afternoon. Ruth made some candy for Christmas. Made a general nuisance of myself all day. Jimmie and I have our scraps occasionally. Just now am trying to commit twenty-seven verses to memory. Have about half of them, and the rest yet to learn.
Was Grandma memorizing the Christmas story?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Whew, 27 verses is a lot! Grandma was trying to memorize 700+ Bible verses so that her Sunday School would give her a Bible. She’d been working on it since sometime prior to September. (I think that I’d give up before I even started, but Grandma apparently was still trying to reach her goal.)
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, December 22, 1911: Strung some pop corn for on the Christmas tree. Jimmie got a sled today after a lot of ding-donging for it. He had to go along with Pa to see that he got the kind he wanted. Ruthie came home with them, well supplied with lots of news. I only hope she got me the Xmas present I wanted. She got Jimmie a horn. With two horns he ought to makes things buzz for several days at least.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I wonder if Grandma’s six-year-old brother Jimmie got a Flexible Flyer sled.
Source: The Youth’s Companion (December 7, 1911)
Flexible Flyer—“The sled that steers”
Every boy and girl wants one. It’s the ideal Xmas gift. Nothing you can give the children will make them so happy! Don’t buy simply a “steering sled.” You want more than that. You want a FLEXIBLE FLYER—the safest, speediest, handsomest, and most economical sled made.
With the ordinary “sled” you drag the feet to steer, but you steer the FLEXIBLE FLYER by the mere pressure of hand or foot on the steering bar. You can steer accurately in any desired direction past all other sleds, and around every obstacle.
Just think of the saving this means in boots and shoes, as well as in doctor’s bills! It prevents wet feet, colds, etc., and actually saves its cost many times each season.
The FLEXIBLE FLYER is light and graceful. Easy to pull up hill, yet so strong and scientifically made it
outlasts three ordinary sleds
Another important feature is our patented grooved runners which prevent skidding on icy hills or pavements. These grooved runners are far superior even on snowy surfaces to flat or rounded runners used on all other sleds. It also has more steering surface than other sleds.
Ask your dealer to show you its many other exclusive advantages. Don’t accept a substitute.
Insist on a FLEXIBLE FLYER and be sure to look for the name on the sled. It isn’t a FLEXIBLE FLYER unless it bears this trade mark.
Win every race!
Card-Board Model FREE, also a beautiful booklet, illustrated in colors showing coasting scenes, etc. Just write a postal giving your name and address and say—“Send model and booklet.” We will gladly send them both absolutely free. Write to-day before you forget it.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, December 21, 1911: Had to go to Watsontown again this week. This time to get that hat pin for Besse. This week seems to be flying around rather fast. Tomorrow Rufus arrives. Then my long siege of milking will be ended.
Recent photo of downtown Watsontown
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Yeah, Grandma’s sister Ruth–referred to as Rufus in this entry– was coming home and Grandma won’t need to do all of the milking by herself! Grandma mentioned getting up at 5 a.m. to do the milking on the 18th. Ruth was attending a teacher professional development institute.
Grandma also mentioned on the 18th that she’d bought a gold hat pin for her married sister Besse. She must have needed to go back to town to actually pick up the pin.
Watsontown is located along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River about two miles from the Muffly farm. It had more of a shopping district a hundred years ago than it does today.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, December 20, 1911: Pa went to Sunbury this morning and I had all the barn work to do at noon and this evening, but I managed to get through with it at last. Picked out some walnuts for Xmas candy and then Mater had to go and swipe some to stick in some cakes for Jimmie. Maybe they’ll all be gone where they’re wanted.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This year my husband and I have enjoyed eating foods mentioned in the diary that we hadn’t eaten in years.
We picked the last of the black walnuts that we gathered last fall out of their shells last week-end. It’s the first year that we’ve gathered them since we were children. Next year we’ll need to collect more.
I used the nuts to make a black walnut cake. The cake brought back warm memories of my childhood when I ate black walnut cake at reunions and church dinners. At those gatherings, elderly woman proudly brought black walnut (and hickory nut) cakes that they’d lovingly made using nuts that they’d gathered, hulled, cracked, and picked the nut meats out of.
Black Walnut Cake
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup water
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup black walnuts (chopped)
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
Butter icing (optional)
Additional finely chopped black walnuts (optional)
Cream the butter with powdered sugar and cold water. Add egg yolks, cinnamon, flour, and baking powder; beat until combined. Stir in the walnuts. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Put batter into a well-greased loaf pan and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for approximately 40-45 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
If desired, glaze with butter icing; sprinkle with additional finely chopped walnuts.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, December 19, 1911: Fixed up some for Christmas although I guess no one is coming. I like to have things seem like it ought to. Jimmie is so anxious to know what I got your highness.
Recent photo of the house Grandma lived in. The photo was taken at dusk on a December day.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I can almost feel Grandma’s pain when she wrote this entry. I wonder why no one was coming—but it makes it feel proud that Grandma did some decorating so that things “looked like they ought to.”
Throughout most of December the diary entries indicated that Grandma was looking forward to Christmas.
What could have possibly been wrong? The diary provides no clues.
Was someone ill? . . . .Had there been a disagreement with someone in the extended family?
People Mentioned in This Post
Jimmie was Grandma’s 6-year-old brother. I think that “your highness” refers to their older sister Ruth. In the diary when Grandma was annoyed with Ruth she used other terms and nicknames (such as Rufus) for her sister.
