Aha!–Sometimes Wrote Two Entries on One Day

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

Tuesday, May 9, 1911:  By jingo if I haven’t forgotten what I did today. Just what I did several days ago. You see, sometimes it happens that I don’t always feel like writing in this diary every evening, so I wait until the next evening and make two entries at one time.

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

Aha!—just as I thought. Grandma did sometimes write a diary entry the following day.  For example, on Feb 23 she had written about going to sleep and then the entry on the 24th talked about waking up. It just seemed as if both entries had actually been written on the 24th.

Telephone Memories

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

Monday, May 8, 1911:  Toiled away at the washer this morning. This afternoon I went over to Stout’s. My first experience in telephoning. The voice at the other end of the wire sounded rather squeaky. I telephoned to Besse. Ma was so rejoiced to get her teeth back again, which she had sent off on a vacation of one week.

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

In yesterday’s entry Grandma went to see her friend Carrie Stout’s new telephone—but apparently was too nervous to try the new technology that day. But she went back the next day—and felt braver and called her married sister Besse.

Both Carrie and Besse lived on the road between McEwensville and Watsontown. Apparently the phone wires went between the two towns; and people living on the main road were able to get phone service before those living on the side roads.

I mentioned this diary entry to my husband Bill and he made several comments about phones, so I asked him to be a guest blogger:

It is amazing how far phones have come from exotic box of wires that squeak out a voice, to a constant presence in our lives that are semi-permanently attached us. Phones are now ‘personal communication devices’ that are increasingly hard to distinguish from normal computers.  You’ll soon walk into your office, plug your phone into a cradle and keyboard on your desk, and type away on your phone to do your regular computer work.

Phone, circa 1911
Phone, circa 2008 (When we get a smart phone, I'll update the picture!)

My favorite telephone memory is from the late 1970s.  I was living in an isolated community on Andros Island in the Bahamas, working on an agricultural development project.  There was only one phone in the town at the time.  It was in an old-fashioned phone booth in front of the telephone company office in the center of town.  Phone calls to the U.S. cost around $10 at the time.  I paid my $10 to the clerk, and knowing that she was probably listening in on the call, I went out to the phone booth and called Sheryl’s parents to ‘ask for her hand in marriage’, as they say.

Bill Lazarus

False teeth

Grandma’s mother was only 49 years old—yet she already had false teeth. From the diary entry it sounds like she’d probably had them for awhile since they’d apparently needed some sort of repairs. This was an era before fluoridation and people probably didn’t take as good of care of their teeth as they do now.

When I read the entries about Grandma’s toothache (April 11, April 15, April 18), and how she was in pain for almost a month before she tried to visit a dentist  on May 6 (and how she failed to get the tooth filled then)—it makes me wonder at what age Grandma herself got false teeth.

A Telephone!

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

Sunday, May 7, 1911: Went to Sunday school this afternoon. Saw M.C.R. I went over to Stout’s this evening. Carrie wanted me to try their new telephone but I wouldn’t do it. Besse and Curt were out this evening. 

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

Today feels like a milestone was reached in the diary. So many days Grandma’s life moves forward in rather routine, predictable ways—but a hundred years ago today Grandma apparently had her first opportunity to use a telephone—though she declined because the new technology evidently intimidated her.

I’m surprised that Grandma had never previously used a phone. According to George Wesner in his 1976 History of ‘McEwensville:

“Around the turn of the century there were two telephones in the town. The Bell was at Watson’s Store and at the home of Armstrong’s. Later phones were installed at the Gearhart Foundry, A. & C. Mauser’s carriage works and the J.G. Smith’s residence. A number of years later, the West Branch Bell Telephone Company began operations and built lines throughout the area.”

I love how phones came into the McEwensville area so slowly that Mr. Wesner could name exactly who had the first ones when he wrote his history almost two-thirds of a century later. It must have been very prestigious to own a phone in that era.

Initials

Throughout the diary Grandma often used initials rather than names to identify guys she liked, so I assume that M.C.R. was someone who Grandma thought was cute. She apparently was concerned that her mother or sister would read her diary, so often tried to mask the names—though it seems to me that if family members were reading the diary that they would have been able to decipher the initials.

Bijou Dream Theatre

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

Saturday, May 6, 1911: Ruth and I went to Milton this afternoon. I wanted to get my teeth filled but as the dentist was absent I was forced to wait until another day. While there we went into the theatre on Broadway.

Bijou Dream Theatre Ticket (Source: Milton Historical Society)

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

I get caught up in the story of Grandma’s life—and have worried that she has had a toothache since April 11 (and again mentions the pain on April 15 and 18), but has not treated it.

I feel relieved that Grandma finally tried to visit the dentist—and disappointed that he wasn’t there. (I guess this was the era before appointments.) Hopefully she’ll goon get the tooth fixed.

The Movies

In 1911 Milton had a movie theater on Broadway called the Bijou Dream that showed silent movies.

Advertisement in Milton Evening Standard, May 5, 1911

It looks like four short films were being shown in May 1911. In case it’s difficult to read the description of the movies in the photo above, I’ll reprint the description for  the first movie.

 No. 1. The Mother—

The home of a lonely widow is visited by gossipy neighbors, conveying the sad news of the conviction of her only son on a charge of murder—a son she had not seen for fifteen years, and had mourned as dead. The devotion of a mother’s undying love for her boy, and determination not to desert him in the hour of need, is aroused. Going to the prison she pleads to see her boy. To save her breaking heart, the son does not recognize her as his mother, that he may save her disgrace and pain. She is not convinced and leaves heavy hearted, but ever determined. She hastens to the governor and intercedes, but of no avail. The death warrant is read, and all preparation for the execution made, when the governor receives a telegram that the real murderer has made a deathbed confession to save the innocent man. Phone is out of order and a human life is at stake. The governor’s daughter makes a wild ride and reaches the prison just in time with the reprieve.

Whew, what melodrama in the old silent films. I can almost hear dramatic music (played by a live pianist) reaching a crescendo as the governor’s daughter makes the wild ride trying to reach the prison before the execution.

Why use Botox or Juvederm When You Can Use Paraffin?

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

Friday, May 5, 1911:  I believe I have forgotten all that I really did do today. It must have been a case of carelessness or laziness.

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

Since it sounds like Grandma had a fairly quiet day a hundred years ago, I’m going to go off on a tangent —

Sometimes I’m surprised at the similarities between 1911 and 2011. According to the March 15, 1911 issue of Ladies Home Journal in an article titled ” Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be? ” women a hundred years ago sought to erase wrinkles by going to beauty doctors for paraffin injections. Who would have thought?

Many women apparently got the paraffin injections, though there were risks. The woman profiled in the article had been to “one of the quack beauty doctors who belongs to that army of charlatans who promise to perform miracles.”

The woman was quoted as saying that the beauty doctor had, “filled my dimple and made it into a pimple and he turned two frown wrinkles into ridges, and the lines on my face are all lumps. They tell me nothing can be done. I don’t see how I’m going to spend the rest of my life with a face like this.”

According to the author, “The lines running from nose to mouth were raised like the ridges of mountain ranges on a model map, and two lumps protruded on her forehead where the paraffin, or whatever the injection was, had coagulated into an indissoluble mass.”

The author continued, “Now girls, a direct word to you—I mean you girls who think you are the only ugly girls in the world, and who grow morbid and sensitive and allow your shoulders to stoop dejectedly—I beg of you, do not look for beauty in the cheap parlors of a quack beauty doctor, or in the advertisements of lotions and beautifiers you see in the papers. . . .”

Have times changed??

Juvederm is a currently used facial filler designed to eliminate wrinkles. According to a  Q and A forum on Juvederm on the RealSelf website:

Question: Why does Juvederm leave bumps after the injections?

Answer: Juvederm Should Not Leave Lumps or Bumps.

Injecting filling agents such as Juvederm or Restylane is very much technique- and physician-dependent. In other words, the doctor must know what he or she is doing, and many do not.

When you inject Juvederm, if it is too deep, it is absorbed by underlying tissues and does not specifically fill the wrinkle. But if you inject too superficially or too close to the surface, you can end up with lumps. Generally, these will go away within a week, but for persistent lumps, you may need to undergo additional injections with an enzyme named hyaluronidase to dissolve the filler material.

Arnold W. Klein, MD – Beverly Hills Dermatologist

100 Year Old Craft: Make a Paper Doll Girl and Her Swimming Ducks

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

Thursday, May 4, 1911:  Helped to clean the hall this afternoon and also had to clean the carpet. I penned up some ducks this evening. Didn’t like it very well for I have rather a timid feeling towards them.

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

Right after I read this diary entry, I happened to flip through the May 1911 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, and saw directions for making a paper doll goose girl and her swimming geese. And I thought—Whoa, those geese look almost like ducks.

So if a child you know would like to make a paper doll girl and her ducks—they could pretend they were Grandma penning up her ducks so many years ago.

Supplies Needed to Make this Craft

Heavy stiff white paper

Pencil

Scissors

Paste or glue

Water colors, colored pencils or crayons

A “broomstraw” taken out of a broom

Pin

Thin white paper for tracing (optional)

Shallow pan half-filled with water (optional)

Directions

1. Click here for the patterns for the girl and the ducks, and then print. Cut the patterns out.

(In the old days people didn’t have printers or copying machines so they’d trace the pattern out of the magazine using thin paper.  If you’d like to be really authentic you can make the pattern by putting thin paper over the sheet with the outlines; trace; and then cut out the pattern that you created on the thin sheet of paper. Save the original sheet to make additional patterns in the future. )

To Make Girl

2. Fold a sheet of the heavy white paper in half. Lay the pattern of the girl on the paper with the straight edge of the sun bonnet and the straight edge of the dress on the fold of the paper. On the heavy paper draw a line around the edge of the pattern.

3. Cut out the doll. She will be double with two halves joined. (Be sure to make her feet as large as the feet in the pattern. It’s okay if her feet end up being even a little larger than the ones in the pattern. She will not stand if her feet are too small.)

4. Bend the dolls arms forward at the shoulder.

5. Open the doll up and spread paste or glue on the inside of the head and her clothes, except of the arms. (Do not put paste the arms, legs or feet). Press the two halves together making sure that the edges meet evenly.

6. Use the water colors, colored pencils, or crayons to make the dress.

7. To herd her ducks the girl will need a long stick. Remove a broomstraw from a broom for the stick. Punch a small hole in the doll’s right hand with a pin and then push the broomstraw through the hole.

To Make Ducks  (Make 3 or more)

8. Fold a sheet of heavy white paper in half and draw around the duck pattern like you did with the girl. The top of the duck’s head should be on the fold of the paper.

9.  Cut out the duck and fold the wings outward; then paste the sides together. Do not paste the wings or the stand.

10. Decorate the bird to make it look like a duck using water colors, colored pencils or crayons.

11. After the paste is dry stand the duck up.

12. Make several ducks. The girl can then drive the ducks into a pen and to the water.

To Make the Ducks Swim

14. Fold the two halves of each duck stand half way out so that the duck will sit flat on the table when you sit it down.

15. Gently put the ducks on top of the water. The flattened-out stand will hold the ducks up and they will float and swim about as if alive.

16. When finished, take the ducks out of the water and gently dry with a cloth (or paper towel); press the stand straight again as it originally was. After the ducks are dry they will again be able to stand.

(These directions are adapted and abridged from the Good Housekeeping directions.)

Ironing Collars with a Flatiron

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

Wednesday, May 3, 1911:  I did most of the ironing this morning. Ironed my Ma’s fancy collar, but somehow I didn’t iron it right, then I got a lecture for my pains. Sewed this afternoon.

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

A hundred years ago, when it was much more difficult to launder and iron clothes than it is today, women’s dresses sometimes had detachable collars.

Also, detachable collars came in different styles which enabled people to vary the look of one dress by changing the collar.  If you’d like to see what they looked like, costumes.org has some vintage detachable collar patterns.

Advertisement for collars, Milton Evening Standard, May 8, 1911

Even with modern irons, it can be difficult to iron clothes correctly.  A hundred years ago ironing was even more complicated.

During the laundering process prior to ironing, the fancy collar probably needed to be starched to stiffen it to just the right degree of crispness. If the starch was inadvertently made too thin or too thick there was the potential for disaster.

And, when it was time to iron, the collar needed to be damp—but not too damp.  Grandma probably was using a flatiron that was heated by placing it on the wood stove. It needed to be hot enough to get the wrinkles out—but not so hot that it would scorch the collar.

A book published in 1909 by Juniata Shepperd called Laundry Work: For Use in Schools and Homes had lots of tips for ironing difficulties:

  • Make starch as directed for stiff starching, and use a clean, bare, unpainted table to work on. Things for stiff starching should be thoroughly dried before starching. . . Rub between the hands until the cloth is thoroughly saturated with starch. . . When well wiped, smooth out all wrinkles with the fingers, and hang to dry.
  • To dampen collars and cuffs dip a clean white towel in hot water and wring moderately dry. Lay a collar straight on the towel and turn one thickness over it. Put on another collar, and turn the towel over it and so continue until all are in. Keep straight, and, when ready to iron, take out just one at a time. Starched things should not be damp enough to stick to the ironing board. If they blister when ironed, it indicates that they are too wet and the dampening cloth should be wrung a little drier next time.
  • When set before a wood fire, irons heat well, but require frequent cleaning on account of the dust and ashes which are constantly coming in contact with them. They heat very well on the top of the kitchen range, but it must be made perfectly clean and free from polish where the irons set.
  • Put a goodly pressure on the iron, and do not raise it from the cloth, but move it quickly and evenly over the surface to be smoothed. When a wrinkle is made in ironing, dampen it again in that place with a wet cloth and smooth out.
  • Ironing should be done rapidly, otherwise much time is spent in changing the irons.
  • To remove scorch stains lay the article in the window where the hot sunshine may act upon it for several hours. If the stain is but slight it may be removed by placing a folded white cloth under it and rubbing it gently with a damp cloth. An obstinate stain may be removed by dampening, soaping well and bleaching in the dew and sunshine.