Self-Flattery

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

Sunday, March 19, 1911: I went to Sunday school and church this morning. I saw such a pretty baby today with a head fairly covered with thick auburn hair. It struck me that I looked something like that baby when I was about her age. I had so much hair then with a bit of waviness in it, and dimples in my smiling cheeks, but this is enough flattery for one night. I must scratch gravel off and to bed, and to my sweet beautiful dreams, so vivid and real.

The Facts of Life

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

Saturday, March 18, 1911: I got up with a funny feeling this morning, not just exactly sleepy, but rather achy like I was to wash up the oil cloths today but I didn’t do it. Momma said something about she wouldn’t let us go to parties if we couldn’t do any work afterwards. Of course it was all rot.

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

Grandma was feeling achy and referred to oil clothes. I think that she has pre-menstrual cramps. In the old days pieces of sheep hides (oil clothes) were sometimes used to make homemade, reusable sanitary pads.

Mothers talked with their daughter’s about menstruation and the facts of life then as now. An article in the February 15, 1911 issue of Ladies Home Journal gave mothers suggestions for talking with their daughters about the facts of life:

Many mothers are asking me, “Please tell me what to tell my daughter, who is approaching her teens.”

As in telling the “story of life” the main purpose has been that of awakening reverence for fatherhood and motherhood, so now it is reverence for self that must be taught.

The mother may say:

“Dear little Daughter, I’ve already told you what it is to be a mother, haven’t I? How mothers live for their babies and care for them; and you have begun to realize what a wonderful thing it is to be a mother. I want you to come and sit with my now while I tell you more about it.

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First your figure will begin to change. Little by little you will lose the angularities of childhood and your body will begin to take on gentle curves. In time you will outgrow your boisterous ways and become graceful in all your acts, expressing that gentleness of spirit which a true mother must have. Your will begin to care more about your appearance because you will want your children to love and admire you in every way.

And there will be still other changes. The little room must be prepared for its great work; so each month, special nourishment will go to that part of your body. In order that this work may not be interfered with it will be necessary for you to take special care of yourself at this time.

—————-

It will, of course, be necessary for the mother to give her daughter detailed instruction as to her own physical care, but there should be nothing in this teaching to give the child a shrinking from what is before her. This is not a disease, as some have characterized it. It is one of the natural, physiological functions of the body.”

St. Patrick’s Day

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

Friday, March 17, 1911: Today is St. Patrick’s day. The day to be green and feel green. Ruth and I went to Blanche Bryson’s party. We went with Rachel and Alvin Oakes, going out a lane, that I had never been in before, and because of this, I was goosey enough to tumble down. I had a lot of fun at the party and I suppose everyone else did too. We took our departure about half past one o’clock a.m.

Current Events: March 16, 1911

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

Thursday, March 16, 1911: It has been so biting cold today. We all crowded around the stove at school this morning, and about all I did was to shiver for I couldn’t study. Well I am shivering now, this room is rather cold. I must hurry off to bed.

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

I’ve seen several lists of events that occurred during 1911. Two things of note happened exactly 100 years ago today:

(1) Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele was born in Bavaria (Germany) on March 16, 1911. He was the physician responsible for many deaths at the Auschwitz-Birkenau prison camp during World War II, and is sometimes called the “Angel of Death”. World War II seems like it happened very, very long ago. It’s kind of amazing that an infamous figure in that war was just an infant a 100 years ago. Mengele would have only been in his early 30s during the war—I don’t think that I ever thought about his age before, but I had pictured him being older.

(2) The city of Las Vegas was incorporated on March 16, 1911. It is the largest city founded during the 20th century in the U.S. It’s hard to imagine how parts of the west were still the “wild west” a hundred years ago–though I guess in a different way, today Las Vegas still is the wild west.

Neither of these events would have been news outside of their local community in 1911. Only subsequent events many years later made them become history timeline material.

Report Card–Grades Wonderful!

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

Wednesday, March 15, 1911: It snowed last night, and the trees were covered thick with snow. My, but it was an exquisite night, but it soon vanished, for by noon the trees were as bare as ever. We got our reports cards today. Some of my marks were something wonderful. As a whole I seem to be a wonderful girl and something out of the ordinary.

Consuming (and Not Consuming) Pills

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

Tuesday, March 14 , 1911: I received two handkerchiefs today. There were supposed to be a birthday present, but they happened to be a week ahead of time. Anyway they will answer the purpose. Today was a bit like yesterday. Nothing of interest transpired. I am so tremendously sleepy. Rastus is asleep, I believe, for those bewitching eyes of hers are closed, and she herself is the very image of innocence and gentleness, when asleep, but the image of a thunderstorm when awake. I bought her a box of pills today, but she had to pay for them. It would be a great economy if she would only buy a bbl. Or even a hhd. of pills, for she can and does consume them in large quantities, and mother does also, but I don’t.

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

I flip through a current Marth 2011 issue of Time magazine. It’s chock full of ads for medicines that will help those who are depressed or nervous, can’t sleep, have diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol. Some ads mention possible dependency issues—and the potential need to be weaned off the drug.

Have times changed in the past 100 years? In 1911 newspapers and magazines were also filled with ads for medicines that were supposed to cure lots of problems. However, there was a lot of concern that patent medicines were either worthless or dangerous.

A hundred years ago laws were just being put into place that regulated drug sales. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created in 1906. The Harrison Act, which regulated opiates, wouldn’t be passed until 1914.

In this entry diary Grandma seems be aware of the dangers of drug use—and proud that she doesn’t consume pills like her mother and sister.

An interesting–though unsettling quote–from a 1910 magazine article that supported drug regulation said:

The report [i.e., the proceedings of a conference on Opium submitted to the U.S. Department of State] shows an enormous growth of the vice in rural districts, especially among wives of farmers, caused mainly by the lack of social diversion. It is said that a large percentage of this class who have a sincere objection to the use of alcohol have become morphine fiends.

“The Move Against Opium”, National Foods Magazine (June 1910)

6 Rules for Mental and Physical Beauty

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

Monday, March 13, 1911: Alas and alack, things are getting so dry in this diary. What I did today was so unimportant that I will not take the time and trouble to write it down.

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

I picture Grandma allowing her shoulders to droop dejectedly, while feeling that nothing exciting was happening in her life. . . Maybe she should have tried to follow the rules in the March 15, 1911 issue of Ladies Home Journal:

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 . . . Do you not know that if you follow daily half a dozen simple hygienic rules, in six months the effect on you—both mental and physical—will be so great that you will forget that you ever yearned for the impossible and life will seem after all a very pleasant thing? But you must have the will power to keep them up, and the earnestness to believe in their ultimate good.

Here are the rules:

First: A daily bath in the tub or with a sponge, with a good, brisk rubbing afterward.

Second: Five minutes spent in deep breathing exercises.

Third: Five minutes’ exercises for the liver.

Fourth: Eight glasses of water a day: two when you get up, two during the morning, two during the afternoon and two before you go to sleep.

Fifth: Seven hours of sleep in a room with open windows.

Sixth: Persistent cheerfulness.

“Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be?” Ladies Home Journal, March 15, 1911

In case you aren’t familiar with liver exercises, here’s how they are done:

The exercise for the liver are simple enough and soon become habitual. Girls are very incredulous when I tell them that it is an inactive liver which causes many a complexion trouble. There is something very coarse and unromantic to the average girl about this vulgar allusion. With arms hanging at the sides, bend the body sideways, first to the right and then to the left. Repeat six times. Stand with the heels planted firmly together and the arms hanging at the sides; then lift the right leg until it is as nearly as possible at right angles to the body. Practice six times and repeat with the left leg.

“Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be?” Ladies Home Journal, March 15, 1911