17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 11, 1912:Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Went for some apples after I came home and got a dunking in the rain. Took an umbrella along part way, so it happened that I didn’t have it when I needed it the most.
Yellow Transparent Apples (Photo source: Wikipedia)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I hope that Grandma was able to pick a few apples before it started raining. The first summer apples to ripen each year were special in those days.
Today we have apples year-round (sometimes from thousands of miles away), but in Grandma’s day the last of the apples from the previous year had probably been eaten in March or April—and after so many months in storage those last apples probably had been soft and mealy.
When I was a child, Yellow Transparent apples were the first to ripen each year. They made a wonderfully tart apple sauce. I haven’t seen a Yellow Transparent apple in years—there used to be so many apple varieties, each with a wonderfully unique taste and texture.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, August 9, 1912:We had sort of s sewing bee here today. Besse was out and brought some of her stuff along.
Source: The Dressmaker (1911)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Besse was Grandma’s oldest sister. She was married and lived in nearby Watsontown. Was Grandma’s mother making buttonholes during the sewing bee?
Three days prior to this post, Grandma wrote that her mother was making her a dress for school, and I posted hundred-year-old drawings of dresses with lots of buttons.
Several readers commented that it would have been difficult to make a dress with that many buttonholes. One reader noted that people didn’t need to make buttonholes by hand a hundred years ago because treadle sewing machines had an attachment that made them.
But, in case, if you ever want to make them by hand, here are the directions from a hundred-year-old book:
A well-made garment that is otherwise perfect may be greatly injured in appearance by badly made buttonholes. They should always be properly spaced and marked before they are cut.
Mark the points for the top and bottom buttonholes, and divide the distance between these two points into the desired number of spaces. The slit must be cut on the thread of the goods, if possible, and must be large enough to allow the button to slip through easily.
With the buttonhole scissors carefully test the length of the slit and make a clean cut with one movement of the scissors.
Barred buttonholes are used for underwear, waists and shirts. To make the buttonhole bring the needle up at one end of the buttonhole, and, allowing the thread to lie along the edge of the cut on the right side of the material, stick down at the opposite end.
Do the same on the other side of the cut and stick down opposite the first stitch, with a stitch across the end to fasten the thread. If the material is inclined to fray, the edges may be overcast before working the button holes.
To make the stitch, place the buttonhole over the forefinger of the left hand, holding it in position with the thumb and second finger as shown in Fig. 48.
Begin to work the buttonhole close to the corner or starting-point. Insert the needle, and while it is pointing toward you, bring the double thread as it hangs from the eye of the needle around to the left under the needle. Draw the needle through the loop, letting the tread form a purl exactly on the edge of the slit.
Continue these stitches to the opposite end, being careful to make them the same depth and close together. Now pass the needle up and down through the goods until two or three threads cross the end of the slit quite close to the button hole stitches, thus forming a bar tack.
At the end, turn the work around so that the bar end is toward you and make several buttonhole stitches over the bar tack and through the material. Work the other side of the button hole and the second bar.
The Dressmaker (1911) by The Butterick Publishing Company
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, August 8, 1912: Hardly worth while and not worth the effort.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t have much to say a hundred years ago today, I’m again going to go off on a tangent. I’m always intrigued by what happened to the friends that Grandma mentioned in the diary.
I recently found a picture of one friend, Rachel Oakes, when she was an elderly woman. (She’s the one on the left.) It was taken in 1978 at a Red Hill School reunion. Red Hill School was a one-room school located at the southern end of McEwensville.
According to the History of the McEwensville Schools, Rachel taught at Red Hill School during the 1909-10 school year. Later, during the 1910-11 and 1911-12 school years, she was the primary school teacher at McEwensville School. I suppose that it was considered more prestigious to teach at the larger McEwensville School.
Rachel must have been a few years older than Grandma and her sister Ruth. (Ruth graduated from high school in 1911—and Grandma graduated in 1913.)
Note that the article mentions Ruth Gauger—that was Grandma’s sister Ruth’s married name. According to the History of the McEwensville Schools, Ruth taught at Red Hill School during the 1914-15 school year (and her other sister Besse taught there from 1906-09).
Recent photo of building that once housed Red Hill School. It is now a home.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, August 7, 1912:Was donated with a pair of shoes. First time since I don’t know when. Ma and I had sort of a scrap this afternoon!
Here’s an ad for shoes in the Milton Evening Standard from May 4, 1911. Maybe the “donated” shoes looked like the ones in the picture. Were they still in style in 1912?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Poor Grandma, she wants to look stylish and instead gets a pair of hand-me-down shoes.
I bet that her mother didn’t think that she was appropriately appreciative of the donated shoes—and gave her a hard time about it.
Who gave the shoes to Grandma? . . . were they her mother’s old shoes . . . her sister’s shoes. . . or someone else’s? In February, 1912 Grandma mentioned that her Aunt Annie, who was married to a doctor, gave her an old dress. Maybe Aunt Annie also handed down shoes.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, August 6, 1912: Ma cut out a dress for me or rather a part of it. When it’s finished I suppose I’ll wear it to school.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1911)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma was going to begin her senior year at the end of August. I bet that she wanted to look really nice for this special year.
Did Grandma think that the dress her mother was making for her was stylish? . . .or was it just going to be a run-of-the-mill everyday dress? Did she select the pattern and fabric—or did her mother do it?
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 4, 1912:Went to Sunday School this morning. Carrie and I went over to see Florence Crawford this afternoon. I feel so drowsy now, just like gaping.
A recent view of a road into McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Carrie refers to Grandma’s close friend Carrie Stout. She is regularly mentioned throughout the diary. I don’t know anything about Florence Crawford. This is the first time (and maybe the only time) that she is mentioned in the diary.
Sounds like Grandma had a nice time with her friends; and that she had that happy, relaxed, sleepy feeling that I sometimes get after a good day.
