17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, April 2, 1912:It rained nearly all day. Coming home the wind almost blew me along.
A rainy day last summer at the farm where Grandma lived when she wrote the diary. That day the wind also wouldhave blown a person down the road.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma would have had to walk a mile or so from school to home. Sometimes when the weather was bad Grandma’s father picked her and her brother Jimmie up at school, but he apparently didn’t do it on that day.
I bet that Grandma had wet shoes by the time she got home–and that she set them next to the wood/coal stove in the kitchen to dry.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, April 1, 1912:
April
Bidding adieu to Winter
Welcoming the approaching Spring
So comes the months of spring time.
How merrily the birds doth sing.
I was fooled once and only once today. While in a hurry this evening I landed on the ground. I don’t think I hurt myself any, but I did bump my knees.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I knew my elderly Grandmother. Her diary provides a window into what she was like as a teen. It’s fun to see how remnants of the fun, quirky teen in this diary were part of Grandma’s personality throughout her life.
Last year several relatives wrote guest posts about their memories of Grandma. My cousin Anne Marie wrote about an April’s Fools day when Grandma was in her late 60’s or early 70’s.
One April Fools Day Grandma took an old newspaper from her basement and carefully glued all of the pages together and quietly placed it in our newspaper box. I can still hear Mom laughing when she tried to read the paper that day and it didn’t take her long to figure out who the prankster was.
Photo of the house Grandma lived in during her later years. It was next door to my cousin's house.
(See more guest posts with relative’s memories of Grandma by clicking on the Family Memories category.)
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, March 30, 1912:Had to put things in some kind of order. Mended some of the rips and tears. No one else wants the position.
Torn overalls--An aside (An aside--in addition to frequent tears, farm work clothes often get stained by grease, soil, etc.)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Farm work is hard—and clothes often get torn.
Some things probably changed little between the time that Grandma was a teen and the time that I was a teen.
I have strong memories of there always being a pile of work clothes that need to be mended when I was growing up. On “slow” days it was common to do the mending.
One difference was that I used an electric sewing machine and Grandma would have used a treadle sewing machine.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 29, 1912: At school we always march out, and so you see you are supposed to keep step. But woe betide me, I don’t do it exactly right. Mr. Teacher has gone for me three times about it. This afternoon took me by the arm and walked me along part way.
Recent view of the building that once housed McEwensville School. The high school was on the second floor (and the primary school was on the first).
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm—sometimes, I’m not exactly sure what to make of a diary entry. And, this is one of those times . . .
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, March 28, 1912:Nothing really of great importance. Now that Ruth is at home I don’t have to do as much in the morning as I was accustomed to doing. Ruth made some fudge this evening. It was Jimmie’s earnest desire.
Sugar Taffy
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Whew, I’m amazed how often fudge or other candies are mentioned in the diary.
Over the past 15 months, I’ve made 7 different candy recipes. Below I rank them from my personal favorite to my least favorite—and provide links to the post that contains the recipe.
1. Sugar Taffy—This recipe turned out fantastically and tastes much better than modern taffy. My family ate all of the taffy within a day or so.
Cocoa Fudge
2. Cocoa Fudge—This fudge recipe was excellent—however, the recipe only made a small amount of fudge. I’d double (or triple or quadruple) the recipe if I made it again.
3. Chocolate Fudge- No. 1—This is also a very good fudge recipe. I had a difficult time deciding whether to rank Cocoa Fudge or this one higher.
4. Butterscotch— Old-fashioned butterscotch isn’t anything like the artificially-colored orange butterscotch disks that they make today. Instead it is rather it is similar to Werthers Original Candy.
5. Chocolate Fudge No. 2—This fudge contains molasses and has a very old-fashioned taste, but I loved the complex undertones. I especially liked it when I added walnuts.
6. Sour Cream Fudge—This is a light-colored fudge that does not contain any chocolate. It had a good taste although I had to cook it a very long time (over an hour) and even then it seemed a bit soft.
7. Coffee Candy—This candy had a great taste, but I didn’t get something quite right because it crumbled. A reader suggested that it might make a good ice cream topping.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, March 27, 1912: I read Evangeline today and found it very interesting. This was the last day of Ruth’s school term. She has so many things mapped out to do, but whether they will ever be accomplished I cannot tell.
Statue of Evangeline, Nova Scotia, Canada (Source: Wikipedia)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Evangeline is an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that tells the story of an Acadian girl named Evangeline who was separated from her beloved Gabriel by circumstances beyond their control. Evangeline traveled throughout America in search of him. After years of searching she finally found him when he was gravely ill and he died in her arms.
You can find the entire poem on the University of Virginia Library’s website.
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Grandma’s sister Ruth was a teacher at one of the one-room schoolhouses near McEwensville. It sounds like this was the last day of the school year for that school. I suppose that the children were needed at home to help with the spring planning. It’s amazing how short the school year once was at some schools.
