18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, February 20, 1914: Nothing much doing.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (February, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Have you ever heard of anyone holding a party to celebrate Washington’s Birthday. It must have been a much more popular holiday a hundred years ago than what it is now.
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share some fun food suggestions for a Washington’s Birthday party that appeared in the February, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
In the 1960s, Washington’s Birthday morphed into President’s Day which is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in February. But, in 1914, Washington’s Birthday was celebrated on his actual birthdate, February 22—and apparently it was a bigger deal than what it is now.
Ruth and I went to a party tonight over at our cousin’s. We walked to town and from there the party was conveyed in sleds. Didn’t go very fast as the roads were full of snow. My, but we did have the eats. Bet there were some, who made it hard for their poor tummies. Got home 2:30 a.m.
I can’ imagine coming home in the middle of the night and immediately sitting down to write a diary entry. My gut feeling is that Grandma wrote both of these entries at the same time on the 19th.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, February 18, 1914: Ruth and I went to a party tonight over at our cousin’s. We walked to town and from there the party was conveyed in sleds. Didn’t go very fast as the roads were full of snow. My, but we did have the eats. Bet there were some, who made it hard for their poor tummies. Got home 2:30 a.m.
Recent view from McEwensville looking out over the countryside. (The building in the foreground was once the McEwensville School.)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma—
What an awesome party! . . . friends, sleds, lot of good food. . . Was “he” at the party? Life sounds good.
I want to just enjoy your fun, but somehow the time warp isn’t totally working for me—and the middle-aged mother in me has to ask you several questions:
Don’t you think that 2:30 a.m. was a bit late to stay out?
Did you and your sister Ruth have to walk home to the farm in the middle of the night all by yourselves? Was it safe?
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, February 16, 1914: Guess I’ll be kept like a prisoner this week, at least at the first part.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sounds like Grandma was going to need to wait another day to get her valentine. Two days previously she wrote:
Looked forward to a valentine this morning, but no mail carrier came as the roads were rendered impassable from the snow storm. The snow lies 18 in. deep on the ground.
Even though Grandma doesn’t mention anything about how the snowstorm affected the farm operations I can’t help wondering what her father was thinking and doing.
The Muffly’s had several cows. They would have stored the milk in the milk in cans—and may have enough cans to hold several days’ worth of milk. But it seems like Grandma’s father would have been panicking that the milk would spoil if he didn’t get it to market soon.
milk can (photo source: Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site)
When I was a child growing up on a dairy farm, we always had to the get farm lane open within two days of a snowfall so that the milk truck could get in to take the milk to market.
My father would sometimes work day and night to clear the lane (and to keep it open if the snow was drifting). If the milk truck couldn’t get in, the tank where we stored the milk would be totally filled and we would have needed to start dumping milk.
(I digressed enough. Back to Grandma’s story–another possibility is that the Muffly’s didn’t need to regularly get milk to market because they only sold butter made from the cream, and that they fed all of the skim milk to calves or pigs.)
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, February 15, 1914: Didn’t get to Sunday School this morning as the road is not much broken. Felt quite vexed about it as I didn’t want to miss more than what I could possibly help.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
. . . the roads were rendered impassable from the snow storm. The snow lies 18 in. deep on the ground.
What does “the road is not much broken” mean? If I had to take a guess, I’d guess that not many horses had traveled over it yet—so the snow was not tramped down (broken); but I’m not really sure.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, February 14, 1914: Looked forward to a valentine this morning, but no mail carrier came as the roads were rendered impassable from the snow storm. The snow lies 18 in. deep on the ground.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Oh dear, no mail. . . and since it was a Saturday it will be two days until Grandma gets her valentine. Who was Grandma expecting to get it from?
This diary entry makes me realize that times have changed. . . and not changed . . . in some unexpected ways over the past century.
In 2014, like 1914, due to the snow emergencies in many locations across the United States, lots of mail carriers probably are unable to deliver the mail . . . however, most young people today probably don’t care that it isn’t getting through since they already got their valentines via Facebook, email, or texting.
