Tag: family history

A More Agreeable Day

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

Friday, October 18, 1912:  These days are beginning to be so much agreeable.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

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

What makes a day an agreeable day? . . . warm, sunny weather?. . . a good day at school or work? . . . a visit with a friend? . . .good health?

Grandma must be feeling better. The previous day, she’d complained about a cold that she’d had for almost a week. It’s amazing how our health can affect our mood.

 

What is Ague?

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

Thursday, October 17, 1912:  Wish my cold would bid me farewell, but instead it seems to like me pretty well and is in not hurry about leaving.

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

Grandma first mentioned having a cold six days prior to this diary entry.

I came across the Ayer’s Ague Cure advertisement, and wondered if ague was the same thing as a cold. According to the dictionary, ague refers to fever, chills, and sweating—so Grandma probably won’t have used this patent medicine to treat her cold.

Old Billiard Table Advertisment

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

Wednesday, October 16, 1912:  How fast the days fly by. Soon it will be Christmas time. As for me it seems as if I am doing some things all the time, yet have nothing but a heap of rubbish to write about.

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

What was Grandma thinking about? Christmas gifts she planned to give others? . . . or gifts she hoped to receive? Here’s a fun advertisement in the December, 1912 issue of Farm Journal that alerted parents about a potential Christmas gift  (though it seems like it was aimed more at the parents of teen-aged boys than at the parents of girls.)

“Here’s your chance!”

It looks like fun, but you never can tell about this exciting game. The slightest inaccuracy will change the entire situation.

Keep Close To Your Boys!

Don’t let them grow away from you. Do you know why so many boys leave home for the city? Not many of them because of the difference in the work they will have to do. It usually is because of the difference in fun and entertainment they can have. Youth needs an outlet for its energy and enthusiasm. Don’t make your boys go away for the amusement. Bring it to them! A

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Whew, it sure plays up farm parents fears that their sons will move to the city. But, no fear, for only $1.00 down they’ll stay on the farm.

Using Salt to Clean Hair

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

Monday, October 14, 1912:  There is nothing at all.

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

A hundred-years-ago, Good Housekeeping magazine was chock-full of wonderful tips submitted by readers. Some probably worked—others probably didn’t.

Since Grandma had little to write a hundred years ago today, I’ll share an old tip for cleaning hair with you.

Light hair that has a tendency to become oily is only aggravated by frequent washings. A hairdresser told me that rubbing to the scalp a strong solution of salt and water and then drying the hair in the sun, would not only leave the hair light and fluffy, but would in the end cure the trouble. I have found this excellent, and of great use when I wish to have my hair looking its best in a short time.

R.V. M., California

Source: Good Housekeeping (August, 1912)

A Boring Sunday Afternoon

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

Sunday, October 13, 1912: Went to Sunday School this morning. Had to amuse myself this afternoon because no one came to see me and most of the family had gone away.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

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

What might Grandma have done to amuse herself on a boring Sunday afternoon?

Read a book?

Bake cookies?

Go for a walk?

Do a little sewing?

Do a little embroidery?

Do her homework?  . .. . nah

Hulled a Half-Bushel of Walnuts

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

Saturday, October 12, 1912:  Was busy hulling walnuts today. I estimated them to have amounted to about half a bushel. My work in that is not finished yet.

Black walnuts that fell on a country road

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

A half- bushel of walnuts is a lot to hull (remove the outer layer)—though it’s going to be a lot bigger job to crack them after they dry.

I also gathered and hulled walnuts this fall—though I only gathered a couple pounds.

This year I wore plastic gloves when I hulled them. Last year I stained my hands while hulling them—and it took at least a week to get rid of the ugly brown stains.

Walnut stains on my hands last year.

Previous posts on gathering and cracking walnuts

Hulling Black Walnuts

How to Crack Black Walnuts

Does Poor Air Quality Cause Colds?

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

Friday, October 11, 1912:  I’ve fully awakened to the startling fact that I’m getting another cold. It’s on its way. Had an exam in Caesar.

Maybe cough cream would help cure Grandma’s cold. Was this about the same thing as Vicks Vapor-rub? (Do they still make that?) Ad in November 1912 issues of Good Housekeeping magazine.

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

This is the second cold that Grandma had during Fall, 1912.  On September 1, 1912 she wrote:

I have one cracker jack of a cold. . . . .

I wonder if lower air quality due to the use of a wood or coal stove for heating might have contributed to the current cold. This is what the October, 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal had to say:

When “Colds” Begin

No sooner do we light our winter fires than we begin to have “colds” and we blame it on the colder weather. Doctors know, however, that it is not the lower temperature that brings on “colds.”

If cold weather produces “colds,” why is it that they do not have such diseases in the Arctic regions, where today they are absolutely unknown? Why is it that Peary and his men never had a single “cold” until they came back to American shores—and our dry-heated homes?

God never created the oxygen in the air to make us sick, but to keep us well. If the fresh air can do so much to heal the lungs attacked by tuberculosis or pneumonia how much more can it do for the healthy lung? If fresh air can heal a diseased lung can it not likewise keep well a healthy lung? It is the dust and the dry heat inside our homes that produce our “cold”: never the fresh air.  . .