18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, May 4, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Although it is over a week since commencement, I received a present today. Making eighteen in all.
sewing bag (source: Ladies Home Journal, November, 1913)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm. . . What present did Grandma receive? . .
It probably was a small gift from her Sunday School teacher or another church member. . . maybe something handmade.
The November, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal suggested a few small gifts that could be made for 25¢ to $1. The magazine probably was thinking about Christmas when they published the article, but many of the gifts would have been equally appropriate as graduation gifts.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, April 17, 1913: Our class was invited out to supper this evening. It broke up rather early. My first presents arrived today. A gold hat pin and a handkerchief.
Lillie. Raymond (standing), and Michael Swartz (1913)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandpa must have been at the supper—but Grandma doesn’t mention him and it sounds like the dinner was boring since the party broke up rather early.
According to the Commencement Program there were only six people who graduated from McEwensville High School in 1913, and two of them were my grandparents–Helena Muffly and Raymond Swartz.
In such a tiny class they had to have known each other—yet Grandma never mentioned him in the diary. Why?
Raymond was much younger than Grandma—perhaps he wasn’t on her radar screen at the time. He was only 14 1/2 years old when he graduated; she was 18. He must have skipped several grades.
Maybe Raymond was really quiet and Grandma barely noticed him. His mother had died several years previously. He lived on a farm with his father. He only had one sibling—a sister, Lillie, who was 12 years older than him.
Or maybe he was smart and annoying. . . .
One place in the diary where I want to think that Grandma referred her future husband was on February 6, 1911:
. . . Got too close to the stove pipe at school today and burned my hand. Didn’t feel very good. Put some black on a kid’s face, and then he put some on mine. I tried to prevent him. Got my arm scratched and tore my waist. . .
It almost seems like the two students were trying to get each others attention, and that maybe they liked each other just a little. Grandpa would have seemed like a kid at the time. . .could it have been him?
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, April 7, 1913: There isn’t much for today.
Source: Good Housekeeping (September, 1912)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much today, I’ll tell you a little about what I’ve been thinking.
I am still trying to get a better understanding of how people of various backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities were perceived a hundred years ago.
An article in the September 1912 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine showed a composite picture of the “Good Housekeeping Woman.”
The photograph is truly a photograph, and can truthfully be described as the typical “Good Housekeeping Woman.” It is nothing less than the portrait of one hundred of our feminine subscribers, printed upon a single negative . . . what is known as a “composite” photograph.
The hundred photographs were secured by the editor by correspondence and through agents of the magazine in widely separated sections of the continent. Some of the portraits, for example, came all the way from British Columbia. The majority, however, were from New York state, New England, and the Middle West.
I wonder how accurately the women included in the composite reflected the population.
Interesting how composite pictures were created in the days before computers . . .
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.
Awhile ago 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 that Grandma lived in during her later years.
See more guest posts with relative’s memories of Grandma by clicking on the Family Memories category.
(This comment is a repeat of the comment that I made last year on April Fools Day. I apologize for being repetitive–but it seemed so appropriate and relevant for this diary entry.)
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The class play is on April 5. It sounds like the cast was getting really stressed out as the big day approached. The previous day Grandma wrote that they almost decided not to have the play–but decided to persevere.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, March 29, 1913: Ma and I went to Milton this morning. The chief object of which was the buying of me a graduation dress. It is a plain white batiste to be trimmed with lace insertion and edging. I got some other things besides. Ma bought a piano. I’m so glad for now I can learn to play.
Caption: Patience Personified
I recently visited the Roller Mills Antique Center in Lewisburg and found this old post card that advertised a piano store in Milton. Did Grandma and her mother buy their piano from C.A. Bennage?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
What a fun shopping trip!—It’s amazing that Grandma and her mother bought BOTH a graduation dress and a piano on the same trip.
A piano is a major purchase. In this era before women’s rights, I’m surprised that Grandma’s mother was able to make a purchase of this size without her husband coming along. Even today, I think that both spouses would generally be actively involved in making a purchase of this size.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, March 26, 1913: Teacher gave the school a lecture, but it was really meant for me. I don’t think what I did was so bad, but I guess I won’t do it again. I might catch it right there.
Recent photo of the building that once housed McEwensville High School.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm—what the heck did Grandma do? The previous day she wrote that she got home from play practice at 11:30 and didn’t have time to do her studies.
In the past, Grandma had some issues with cheating. Might she possibly have reverted to that old habit?
Two years prior to this diary entry, on February 7, 1911, she wrote:
Some of the boys at school found the teacher’s Latin questions in examination, and we all expect to make a good mark. I do at least, but I might be fooled as some cheats are.
And, she got away with it that time. The next day (February 8, 1911) she wrote:
Had some of our exams today. Came out all right in Latin. Our arithmetic wasn’t so easy though. My fingers feel rather tired.
The next year, things didn’t go so well. On January 25, 1912 Grandma wrote:
Gave my ear to a free-for-all lecture this afternoon. It was delivered by Mr. Teacher, the chief part of which was about cheating on examinations. I’ve been so worked up at this, although Conscience tells me not to. Anyway I believe it is time to stop, and do better in the future. So now, I will try to bid adieu to all ways of crookedness and get the things in my head instead of having them on paper.
But, Grandma did reform her ways—at least temporarily. A few days later, on February 9, 1912 she wrote:
I am disgusted with the marks I made in my examination, but although my marks are low I am not losing faith for I can truthfully say, “I didn’t cheat.” I had not much of a desire to cheat after that awful lecture and what desire I had left I managed to trample down. I intend to improve for next month and make my next teacher happy.
