Old Year (or New Year) Skulking Around the Straw Stack

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

Wednesday, January 1, 1913:

Greeting for January 1st 1913

Happy New Year Day

Hail the new year with all gladness,

Let us welcome it today.

For the joys it brings are many,

And its sorrows will not stay.

Now to make good resolutions;

Ones that we will never break,

Crushing down our weaker spirit

We should do this for our sake.

I would like to make a resolution

One that I would never break,

But the weaker spirit dwells within me,

And I’m doubting what to take.

Saw a rabbit this morning. Perhaps that was the new year come to welcome me. I fancied I saw either the old year or else the new year skulking around the straw stack, when I went out to milk this morning. It wasn’t quite day light so maybe that accounts for it.

I would like to resolve that I will study more this year, but I’m in doubt to whether my will power is strong enough. However I think I will at least make an attempt.

New Years Post Card, circa 1912 — New Years Post Card, circa 1913

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

This blog is now at its halfway point. Grandma kept this diary for exactly four years—she began it on January 1, 1911 and the last entry was on December 31, 1914.

When I began posting these entries on January 1, 2011, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to this point. But I’ve had a wonderful time doing this blog. I love doing research and finding materials. And, it’s been wonderful re-connecting with relatives and making many wonderful new friends.

I now fully expect—knock on wood—that I’ll post the last dairy entry one-hundred-years after Grandma wrote it on December 31, 2014.

It’s been a wonderful two years—and I look forward to sharing the next two years with you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Winter Break Over

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

Monday, December 30, 1912: Went back to school today after a two weeks rest. Had such a time carrying my books. I had brought so many home, and it was raining in the bargain.

The road that Grandma would have walked down to go home from school on a recent rainy day.

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

Grandma had to walk about a mile and a half to get to school. Nothing’s worse than a cold December rain.

Did Grandma read all the books over the break that she brought home? What were they about?

A hundred years ago, the Christmas break was really long. And, it’s Interesting that school began prior to New Year’s Day—today schools don’t generally resume until January 2.

Looking Forward to School Starting Again

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

Saturday, December 28, 1912: We had visitors a little while this morning. Everything seemed so dull to me this awful Saturday. Guess I’ll welcome going to school next week as a change. After all my vacation lacked the enjoyment that sometimes comes to others.

Recent photo of the house Grandma lived in. The photo was taken at dusk on a December day. — Recent photo of the house Grandma lived in.

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

Who were the visitors? Grandma didn’t seem very excited about their visit.

Perhaps the visitors were old friends of her parents or distant relatives, who, from Grandma’s perspective, were very uninteresting and boring.

Based on the previous diary entries—it seems like Grandma enjoyed her Christmas break, but I suppose that she was starting to get tired of being at home. The last day of school before the break was December 13—so she hadn’t been to school for two weeks!

What’s a Dollar a Hundred Years Ago Worth Now?

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

Friday, December 27, 1912: Sold Mollie’s calf today. It wasn’t a very big one and I rather feared my fortune would be pretty small, but after all it weighed one hundred and forty-four lbs. Received a neat sum of $11.56. I am real proud over what my purse that Ruth gave me contains. Over fourteen dollars.

Source: Kimball's Dairy Farmer Magazine (June 15, 1911) — Source: Kimball’s Dairy Farmer Magazine (June 15, 1911)

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

Mollie was Grandma’s cow, and it had a calf on November 15.

Grandma’s parents apparently taught their children the value of money by giving each child a cow. I think that if the cow had a male calf, the child got the money from the sale of the calf—and their personal herd grew if a female calf was born. (See previous post on teaching farm kids that value of money.)

And, we now know that Grandma’s sister Ruth was the person who gave her the purse. I bet it was stylish—and that it looked great filled with cash. Grandma was in the money. I hope she spent it wisely.

According to an online Inflation Calculator website, a dollar a hundred years ago is worth about $23.40 today.

So in real dollars Grandma sold the calf for the equivalent of $240 now. And if she had $14 in her purse, she’d have $328 today.

Got the Christmas Tree

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

Monday, December 23, 1912: I got the Christmas tree this afternoon, nor did it take me long. Pass it along, Ruth has the pink eye, and now tis my turn to laugh. She looks so terrible funny. I know what it’s like, but I can’t keep from thinking what a joke it is on her.

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

Did Grandma go out into the woods on the farm by herself and cut a tree? I always picture tree cutting as a family project—but I guess that one person could do it by herself.

Interesting how people waited until the last-minute to get their tree a hundred years ago. They put candles on trees back then—and there was a real fire risk. So I suppose that they wanted a very fresh tree on Christmas day that might be less likely to catch fire.

Poor Ruth—she was Grandma’s older sister. It’s no fun to be sick during the holidays. Pink eye was going through the family. Grandma had it on December 10 and their brother Jimmie had it on December 15.

Beliefs About Infectious Diseases a Hundred Years Ago

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

Sunday, December 15, 1912: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Jimmie also has the pink eye and says I gave it to him. He was real mad for a time.

Recent photo of the house the Muffly's lived in. — Recent photo of the Muffly’s house.

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

Poor Jimmie—pink eye is no fun.

Of course, Grandma’s seven-year-old brother is right—he probably caught the pink eye from Grandma . She wrote that she had pink eye on December 10—and that it was getting better on December 12.

Did the Muffly’s try to prevent the spread of pink eye?

Here’s what I found in a hundred-year-old book called Personal Hygiene and Physical Training for Women about how to avoid infections (though it focuses on influenza rather than pink eye).

We have already seen that bacilli are not only the cause of acute infections, but also of chronic bronchitis, and that this was especially true of the bacillus of influenza and the pneumococcus of pneumonia.

It is well know that influenza is an infectious disease, which rapidly spreads through the family and the community., but it is not so well-known that the so-called “common colds,” ordinary sore throat, and tonsillitis are also highly contagious. The infection is carried from one person to another by direct contagion; the air is being constantly sprayed with the germs of disease in talking, laughing, sneezing, and coughing. In coughing and sneezing it is not sufficient to hold the hand before the moth—a handkerchief must be used for this purpose.

Girl’s Club December Activities

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

Friday, December 13, 1912: Our Literary Society met today. I didn’t take part this time. The kids got their parts off pretty good. Don’t have to go back to school again for two weeks. I’m so glad.

Building that once housed McEwensville School.

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

Wow, they had a long school break for the holidays a hundred years ago.

Grandma really enjoyed being a member of the Literary Society at her school. Across the last few months I’ve struggled to figure out exactly what the Literary Society did. At first I thought it was a book club—but more recent diary entries, including this one, suggest that they put on some sort of program.

I think that maybe I’ve figured it out. I found an article in the December 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal called “The Rural School at Christmas.” It discusses how the rural school is often the center of social activities during the holiday and contained several suggestions.

One suggestion described activities a girl’s club could do. I think that the girl’s club described in the magazine sounds very similar to the Literary Society at McEwensville High School.

A Club for Girls

During the Christmas month this club looks up all of the literature and music bearing on Christmas. Christmas stories are told and Christmas songs and hymns practiced.

Ladies Home Journal (December, 1912)