17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, August 4, 1912:Went to Sunday School this morning. Carrie and I went over to see Florence Crawford this afternoon. I feel so drowsy now, just like gaping.
A recent view of a road into McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Carrie refers to Grandma’s close friend Carrie Stout. She is regularly mentioned throughout the diary. I don’t know anything about Florence Crawford. This is the first time (and maybe the only time) that she is mentioned in the diary.
Sounds like Grandma had a nice time with her friends; and that she had that happy, relaxed, sleepy feeling that I sometimes get after a good day.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, August 3, 1912: Let me see, what did I do today? Not very much, anyway. Twas it easy this afternoon.
Mold of Rice Filled with Chopped Meat (Source: The Butterick Cook Book,1911)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma again didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to go off on a tangent. It’s kind of amazing, but sometimes I find a hundred year old advice really useful and it sticks in my mind.
Here’s some advice about how much to eat:
Temperate people with good digestion never feel their stomachs, forget that they have stomachs, while big eaters are always hungry or faint, or bloated or troubled with heart burn, derangement of the bowels or some other conditions showing a morbid state of the digestive apparatus.
National Food Magazine ((June, 1912)
I saw this quote a month or so ago—and since then when I’m tempted to overeat, I often think that I’d better stop before I feel my stomach. (And, sometimes I forget the advice and feel my stomach—and only then do I remember that I should have followed the advice in that old magazine.)
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, August 2, 1912:Had to does some work today, but I guess anyone would get tired of playing all the time. Was out helping in the field this afternoon.
Horse-drawn roller. (Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, German Federal Archives)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I think that I know what Grandma was doing in the fields She was probably leading horses that were pulling a roller over a recently plowed field. It probably was a field from which oats had been harvested in July.
The field would have been plowed, and a roller was smoothing the soil, so that wheat could be planted in September. Back then farmers typically followed a four-year crop rotation: corn, oats, wheat, hay.
How do I know what Grandma was doing?
Farm work varies by season—corn is planted in the spring, wheat and oats are harvested in July, and so on.
Amazingly exactly one-year prior to this diary entry on August 2, 1911 Grandma wrote about driving horse through the dust of a plowed field. That post is repeated below:
Grandma wrote:
Wednesday, August 2, 1911: Took lessons in driving, but even though I would like to learn to drive, I did not like that kind of lesson for the horses were old and slow, and I had to drive them in the field behind choking clouds of dust.
My Comments
I read this entry to my father and asked him what Grandma was doing. He says that she probably was using a roller on a plowed field. The roller would level the plowed earth in preparation for planting winter wheat seeds.
The horses would have been hitched to the roller and Grandma would have needed to tighten one rein or the other to make the horses go in a straight line.
I can almost picture the clouds of dust stirred up by the roller swirling around Grandma as she drove the horses.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, August 1, 1912:
August will fly fast enough,
And at its eve will again will be
The dear old school days.
So farewell to July.
Half of the Summer has vanished,
And half of it yet to come.
Yet the days glide on as ever,
And August another month begun.
We had our S.S. class up along the creek today. All were there and had a splendid time. Such a time as we had a losing of things, but they were all recovered. I lost the heel off of my shoe and didn’t miss it for awhile afterwards. I feel like a stuffed toad this evening.
Recent photo of the stream that flows through the farm Grandma grew up on. The old Muffly barn is in the background.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It sounds Grandma and her sister Ruth were the hostesses for the Sunday School party. What fun! . . . good friends. . . good food. . . wading in the creek . . . the perfect summer day (in spite of a broken shoe heel).
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, July 29, 1912:There is really nothing worth writing for today.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t have anything worth writing a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a fun tidbit about watermelons that I found in the June 1911 issue of Pure Food Magazine.
Watermelons furnish a delicious and most healthful luxury for the hot season. They keep the system cool, and help to ward off fever. That is why nature has supplied them so bountifully to us during the warm season. The name “watermelon” is most appropriate for it is nearly all water—91.9 percent. Hence, it is also an excellent thirst quencher. Its other nutriments add wonderfully to its healthfulness. . . The water you get in the watermelon ripened on the vine contains no impurities.
I’m always learning new things from doing this blog. Today I learned that when people worried about water quality a hundred years ago, that one alternative to drinking the water was to eat watermelon.
Next time I’m somewhere with questionable water I’ll just have to hope that watermelons are available.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, July 28, 1912: Pa and Ma went away to spend the day. Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Had company this afternoon.
Recent picture of the house and yard where Grandma lived when she wrote the diary.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Where did Grandma’s parents go? Her father’s sister Mary’s funeral was on July 20. Mary had lived with two other brothers. Maybe Grandma’s parents went to the brothers’ home in Ottawa (Pennsylvania). Families often gather soon after a funeral to write thank you notes, sort things and reminisce.
Since their parents were gone, I suppose that Grandma and her sister Ruth invited friends over for a fun afternoon.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, July 27, 1912:Ruth and I went to a festival this evening up at McEwensville. I didn’t have a very good time, and Ruth said she didn’t either.
Recent photo of the McEwensville Community Hall and picnic grove. The festival probably was held in this small park.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I wonder why neither Grandma nor her sister Ruth had a good time. Weren’t their friends there? . . . Did the cute guys ignore them . . .
When I was a child there was an old-fashioned carnival at McEwensville each summer.. I imagine it being similar to the festival a hundred years ago. .
There was lots of great food– barbequed chicken, chicken corn soup, cakes, pies. . .
There’s no longer a festival or carnival in McEwensville, but the sign is still stored in the rafters of the picnic shelter.
And, music, good times with friends . . .
There was a dunk tank. They were always looking for kids willing to be dunked. Sometimes my cousin sat in the dunking chair. I never was brave enough to do it.
