Tag: genealogy

Old-time Tips for Washing Dishes

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

Saturday, June 22, 1912: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. I managed to get through with the dishes and then went for the cows. I found them having a picnic in the corn field, and they were quickly dispatched to safer premises.

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

Here’s some advice from the early 1900s for doing the dishes. It is abridged from a 1902 cookbook.

Do not be afraid of hot water in washing up dishes and dirty cooking utensils. As these are essentially greasy, lukewarm water cannot possibly have the effect of cleansing them effectively.

After you have washed your saucepans, fish-kettle, &c., stand them before the fire for a few minutes to get thoroughly dry inside, before putting them away. They should then be kept in a dry place, in order that they may escape the deteriorating influence of rust.

Never leave saucepans dirty from one day’s use to be cleaned the next.

After washing up your dishes, wash your dish-tubs with a little soap and water and soda, and scrub them often.

Do not throw anything but water down the sink, as the pipe is liable to get choked, thereby causing expense and annoyance.

Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book (1902)

Cows Escaped

Whew–the cows escaped from the pasture, again! This must be at least the fourth or fifth time in 1912. (It’s happened so many times that I’ve lost track of the exact number.)

Dieting a Hundred Years Ago

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

Friday, June 21, 1912:  I’ve been thinking over an article I read in a magazine. It is about reducing a speck. I think I’ll try it at least, and be less of a pumpkin than what I am now.

1913 graduation photo of Helena Muffly. She doesn’t look heavy in this picture–but maybe she’d lost a “speck.”

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

It sounds like Grandma needed to lose a few pounds—or at least  that she thought that she did.

A hundred years ago people believed that the best way to lose weight was to eat “dainty” foods and to chew food more thoroughly. They thought that they would lose weight if they chewed each bite 30 times, 40 times, or even more, before swallowing. This was often called Fletcherizing.

At dinner last night I tried chewing each bite 35 times. The sandwich and potatoes (oops–they may not be dainty foods)  that I was eating liquefied in my mouth and it lost all flavor long before the 35th bite.

My family finished eating while I still had lots of food left on my plate.

I don’t think that I could Fletcherize my food meal after meal—but I do think that I’d lose weight if I did it consistently.

Previous Posts on Dieting and Obesity

Are You Obese?: 1911 and 2011

One-Hundred-Year Old Advice on How to Avoid Overeating

1911 Weight Loss Tip: Fletcherize Your Food

Pulled Little Brother’s Baby Tooth

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

Thursday, June 19, 1912: Pulled a tooth for Jimmie. It was the first one to go, and then he got another yanked out before the day was over.

Jimmie Muffly

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

How did Grandma pull her little brother’s baby tooth? Did she tie a string around it and pull? . . . twist and wiggle the tooth back and forth with her finger?  . . . give it a quick tug?

100 Years After the War of 1812

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

Wednesday, June 18, 1912:Ma went to Milton today. She bought me an umbrella. Went to Watsontown this afternoon, and some of my money went to.

Recent photo of downtown Watsontown. It’s about a mile and a half west of the Muffly farm.

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

Grandma must have decided that she needed an umbrella after the rain the previous Sunday prevented her from attending Sunday School.

What did Grandma buy when she went to Watsontown?

_____

Since the diary entry is self-explanatory, I’m going to go off on a tangent.

I’m not sure why, but when I see something in the news I often view it through the frame of the diary.

For example,  in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal there was an article which said that the War of 1812 began 200 years ago on June 18. I guess it’s obvious that the War of 1812 occurred 100 years before Grandma’s diary entry–but I’d never thought about it that way before. In other words, the diary was written at the midpoint between the War of 1812 and the present.

I t also made me  think about how the Civil War began 151 years ago (51 years before this  diary entry)—and that War War I had not yet occurred in 1912 (it started in 1914).

Didn’t Go to Sunday School

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

Sunday, June 16, 1912:  It rained today. Wanted to go to Sunday School this afternoon, but the walking I felt sure would be simply terrible. Besse and Curt were out this evening.

Recent rainy day photo of the house Grandma lived in when she wrote the diary.

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

The weather doesn’t sound good—

Mud would have been an issue since the road between the Muffly farm and McEwensville wasn’t paved a hundred years ago.

Grandma seldom skipped Sunday School—I think this was only the second time since the diary began in January, 1911.

Grandma mentioned several times in the diary that she didn’t want to miss Sunday School because each week she memorized Bible verses—and that if she memorized  700+ verses that she’d get a Bible.

Well, Grandma reached her goal on May 26 and received her Bible two weeks prior to this entry on June 3. Apparently she was less motivated to attend Sunday School now that she had the Bible.

Besse was Grandma’s married sister, and Curt was her husband.

Bulls on Farms a Hundred Years Ago

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

Friday, June 14, 1912:  Such a time as I had a running after Jake this afternoon. He broke out of the field and when I spied him he was walking up the railroad. Carrie was over this evening.

Recent photo of the railroad tracks that cross the Muffly farm.

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

Hmm—who was Jake? I never really thought about it before, but I bet that the Muffly’s had a bull—and that Jake was the bull’s name.

Photo Source: The Farm Dairy (1908) by H.B. Gurler

Bulls are MEAN. They have unpredictable tempers and sometimes charge people.

This adds a whole new dimension to what watching cows involved. When Grandma wrote about watching cows—it probably wasn’t a pastoral pastime, but a potentially dangerous job.

An aside—Most farmers started using artificial insemination to breed their cows in the 1950s and 60s—and they were very, very glad that they no longer needed to have bulls on the farm.

Had to do the Milking Alone

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

Wednesday, June 12, 1912:  I’m mad at that Ruth tonight. She goes away and leaves me with the milking.

Photo in the May 15, 1912 issue of Kimball’s Dairy Farmer magazine. It’s interesting how the women in the photo wore light-colored clothes while working with cows. I would have thought that dark-colored outfits that wouldn’t show dirt would have been preferred.

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

I wonder if Ruth ever did the milking for Grandma when Grandma went somewhere.  Grandma complained several times in the diary that she had to do the milking for her sister Ruth —but she never wrote that Ruth did the milking for her.

My guess is that both of the Muffly sisters benefited from trading chores—but that Grandma didn’t think  that it was important enough to mention when she was the one who got to go somewhere and miss the milking

When I was a child growing up on a dairy farm, my brother and I often informally traded barn chores so that one of us could do something else. I’d do his chores one day—and he might do mine a few days later.  We never kept track of whether one of us did the chores less often than the other—but my sense was that it balanced out pretty well over time.