What’s the Difference Between a Recitation and a Dialogue?

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

Sunday, January 11, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Started to learn a recitation this evening and I think I know it now.

diary.1.12.13 — Click on diary entry to enlarge.

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

When I read this diary entry, I realized that I didn’t know the difference between dialogue and recitation.

Few words mean exactly the same thing. Most synonyms have nuanced differences in meaning.

Previous diary entries mentioned pieces Grandma memorized for Literary Society presentations at her high school. For example, on January 6, she wrote that she copied off part of a dialogue to memorize. My post that day included a poem called The Old Clock on the Stairs by Longfellow as an example of a dialogue.

I now realize that the poem may not have been an example of a dialogue, but rather an example of a recitation. A dialogue requires more than one presenter.

Here are the definitions for recitation and dialogue in the Free Dictionary:

Recitation—1(a). The act of reciting memorized materials in a public performance. (b) The material so presented. 2. (a) Oral delivery of prepared lessons by a pupil. (b) The class period within which this delivery occurs.

Dialogue—1. A conversation between two or more people. 2(a) Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative. (b) The lines or passages in a scrip that are intended to be spoken. 3. A literary work written in the form of a conversation. 4. Music A composition or passage for two or more parts, suggestive of conversational interplay. 5. An exchange of ideas or opinions.

Based on these definitions I now think a dialogue is a type of recitation—but a recitation is not always a dialogue.

1913 Silent Film: The Pickwick Papers

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

Saturday, January 11, 1913: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. Went into the movies.

DSC06684.crop — Recent photo of the vacant Watson Theater in Watsontown

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

What a fun way to spend a winter afternoon! The films would have been silent ones—probably with live melodramatic piano music.

Maybe she watched The Pickwick Papers. A short silent version of this movie was first screened in 1913. Click here to see it on YouTube.

This is the first time that Grandma mentioned going to the movies in Watsontown.—though she previously mentioned attending movies in somewhat more distant Milton. Maybe the theater in Watsontown had just opened.

A movie theater in Watsontown called the Watson Theater closed a few years ago. I thought it might have been the theater that Grandma went to, so I googled it. I discovered that the theater that Grandma went to was probably called the Lyceum Theatre and that it burned down in 1934. According to Cinema Treasures:

Opened on May 30, 1940, the Watson Theatre was built to replace the Lyceum Theatre, which burned down 6 years before.

You might also enjoy a previous post about another silent film:

1912 Silent Film: The New York Hat

Visited Friends

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

Thursday, January 9, 1913: Ruth and I went up to Oakes’ this evening. Didn’t get my lessons out any too well for the morrow.

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

Grandma’s New Year’s resolution to study harder was apparently long forgotten . . .

I’m surprised that Grandma and her sister Ruth ventured out on a cold, dark (or maybe moonlit) winter evening to visit friends.

The Oakes lived on a nearby farm. Their daughter Rachel was a friend of Grandma and her sister Ruth. The Oakes also had several sons who were about the same age as the Muffly girls. In 1911, Ruth dated Jim Oakes—but that relationship seems to have ended about a year and a half prior to this diary entry

Found Report Card

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

Wednesday, January 8, 1913: Was so lucky to find my report just where I had put it. I feel very much relieved for I was rather worried. Have my part of the dialogue pretty well learned.

Recent photo of house Grandma lived in when she was a teen.

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

Where did Grandma find her report card? The previous day she could not find the card, and was very worried about it.

Some things have not changed over the last hundred years. It’s always upsetting when something is lost—though it usually turns up sooner or later.

It’s funny how I usually find lost things where I put them. When this happens I feel annoyed with myself . . .

The Dialogue

Grandma was very involved in the Literary Society at her school and I think that she was memorizing part of a dialogue for an upcoming Literary Society meeting or program.

Took Down the Christmas Tree

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

Saturday, January 4, 1913: Took down the Christmas tree this morning. It made such an awful mess. Ran an errand to McEwensville after dinner, and was home in three shakes of a lamb’s tail.

Pine_needles — Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

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

Grandma’s right—it makes an awful mess when the Christmas tree is taken down.

My Christmas decorations are still up—they will come down tomorrow. I’m trying to delay taking them down for as long as possible, but it’s starting to feel like I’m ready for my house to return to normal.

Which States Had the Most People in 1913 and 2013?

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

Friday, January 3, 1913: I’m so sleepy for I’m keeping later hours with my books Perhaps the thing will work all right after all. Hope it does.

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

Grandma was still trying to keep her New Year’s resolution to study harder—though she complained both on January 2 and 3 about being sleepy.

A hundred years ago students memorized more things than they do now. Might Grandma have been required to memorize geography facts such the names of the five states with the most people ? . . . and the five states with the fewest people.

Rank of States by Population, 1913 and 2013

I was surprised to discover how much the state ranks have changed over the last 100 years. In 1913, Pennsylvania—where Grandma lived— was the second most populous state in the US; now it is the sixth largest.

And, a hundred years ago, California was the 13^th most populous state—today it is the state with the most people.

For those who are interested in the details about where I got the data for the table–I assumed that the population did not change between 1910 and 1913 and used data from the 1910 census for the 1913 estimates. I assumed that the population in 2013 is the same as it was in 2012. The 2013 estimates are based on April 1, 2012 estimates of the US population which were adjusted estimates based on the 2010 US Census.

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