One Hundred Years

I have been reading a novel about a young 21^st century woman and her great-grandmother who sailed on the Titanic—and survived. She had known her great-grandmother as an elementary school ager before the lady died in her 80’s.

That made me think of my grandmother and how the year 1913 doesn’t seem all that far removed to me.  However,I would certainly think life strange if I were suddenly  transported by time travel back to that era. Maybe 1913 doesn’t seem foreign to me because the majority of my adult life was spent in the 20^th century. Plus, many beloved family figures that I knew well were either children or young adults at that time.

Anyway,back to my grandmother—she would have been 19 in 1913, nearly ready to embark on her 2^nd decade of life. Here is an invitation she kept from two years earlier to a Halloween Party. The illustration looks like it was done with colored pencil and the party was to run from 7 to 10 PM. Teenagers and their parties have changed in the last 100 years.  

In six years Grandmother would be married and prior to that, she  taught in a country schoolhouse. She could well have begun her teaching career in 1913; there’s no one left now to attest to the year she started. Back in those days a degree wasn’t necessary to teach. A teacher could teach during the regular school year and go to summer school at a Teacher’s College somewhere nearby.

During that decade she would have seen “the world war” begin the next year in 1914. Even the United States was embroiled in World War I ending in 1918. The war to end all the wars--too bad that statement didn't hold true. 

I’m far from being 19 in this year 2013, but it is interesting to think about what has happened in the years between 1913 and 2013. I have to say, I still think it’s strange to write the year’s date with 20 at the beginning. And I've been doing that for how long now?