Yesterday, I happened upon a very old diary! It was a 5-year diary and, oh joy! it began in 1953! Can you believe it? I’ve always preferred reading diaries or journals of people who lived through old times because to me those are the truest accounts. This was evidently the journal of a young farm girl, and, since it was a 5-year journal, the entries were necessarily brief.
In October 1953, I read, “We had a pond dug today. We needed it. We also separated milk.” For those of you who wonder how you separate milk: milk is poured into a stainless steel basin atop a separator. Then, the hand crank is turned and turned and turned. The milk goes through a series of things inside the machine and then, skin milk pours from one spout into a waiting bucket. Cream goes through another spout into a different stainless steel container. The cream, in that year of 1953, was taken to a local produce house and sold.
Then, another entry a year later, very brief: “Amy and Lacy got into a fight at the end of our driveway. (I believe that these were school children walking home from school). Amy knocked Lacy down.” What happened next? Well, the next day they were friends again. So it went.
It was a fun read and brought back memories of farm life and young hopes and dreams and daily happenings. The daily happenings are certainly different now, but the hopes and dreams of young people haven’t changed all that much.
These days kids use computers to share happenings. We didn’t have them when we were kids.
You’re right! And most of those diary entries were written in cursive!