Wondering what I should write about today. Yesterday I spent
most of the afternoon transcribing my mother-in-law’s diary or, I should say,
picking up the transcribing again. Back in 2002, I worked on this project and
completed a portion of 1929 and from January 1, 1932 through February 25, 1934.
In 1932, Alice would have been eighteen years old and just
beginning to look at life through the eyes of an adult. Her diary entries are
not full of feelings but read more like a log of events, what she did each day.
When she attends a movie she always mentions the theater and the name of the
show which I find very interesting. She was really into sports, especially basketball,
and besides playing some herself she attended many games of her brother, who
played for General Electric his employer, and her boyfriend, always referred to
a Happy or Hap. (She eventually married Happy.)
Yesterday, I managed to get through February 26, 1934 to July
31, 1934. The major family event during that time was the wedding of her
brother, Cliff, to Catherine Hossman on Saturday, June 30, 1934. “My brother
& Catherine were married at 4 o’clock. I was a bridesmaid and Happy usher.
Had a swell time in the even. I wore an orchid dress.” When Alice married in
1936 she had a “rainbow” wedding with the bridesmaids all wearing a different
color dress. I don’t know if Catherine’s was like that or if all the girls wore
the same color
.
The Century of
Progress World’s Fair had opened in May of 1933 didn’t close until
Halloween of 1934. During that time Alice attended the Fair several times,
sometimes with her parents, sometimes with her friends and sometimes with Hap. In
fact, her diary beginning in 1934 is written in a souvenir notepad, compliments
of the Chicago & North Western Railway.
I think I’ll spend a bit more time on this little project
this afternoon but I don’t want to get totally tied-down to it because I
actually have her diaries/calenders up through the 1990’s. I will continue to
transcribe some and I know I’ll be using the information from many of them when
I write Alice’s biography, but I doubt I’ll transcribe them all.
It amazes me how consistent she was about making these
entries. I’ve started writing journals/dairies many times during my life but
have never been able to stay with it to any degree. If I had been half a dedicated
to keeping track of my days, I wouldn’t have forgotten nearly as much as seems
to have left my memory. I’ve never been good at remember dates, sometimes even
years, when things occurred in my life but I know exactly when even mundane
events, or as she often puts it, when she “Stayed home & did nothing.”
Oh, well, such is life.
~Becky
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