Babu hates when she views the world outside of her window and it’s cloudy. She’ll say: “No sunshine today?” and not just once. I’m always more concerned about the clouds that move across her, across her face when she just can’t grasp a memory, or, even worse for her, a word, the clouds that move…
Month: June 2016
April, 1934 Excerpts
Monday, April 23rd, 1934 I am really sore today. W.B.Z. Took Janet Overbaugh to the Junior Prom. Jeanette and I made a sojourn to the library. Those two nuts! They sounded drunk coming home singing “neighbors.” We had a good time hiding behind the tree. Hiding behind a tree?? What shenanigans was she up to?…
Mending Fence
Our neighbor next door is the best I could ask for. She is truly lovely. As a bonus, her husband is a police officer, a friendly one, and I feel safe having them next door. She and I always say hello to one another with small check ins. “Hows your grandmother?” She always asks and…
Stark Contrasts
Amidst all her worries about when to wear her sport blouse and her strong feelings over saddle shoes, Babu has an encounter with death. She writes: Friday, April 27th, 1934 It makes a person realize the truth of death when a young person like Lorraine Pronovost dies. Just a few weeks ago she was so…
April, 1934
While transcribing Babu’s journals, I find some months are full of excitement and some months, well, aren’t. Passages in April 1934 were either just boring days or they were written in her secret shorthand that I’m not sure I want to decode, even if I could. (If she wanted something to be secret from the…
My Doors. My house.
Two months ago I wrote the following poem: The Doors in This House In this house I must keep fighting with the porch door, They close all throughout this house but don’t latch. The only way to win is to slam it hard And wiggle the handle wildly. He wakes from the other room, It’s…
March, 1934 Excerpts From a Writer
Here are some excerpts I feel show her most creative writing. It was amazing what she could write in only four short little lines! I don’t know what I like so much about this one, but I do. Sunday, March 18th, 1934 Here it is after 11 and I have just finished my homework. I…
Welp!… (I’m on the brink.)
Welp, here I am. I just completed my last day teaching, possibly forever. I have quit my job to be a writer. (It’s a lot more complicated than that, but there it is, I said it and I did it.) It’s like I’m having an out of body experience or walking around in shock. At…
Not Only Dreams-Imagination
March, 1934 was full of dreams both sleeping and waking. There was one hidden dream not before mentioned, her dream to be a writer. I discussed this with her as we read this month’s passages because her choices left me smiling, laughing, and shaking my head. Out of no where, it seemed, she was expressing…
March, 1934: Dreams
March was a month for dreaming. On March 1st she writes about having a dream where her and Zosh were trying on evening gowns and she day dreams about having the chance to know Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, “or at least see them really.” She also not only day dreams about being bridesmaids at…
Pen to Paper, 82 years ago
What is more analog than writing in a diary? She wrote every day in a journal that marked out the date for her in short passages about four lines long. For over 80 years. She still writes every day. Not only is the pen to paper analog, but her words and her time was analog….
Febuary, 1934 Excerpts
Thursday, February 1st, 1934 I stayed up until quarter of twelve reading “Love Lightly.” It led me on and on, but of course I can’t stay up forever. Sunday, February 4th, 1934 She flung discretion to the winds. That’s the way I felt today. I never enjoyed dancing and Jeanette like I did…
transcribingmemory 