I love when I get to write about the month I am currently in.  When I read something like:

Cookie and I lolled around with cooling drinks on our front porch in the bright moonlight.

I can say to myself, wow, that sounds nice.  What’s even crazier, is that I can go out on the VERY porch they would have sat on.

Yup, I got my cooling drink, I’m on the porch, and I shall continue.

Tuesday, July 2^nd, 1940

Drove around and Peaches and I camped out on the porch.  He was in a rare mood and was telling me about myself and his dreams.  More trouble.

I’m not sure what the trouble was.  More arguments?  Or more trouble with Jakey’s dreams?  We see in these pages not only Babu trying to find her place in the world, but also Jakey.

Thursday, July 4^th, 1940

Woke up at 12 noon and had breakfast.  About 2 Jakey came up and we both walked over to Szot park for the “4^th” celebration.  Saw a softball (girls’) game.  Had supper at my house and played cards on the porch.  Jakey, Edmund, Fila, Romeo Skawyra and I.  Edmund and Jakey and I tried to get to Mt. Tom for the fireworks tonight and wasted over an hour just trying to get there.  Consoled ourselves with an ice cream cone and Peaches and I listened to the local fireworks on the porch.

I love the way she phrases things.  I mean, “We consoled ourselves with ice cream?”  Really?  ❤

They only were able to listen to the fireworks from their porch?  I guess things were different then.  Maybe Chicopee did not even have their own fireworks or they were not sent off from Szot.  Shame that they could not have sat right on the back porch as I do.  The sound of them going off is almost as perfect.

Friday, July 5^th, 1940

Mr. Hitchcock is supposed to be on his vacation but he came in today and found fault with everything.  Jakey came up this evening, too and he shouldn’t have cause we could both helped at home.  Me anyway.  Of course we had fun reading on the porch and then I got a driving lesson and we argued.  But we never go home mad.  Driving one is very apt to disagree.

One thing I will find fault with is that she did not seem to be helpful at all to her parents.  Meals appeared before her and a roof stayed over her head.  Regardless, her time was spent elsewhere.  There are many arguments with her parents because of her lack of help around the house but she still remains the spoiled daughter.

Here she goes again:  “Driving one is apt to disagree?”  I’d say so!

Saturday, July 6^th, 1940

Ernie and I shopped for bathing suits this afternoon and both bought the same kind only a different colored background.  Jakey and I went to the show and saw “The Man Who Talked Too Much” and “Saps at Sea.”  Came back to Chicopee and had some beers at The Rendezvous.  We talked earnestly about Jakey’s job.  He doesn’t like it and would like something better.  Ended up at the airport and didn’t get home till 2.  Good intentions fly out the window.

Yes, they do.

Reading here about Jakey and his distaste for office work reinforces the ideas I had about him before reading this.  I think you’ll see more of what I mean as we read on.

Wednesday, July 10^th, 1940

Still hot so Jakey met me at the bus after work and we went swimming to Hampton Ponds.  Hired a canoe, got out in the middle, and jumped off.  Wandered around and there found a cozy spot to dress.  Took a long time to get dressed, had to wait till it got dark.  I drove home.  I can’t understand why he is so tender.  Maybe cause I haven’t been in the mood for so long but anyway I like him near me.

Wild days.  Wild nights.

Friday, July 12^th, 1940

Mother complained my drawers were a mess so she lectured.  After a while, I got tired of listening, so I shut the door.  That provoked her so she came in and slapped me a few times.  My godfather was here and got cocked so Edmund, Jake and I took him down street.  We rode around after and and stayed at the Parish Lawn Party for sometime.  They gave money away but we didn’t win.

See what I mean?  Arguments with her parents over cleaning.  And why is Babu’s family all of a sudden fit for an episode of Jerry Springer?

That’s alright.  We repair our image (sort of) with a quintessential trip to the lake.

Sunday, July 14^th, 1940

Woke up with a headache and a twinge in my back.  The headache left but not the twinge.  Nellie, Caz, Billy, Frank, Lorraine, Jakey and I went swimming to Congamond all afternoon.  Met Jeanette and Teddy and her gang there.  About seven came home to Jakey’s and had supper.  Then the four of us went to Hamden Ponds.  Cookie and I went canoeing and there is a good moon out.  Wonder if our “love,” if it is it, will last.

We’ve been reading about Nellie and Cas for so long.  It is wonderful to finally get to see what they look like.  I have to say that I did not expect Cas to look so old.  It’s difficult to tell Nellie’s age from that picture.  I have always known that she was Jake’s sister but I realize now that I always assumed she was his younger sister.  Maybe not but whatever the case – no judgement!

I’m instituting a new rule.  Jake must wear DARK colored speedos if he is to go swimming.

Babu and Jake are in this picture as well, of course.  She takes that as a given and doesn’t write their names.

This set of pictures gave me two surprises.  I also have not yet seen a picture of Jeanette.  Babu and she were such good friends, and then not, and then again.  What a cool image including all the swimmers in the background!

Monday, July 15^th, 1940

Started pressing my clothes and Jakey came.  He helped Dad put up a screen on the front door, then we both stayed on the porch for a while.  It was bright as day cause of the moon, but it certainly is cool for this time of year.

What a beautiful night, it seemed.  That wasn’t what my attention jumped to.  I couldn’t help but wonder if that very screen that Jake helped install wasn’t the same one there now.  It truly isn’t that hard to believe that this screen has been here for almost 80 years.

The rest of the month of July talks a lot about a heat wave, sounds very familiar, and some trips down to Aldrich Lake, which I had to look up.  It sounds like every time they went they had a ball.  With logs.

We played around with logs in the water, finally building a moving raft with them.

And the next time they went:

We played around with the logs in the water.  Jakey and I got on one and rode the log all around for almost a mile.

My favorite part about this month is that Babu remembers their anniversary.

Wednesday, July 31^st, 1940

Thank heavens it was cooler today and much easier to work.  Jakey came up about nine and we rode out and got some maps to study for our vacation trip.  We sort of decided on going down throughout Long Island and into New york and The World’s Fair.  Evidently Jakey has made up his mind that he alone is financing the trip.  That’s what he thinks.  I want to contribute, too.  Today, I think, is exactly two years since we first went out.

Here is this day two years ago:

Sunday, July 31^st, 1938

And who do you think I went out with tonight?  Jacob Stefanik.  Zosh and I were in the store and afterwards the boy with him picked us up and went back for Jakie and we went to some place in Fairview.  Jakie is quite a boy.  Asked me to go to Forest Lake Friday and Zosh with the other boy.  But I wonder what Sophie will say when I tell her?

This is all so sweet.  I can’t even.