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…
Author: transcribingmemory
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…
Understanding – The “Serenity Prayer” is not just for addicts.
She comes out from the bathroom after her nap and says: “Feels like I’m getting…” There is this impossibly long pause. My mind fills with sentence completers that I have trained my mouth not to say: Out of breath? Sick? Closer to death? She has said each one of those to us before. She picks…
Febuary, 1934
She stays up late reading “Love Lightly.” She squirms under the stern gaze of Mr. Fitzgerald, (I get the feeling he is a principal.) She is not happy about getting a C in History and like most teens blames it on her teacher. She goes to see “Moulin Rouge” with Franchot Tone (not Ewan McGregor)…
6,000 Birthdays
When Babu read the passage about FDR’s birthday being celebrated with 6,000 parties I wondered out loud: “Why?” She asked about what his reaction to that was in her journal and she talked about the fact that a record of his reaction must actually exist. She was right. Ok, Babu. I get the point. I…
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