Babu read out loud: “Miss Short embarrassed me. She called me a tomboy for sitting on the arm of a chair.” She looked up at me with eyebrows scrunched and lips pouted. A pointed look. It said: “See what I mean?” Maybe a modern teen would just say “da fuck??” I’m sending this out as…
Tag: journal
The First Week of April, 1935
April fool’s day pranks – Babu fell for one but didn’t enact her own. Her teacher embarrasses her again – but it’s not an April Fool’s joke, it’s her M.O. Babu laments her lack of popularity and her abundance of zits. Fooey ! She is beautiful, kind, interesting, and smart. People clearly love her and…
Excerpts from March
In my last post I didn’t share all the adorable Babu quotes for March because there were some entire passages that I wanted to share. Saturday, March 16, 1935 I loved today. I was mostly sun shining and oh so warm. All the kids were out playing. Sophie was in bed because she got an…
What does this silence speak?
What did my silence from this blog for so long indicate? And what does her silent reading now show? I’m back at it so I bring all of March 1935’s journals down to Babu. She begins reading and, like every single other time, she tells me: “I’ve never seen Jenete written that way.” Then she…
The Second, Third, and Fourth Week of March
Babu celebrates her 17th birthday! Her mother gives her a beautiful compact and her friend gives her a slip – with lace! Babu is up to more shenanigans. The class, and Babu, get answers from another girl for the English test and then she and Sophie use the excuse of the crowd to skip church,…
What I’ve learned so far…
I’ve learned… …that this is important. And it’s important to do now. The blog keeps me accountable but really it’s about the time spent with her sharing the memories and people and retelling her story, the one she wrote, back to her. ….that even though that sounds like I’m doing her a favor, she has…
“Just don’t think about it and do it.”
My life can’t just be simple: Go to work, come home, help to take care of my grandmother, spend time with husband, cook and clean and take care of myself. For many reasons and due to many X factors, it isn’t like that at all, the first three are the only ones that happen with…
Fourth Week of February and First Week of March 1935
She started an autograph book and still seems to be swooning a little over having gotten WBZ’s autograph. She talks with a classmate, Evelyn, about going away to school. She hopes she wont have to go alone. Someone Johnny takes care of got Scarlet fever and he is not allowed back at school and Babu’s…
Reading her journals – The experience so far.
I was surprised initially reading her journals that they were so clinical. Not only were they almost simply a clean record of the day, but they lacked detail. What does this club you attended do? What was your theme about? Why weren’t you going to prom? I expected them to be secretive and was surprised…
Excerpt #6
Jenete has 2 sets of initials in her book. Her’s and Robert Sullivan’s and mine and Judson Ferguson’s. I think he’s so magnetic. He’s got a forehead like Franchot Tone. I was ironing some cuffs and collars and I haven’t done my brief on Burke. Poor me. :)!!!
Second and Third Week of Feburary 1935
She attended a Quill and Masque meeting and claimed she didn’t fit in with this group of people. The club sounds interesting and I plan on asking her what this club did. Spoiler alert since I have transcribed ahead of this month, she continues to go to it. She got a valentine from Caveman, was…
Reading entertainingly and with wonder
I remember back to that almost snow day on Jan 24th, 1935. According to Babu, there were only about six students in each class and Ms. Short had them read from themes. Babu wrote: In Miss Short’s room we had to read from themes. I seem to have the habit of reading what I don’t see….
transcribingmemory 