Excerpt #5

Jenete’s going to the prom.  Bobby Sullivan asked her.  She got a gown from Peggy Zimba just like mine.  Her aunt Jenny is letting her wear her coat and her aunt Lucy gave her a pair of shoes.  She is certainly one lucky girl.  I wish I could go.

The First Week of Feburary 1935

This is an exciting week! Jenete is going to prom and there is much talk about dresses – even something an acquaintance is wearing that Babu calls “transparent velvet.”  This isn’t the days of Miley Cyrus so I doubt she really meant transparent.  Babu helps her friend get her eye brows done and her nails,…

Excerpt #4

Wednesday, January 30, 1935 I thought this would turn into another wallflower dance. It was almost. I had two numbers with Pansy and me – – – with some unknown boy. Oh but I liked to dance with him. I hope from now on someone will ask us to dance. We had lovely corsages. A…

Reoccuring Threads

Every time I bring a parcel of pages down to Babu we end up on the same trails.  We start in one place, the topic of whatever entries I bring down to her, then we move on and end up in the same place.  I’ve written before about how, with the smallest occurrence, her life…

The Fourth Week of 1935

Now that the holidays are over I am back to transcribing and reflecting week by week.  At the end of the month of January, 1935:   She saw “Great Expectations” and mentioned having read the Dickens novel in a magazine.  She really loved to read but I never she how she has the time in…

I showed Babu her entries from three years of New Year’s Eves and Days and there were no revelations, only sweetness.  She remembered Harlan’s name but not him, and had no big reaction to the kiss with him.  Ha!  However, when she remembers you, you’re one lucky duck.  She told me four times how beautiful…

New Years Over the Years

For the first time in this process I got my mind really blown, nostalgically.  These “holiday specials” I thought up at random really have a surprising effect.  I have read and transcribed three years of New Year’s Eves and Days.  I don’t know why this didn’t happen over the Christmas and Wigilia entries, but I…

The Sarlacc Pit of Time

Technically, you could make it out of a Sarlacc pit alive.  It does happen but it’s very unlikely. (I think the interwebs is crediting this image with Dave Dorman.) The day after Christmas I finally bring down the Wigilia and Christmas entries for Babu to read.  We read and talk about 6 short passages for…

Everyone Loves a Christmas Special 1935, 36, 37

Wednesday, December 25, 1935 A happy Christmas day.  Only Jaime disappointed me.  He sent me a sweetheart card (I hate that) and a 5lb box of candy.  Zosh and I saw “The Crusades.”  She had supper up the house.  Our story teller “Mike” was there, too.  Then I played and we sang Christmas carols. (Oh…

All I want for Wigilia…

…is to find Babu’s 1934 diary – and any others!  Call me greedy.  I want to never run out of this work.  Aaaannnddd who doesn’t love a holiday special?  Here are three years of Wigilia entries: Tuesday December 24, 1935 Had X-mas supper with the Olbrychs at our house.  Got no presents but don’t mind…

Out of character?

Babu read the passage about Mucha’s over and over as if she were trying to decode something.  “I wasn’t that kind of person!”  She said.  I gave a good natured laugh.  “What do you think was going on there?”  I ask her and she doesn’t know.  “Maybe it was an accident,”  I say to soothe…

Excerpt #3

Tuesday, January 15, 1935 I found out today that Adele Janik is wearing WBZ’s class pin and Jenete told me he pushed all the boys away that he was talking to and walked Janet Overbaugh. Can’t he choose between the two. Father B said “Hello Emily” to me at Falcons today. He likes Jenete.