- January 1, 1973 - I watched the orenge bole parade and traist in my coloring Book. and got mad at ↻.
- January 2, 1973 - I had a good day at school. But after it. I got mad. I didn't watch Big Vally. And thats Bad.😕
And, I was faithful to continue writing in that little blue diary from 3rd through 6th grades. I went through spurts of writing daily, then forgetting, then getting back to it, then skipping a while, but always returning.
- August 24, 1975 - Karen is at college I'm by myself
- August 24, 1976 - Mom cut my hair. I went to the dentist got a tooth pulled & my teeth cleaned. we played in the jim. Karen C. might move.
- August 25, 1976 - I was at school all day it served a terrible chillie, slaw, carckers, and pie.
For the most part, I documented events. There wasn't much outpouring of feelings and emotions. There wasn't much therapeutic examination of thoughts. I was a little girl... a kid who wanted to put pen to paper... already a writer in my heart.
Then came junior high and high school...
I filled a whole book for each of 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th grades. And there are even a few loose pages folded inside those high school books when the small page just was not enough to explain the whole... the whole... the whole...whatever it was that needed explaining.
Inside these six little books you can read what was spilling out of my teen-aged mind to fill the pages .
Yes, there's still a documenting of events, but there is way too much plenty of drama emotion and spewing a deluge of feelings and opinions. There's also evidence of teen-aged hopes, dreams, and expectations. I rarely, basically never, missed a night of writing before I went to sleep.
I wonder... could journal writing be the reason I have such clear memories from when I was young? Maybe because I relived it as I wrote it down? Just an thought...
These three hold my college memories. Hmmm... interesting that there are occasional sentences written in shorthand... ha ha ha... Too secret for regular English, I guess!
It seems, however, that something must have happened in the middle of the little green one. Suddenly I stopped writing completely. For the first time since 3rd grade there are pages and pages and pages that are completely blank.
Well... something did happen. I met a guy... ahhh... sigh... I was just so busy being crazy in love with that guy that there simply was no time to write! Nothing... not even an occasional page.
(Oh, well... I got to keep that guy.)
I guess he made up for keeping me from writing by buying the blue calico journal to get me started again.
**I know I wrote 1-22-84 on the first page, but I know it was actually 1985.
From that point forward, I haven't been a daily journal writer, but I've been a consistent journal writer.
My friend, Sandra, encouraged me to write about why finding my mother's journal was so meaningful. I thought it was going to be one post, but I think I may have enough for a whole series of posts about journals!
We'll see what's next!
Ok, now things are back to normal. As I told you I think this is a really cool post. Says you were always a story teller - so keep on telling us all your great stories!!
ReplyDeleteOn, Nelvia! You are such an encourager! Yes, I guess I can't help myself when it comes to telling a story! The more details, actions, voices, or expressions the better!
Delete:-) I read this and I smile, but I also feel very sad, maybe a tad guilty...you see I had diaries for every year from I don't know now (insert deflated emoji face) maybe grade 5? age 10? where I wrote very similar to your early journals, a record of what I did. Yep, rather dramatic in some of the teen journals, and I even had several years of young mum journals...think (hope) I kept one where I wrote in my girls' birth stories, and I know I do have "The Funny Book" christened by my girls where I'd write hilarious things they said or did... but what happened: I threw everything away, ripped it into pieces if it was rather personal or overly-dramatic (think early years of marriage and how rocky it can be well it was for me, but we persevered and grew together so deeply (insert eye roll emoji by my girls as they both know how deeply we are attached to each other, but they love it). I am glad you did keep these. My sister who is just one year younger than I kept all hers and one birthday get-together we read aloud some of our entries and the house rocked with peals of laughter at things we would write. Like you, I was a born writer; there's a need to record, not just events, but feelings, observations too right? I look forward to this series! :-) Sorry for writing such a huge comment!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was an adult before I realized that there were other people like me... people with the need to write, people who feel that the act of writing is its own reward.
DeleteI remember having the same "Betsy Clark" diary! My dear friend, you have such a gift for writing. What a treasure for Amanda & Andrew one day!
ReplyDeleteBetsy Clark was pretty popular back then. Cute!
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