Have you ever kept a diary ?
When you’re writing it, it feels like a mundane record of your day-to-day life. This may be true, but in the years to come, it’ll provide a fascinating record of contemporary life.
One Redditor found an old diary kept by his great-grandfather that’s more than 80 years old.
The diary is from 1938.
Here’s the cover of the diary, which was originally locked. The art deco font places it firmly in the late ’30s. Apart from some discoloration and random stains, it looks like the paper itself has held up pretty well.
Let’s start on page one.
The diary starts, as many things do, on the new year: January 1st, 1938. OP didn’t have much insight on what’s going on with this page, particularly the ‘prosperous au element’ inscription.
It translates into ‘prosperous to the element’ in French, which doesn’t really clear things up.
What happened to Harvey?
This page, from a couple of days after the new year, makes reference to a friend named ‘Harvey’, along with some photos being developed. It would be interesting to know what happened to Harvey or to those photos.
We have an (attempted) transcription.
A kind Redditor transcribed this page. Let’s check it out:
“man who talked to himself.”
“Bank robbers ?? $4,000,000.”
Tuesday. Mother is still sick. School today. I took my P.O.D. Test and a chemistry test. I got out early. In the evening I went to Milton’s house. I came home at 10:30.
Wed. Dad awoke me at 7 and told me to fix my chains because of fresh fallen snow. I got up at 7:20. Got stuck with about 18 pies. Kids were taking exams at school. Went to Len and Mch(?). Went to mission in afternoon to get Marion for trip to steel plant. Didn’t go because ??? didn’t have his license plates. Marion and I played piano and guitar and trumpet and sang all afternoon in church. Took ride with her. ???. Fixed chains in eve. Dad helped Went to Thompsons in eve. list to rad (listened to radio?). Heard stories. Talked to Joe and Rose. Ret at 12:00
No school today!
I kind of assumed that people used to have better penmanship than they do today, but this diary shows that this isn’t necessarily true. About the only thing of substance here is that the guy didn’t have school on January 19th.
The great-grandfather appears to have had a job selling pies, with four leftover on this day.
A busy day.
An interesting takeaway from this page is that stuffed peppers were apparently a thing way back in 1938. I always assumed that people in 1938 ate, like, organ meat or something. I guess you learn something new every day.
From what I can tell, he also cleaned the cars and read to his mom and dad on this day, which is sweet.
Telegraphs were a big thing back then.
I think, even in the 21st Century, it’s still possible to send and receive a telegraph. But it’s largely a relic of a bygone era. Back in the 1930s, though, it was one of the main modes of long-distance communication between people.
Here’s where things get interesting.
There’s more mundane stuff here, detailing day-to-day life. He sold 58 pies, wrote five letters in the evening, and did a puzzle while listening to the radio.
But towards the bottom of the page, things get weird. OP has no idea what those symbols, which look almost like hieroglyphics, could possibly mean. Maybe it’s just a writing exercise.
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More weird symbols.
OP speculates that the symbols are just random doodles borne from boredom (life was probably a bit boring in 1938), or maybe an exercise to improve penmanship. Judging from the quality of his handwriting, he could probably use the help.
Another possibility is that he had begun to learn shorthand and was using his diary to practice.
He went to see an evangelist.
In 1938, television was essentially unheard of, and many people didn’t even have radios. Traveling to see an evangelist would have been one way to stay in touch with the world.
I looked up the evangelist, Betty Wheeley, and couldn’t find any historical record. His review of her was that she was “all right.”
Playing some tic-tac-toe.
OP ends the slideshow with this page from towards the end of the year. I wonder who was involved in these games of tic-tac-toe.
Make sure to check out the original post , because it’s downright enthralling.
