Far Guy’s Grandma Tracie loved a party. She would be excited the entire week leading up to her birthday. The Sunday closest to her birthday was the day everyone gathered at the farm and then years later at her apartment.
She was born on June 13, 1895 in Iowa. Her parents were farmers. She rode horseback as a teenager..I think to visit her beau..(Grandpa). He was almost six years older than she was.
A short time ago I finished transcribing her diaries from 1912 and 1913. She was 17 – 18 years old.
Tracie and Emma
She liked ice cream and popcorn, the phonograph, dancing and rides in autos. She went to “Literary” and music lessons, she liked school plays. She done up the housework..but never says much about what she did..swept and scrubbed woodwork and washed always on Mondays and ironed on Tuesdays. She was always sewing a dress for someone. All that sewing she did..she must have been a good seamstress..( She birthed four boys..no little girls to sew for). She adored her older sister Annie and spent time with her sister Emma. She loved her brother Fred and liked to go to town with her Papa. She got disgusted with the cold weather and nearly freezes to death on several occasions..at least that is what she reports to her diary. She also reports all the comings and goings of her large family. She was child number ten of fourteen. She rarely calls her nieces and nephews by name..just Minnie ( her sister) and the kids came. She helped hay, picked apples and shucked corn. She always wrote what time of night she went to bed…and usually went to bed extra early the next night when she had been out late. She almost always went to Sunday School on Sunday morning and to a Church service in the evening…often as a group with friends..and her beau (Grandpa).
June 13 1912
Fred went fishing. Emma and I down to Aleck’s, Hazel and Leslie came home with us. My birthday the kids tried to have a surprise party on me. It rained. There were sixteen here. Had a fine time. Got some nice presents. To bed at 3.00.
June 13 1913
Ironed in the morn. Eva went home. My birthday, got a watch and a centerpiece. Went to bed at 8.
One hundred years have passed since the first entries in her diary. I have felt honored to transcribe her diaries. And sad because I should have asked her more questions. Some days I wish there were more diaries..she married Grandpa in December of 1913 and they moved to Minnesota. Far Guy’s Dad was born in 1914. By then she was probably too busy to write in a diary! ( Grandpa kept a diary about crops and the farm..I have not read it yet.)
Tracie and Emma in 1964 at their old farm place in Logan Iowa.
Grandma celebrated many birthdays during her long life. She loved a house full of family everyday, but especially on her birthday. I am not sure if you celebrate birthdays or death days in heaven..maybe everyday is a party day. I hope so..many times she told me that when you get to heaven there is a big party:)
Isn’t that great how old photographs were automatically dated? That got lost somewhere in creating new cameras. Today’s digital cameras have the date capability again, thank goodness.
Thanks for another trip back in time with Grandma Tracie.
Diaries are more precious than gold!!