My Grandmother's Diary ~ Part 5

Last month I started to scan and transcribe my grandmother's tiny 3" diary and publish those pages on my blog.  Gertrude Hitchings was fourteen years old, and kept this little diary for the year 1920.  You can read the first installment HERE.  I'll be posting sections of this diary every week for Amanuensis Monday.

March 28 - 30,  March 1 - 3

Sun. Mar. 28, 1920

Got up at 8.30 had break

fast went to church.  Ma

and Pa went down to

Nana’s after dinner. I went

for a little walk with Eunice & Rozella

Home all evening played the

Victrola Ma home 8.15 bed at 9.30

-----------------------------------------------

Monday 29

Got up at 6.45 went to

school came home at

1.15 stayed home all

the afternoon. Stayed

home all evening and

played games.  Pa over

to Russell’s went to bed 9.45

-----------------------------------

Tuesday 30

Got up at 7.00 went

to school got home at 1.15

worked awhile and then went

down A&P with Marion

stayed at home all

????  went to bed 9.30

[Note:  On March 28th Gertrude went for a walk with her friends Bertha and Rozella.  I'm not sure of the identity of Bertha.  There were lots of Berthas in the 1920 census of Beverly, Massachusetts, but there was only one Rozella.  According to the 1920 census of Beverly she lived at 431 Elliott Street  (Gertrude and her family lived at 453 Elliott Street).  Rozella was the 17 year old daughter of Joseph and Nancy Brindle.  Her father also worked at "The Shoe", as a Lather Hand in the machine shop.  The Brindles were from England, but their three daughters were all born in Massachusetts.

Russell, her newly married brother, lived in Lynn at this time.  Pa (her father, Arthur Hitchings) probably took a train from Beverly to Lynn to visit Russell on the 29th.

On the 30th Gertrude and her friend Marion went to the A&P, which was a local grocery store.]

[out of order - pages fell from the fragile diary]

Mon. Mar. 1, 1920

Got up at 6.30 had

breakfast  walked to school, got

a ride home.  Home all after

noon went skiing at 4.30 stayed

until 5.30.  After supper

went to pictures with Eunice, Rozella and

Alice got home at 11 bed at 11.15

------------------------------------------------

Tuesday 2

Got up at 6.30 walked

to school and back got home

1.45 had dinner went skiing

all afternoon.  Home all

evening, played Victrola &

studied Ma & Pa over to

Mrs. Butler’s went to bed 10.15

-------------------------------------

Wednesday 3

Got up at 6.30 walked to

school got there 8.15 got a ride

home.  Home at 1.30. Went skiing

a little while.  Marion up this PM

went down to Marion’s cousins home

at 11.00 went to bed at 11.15 PM

[NOTE:  These pages mention Gertrude skiing.  I don't know where she went skiing in Beverly, but perhaps the local kids just made do on a local hillside.  She mentions friends name Marion, Rozella and Alice, as well as her sister Eunice.  I still don't know who they are (except Rozella).]

March 4 - 9, 1920

Thurs, Mar. 4, 1920

Got up at 6.30 walked

 to school arrived at 8.  Found

a wrist watch on way home.  Got

home 1.45 stayed home all of

afternoon.  Stayed home

all evening and read

went to bed at 9.00

------------------------------

Friday 5

Got up 6.30 walked

To school. Home at 1.45.  Shoe

Struck today at 9am.  Found

The owner of the wrist watch

Home all afternoon

And evening and

Went to bed at 9.

-------------------------------------------

Saturday 6

Got up at 8.00 worked

around the house all the

morning.  Awful storm blowing

hard worse storm they fear

Stayed home all even-

ing.  ???  my bed at 9. PM

[NOTE: Gertrude had a little adventure on March 4th and 5th when she found a wrist watch, and then found the owner the next day.  She mentions a strike at "The Shoe" [Beverly's United Shoe Machinery Corporation].  There were labor problems all throughout the 1920s when the shoe industry began to decline in Massachusetts.  However, "The Shoe" stayed in Beverly until the 1970s, and many members of my family worked there until then.]

Sun. Mar. 7, 1920

Got up at 8.15 took a

bath had breakfast went slid-

Ing before dinner over Crosby’s

Great sliding, all ice.  Went slid-

Ing after dinner.  Good skating

Over there, too. Came home

At 9.30 went to bed at 9.45

-----------------------------------

Monday 8

Got up at 6.45 walked to

school got home at 1.45

Worked until 3.30 then went

sliding over Crosby’s came

home 5.45 went sliding

after supper too stayed

until 9.15 bed at 10.00

----------------------------------------

Tuesday 9

Got up at 6.45 walked

to school and back.  Home

at 2.  Ma went downtown.

I went up to Marion’s cousins and

Went sliding, went sliding

After supper went to bed 9.45

[NOTE: I'm amazed at how many times Gertrude went sledding in this diary since the beginning of January! Often several times a day!]


My blog post about "The Shoe" in Beverly, The United Shoe Machinery Corporation:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/working-at-shoe-in-beverly.html


At the Smithsonian, there is an online guide to the archives of "The Shoe", or the United Shoe Machinery Corporation:
  http://amhistory.si.edu/archives/AC0277.pdf    


Part 1 of this series, the first entries of Gertrude's diary in January 1920:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/12/amanuensis-monday-my-grandmothers-diary.html

-----------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Grandmother's Diary - Part 5", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 2, 2017,

(http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/01/my-grandmothers-diary-part-5.html: accessed [access date]).