My Grandmother's Diary ~ Part 12 May 21 - June 1, 1920

1915 Postcard of Salem Willows Bathing Beach
Salem, Massachusetts

This is the 12th installment of my grandmother's diary from 1920.  Her name was Gertrude Hitchings (1905 - 2001), and she was living on Elliott Street in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Gertrude was a 14 year old school girl when she kept this diary.  The book is a tiny 3", and every Monday I publish a new section, with transcriptions of the tiny handwriting.  You can read the first installment HERE.  I'll post more of this diary every week for Amanuensis Monday.

FRI.  MAY 21, 1920

Lots better not hardly

any pain now.  Nana

came up.  Marion came up and

mom brought my class pin.  Helen

and baby and Ellsworth up

sit up in afternoon.

SATURDAY 22

Quite a lot better today

Set up all day

rained hard all day

Russell and Ethel

Came down stayed all night

SUNDAY 23

I got up and dressed

this morning.  stayed

home all day Mr. Lowell

over. Cora & family

over.  Pa not feeling good

went to bed 9.00

NOTE: In my last blog post Gertrude was terribly ill.  The doctor thought it was a kidney infection.  I don't know how she recovered without antibiotics, but fortunately she did! She appears to have missed a lot of school, and her mother was able to get her class pin.  I wonder what that pin looked like!  Mr. Lowell was the boarder, who appears to only stay at the house occasionally.  Helen is Gertrude's sister, married to Ellsworth Robson.  Russell is her brother, who married Ethel a few months earlier. 

MON. MAY 24, 1920

Got up at 7.45

stayed home all morning

went to walk a little way

After dinner went out

a little while on my bike

Gladys over after supper

Went to bed at 9.45

TUESDAY 25

Got up at 7.30 Went

up to the store and stayed

home rest of the morning

stayed around home all after-

noon at 3.30 Eunice and I

took a ride up Ethel’s came

home at 6 home all evening bed 9.45

WEDNESDAY 26

Got up at 6.45 had

breakfast Went to school

home at 1.15.  Marion and I

went up to the wood got some flow-

ers.  Stayed around the

house all afternoon  bed at 9.30

NOTE:  Gertrude underlined that she was back in school, so she must have been happy to have recovered enough to go back to classes.  She mentions lots of friends here (Gladys and Ethel, and her cousin Marion Hoogerzeil, and her sister Eunice.  

                        warm

THURS. MAY 27, 1920

Got up at 6.45 went

to school at 7.45 home

at 1.14. Stayed home all

afternoon rode my bike after

supper  Ethel and I went for a

little ride.  Mr. Lowell

over.  Went to bed at 10.00

FRIDAY 28

                   hot

Got up at 6.45 went to

school had an assembly home

at 1.15.  Home all afternoon

Helen had baby up.  Ellsworth

to supper.  Went out after

supper stayed around the house

walked down with Helen bed at 10

SATURDAY 29

Got up at 7.30 worked

around the house all the

morning and all afternoon

Bob came down.  Mr. Lowell over to

Dinner.  After supper went down Ellen

Mrs Ethel & Wilkie down.  Bed at 10.30

NOTE:   Things appear to be back to normal. Gertrude is back at school.  Relatives and friends are visiting - including the mysterious "Bob" whose name she usually underlines.  Maybe she was sweet on Bob?

SUN. MAY 30, 1920

Got up at 8.45 stayed

around home all morn

ing.  Mr. Lowell stayed all night

After dinner Eunice and Rozella

?? & I went to ride up to

Idlewood lake come home

At 6 stayed home all evening bed 9.30

MONDAY 31

Got up at 7.15 went to ride with Bob

after breakfast Eunice and I

went down to Helen’s.  Pa & Ma

went to Russell’s after dinner. Eunice

Rozella Alice Elizabeth & I went to

ride to Salem Willows.  After supper

M. L. ?? & I played cards bed 10.30

TUESDAY, JUNE 1

Got up at 6.30 went to

school home 1.15 stayed home

all afternoon awful hot stayed

around the house all

the evening and

went to bed at 10.15

NOTE:  Idlewood Park was described in a previous blog post. It was a park at a lake in Wenham now known as Pleasant Pond.

Salem Willows opened as a public park in 1858, and the amusement park there began in 1877.  There is also a waterfront pier, a beach, picnic areas and "restaurant row".  Many of the amusement rides and the ballroom are no longer there.  There is still a merry-go-round, Hobb's Popcorn (since the 1880s), and Lowe's chop suey sandwiches since the 1920s.  It was a busier place in the 1920s than today, but Gertrude would recognize Salem Willows today.

I've blogged about Salem Willows several times.  You can see Beverly across the water from this park, and Gertrude's grandmother ("Nana" mentioned in the diary) lived on Bartlett Street which is almost visible from Salem Willows.  Her grandfather, Peter Hoogerzeil, once invented an amusement park ride in 1907, but I don't think it was ever built at Salem Willows.  You can see this patent for the amusement park ride at this link:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/09/an-amusement-park-ride-patent-by-my.html

Another blog post about Salem Willows:

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Chop Suey Sandwiches ~ Unique New England Foods", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 22, 2015
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/10/chop-suey-sandwiches-unique-new-england.html

An old Salem Willows postcard, circa 1920

The Merry-Go-Round at Salem Willows, 2015 

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Published under a Creative Commons License

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Grandmother's Diary ~ Part 12 May 21 - June 1, 1920", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 27, 2017, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/02/my-grandmothers-diary-part-12-may-21.html: accessed [access date]).