My Grandmother’s Diary ~ Part 18, August 1 – 12, 1920

Gertrude Hitchings
1920s

This is the 18^th installment of my grandmother’s diary from 1920.  Her name was Gertrude Hitchings (1905 – 2001) and she lived on Elliott Street in Beverly, Massachusetts. This tiny 3” diary with its minuscule handwriting is being transcribed in small sections and posted at my blog every Monday.  You can read the first installment HERE. 

My birthday 15 yrs old.

SUN. AUG. 1, 1920

Got up at 9.  Stayed home

all morning went over Butlers

a little while.  Ma & Pa up to

Russells.  After dinner Brick

and I went to Idlewood.  After

lunch Bob, Brick and Ella up.

Went to bed at 10.30

MONDAY 2

Got up at 8.00 Went

Over Butlers stayed until

2.  Home all the afternoon

After supper went up to

Fred’s with Brick and got

the pictures. Came home

At 9.30 went to bed at 10.15

TUESDAY 3

Got up at 7.30 Went over

Mrs. Butlers until 10.  Helen,

Ells, baby, Ethel & Rus over.  After

dinner went down playground.

After supper went to ride. Bed

At 10.00

NOTE:  My grandmother, Gertrude Matilda Hitchings, was born 1 August 1905 in Beverly, Massachusetts to her parents, Arthur Treadwell Hitchings and Florence Etta Hoogerzeil.  She was the sixth of their eight children.    Gertrude turned 15 years old the day she wrote this diary entry.  She mentions her friends Brick, Bob, Ella and Fred, and her siblings Helen and Russell, with his wife, Ethel.  Coincidentally, my first grandchild was born on August 1st, too! 

WED. AUG. 4, 1920

Got up at 7.30 Worked

Over Butlers until 10.30

Stayed home the rest of the morn

Ing.  After dinner went to Danvers

Played tennis with Russell

Came home at 6.  Home all

Evening bed at 10.

THURSDAY 5

Got up at 7.30 Went

over Mrs. Butler’s went down

town at 8.45.  After dinner

went up Danvers played tennis

with Brick.  Went to ride

after supper.  Mr. Lowell over

Went to bed at 10.30

FRIDAY 6

Got up at 7.30 Worked

most of the morning over

Butlers.  Home all afternoon

After supper went to ride

up Danvers.  Bed at 10.15

 

NOTE:  Gertrude mentions working at Mrs. Butler’s again (housework?) and more tennis with her brother Russell and her friend Brick.  Mr. Lowell, the occasional border, is back again.

SAT.  AUG.  7, 1920

Got up at 7:30.  Went over to

Mrs. Butlers until 10.15.  Stayed

home all morning.  Bea came

down at 2.45 after supper we

went down to the beach & down the

merry-go-rounds came home at 8.45

Went to bed at 10.45

SUNDAY 8

Got up at 9.15 stayed at

home all morning.  After dinner

went down to the beach with Bea.

Ethel & Russell came back, went up

to Russell’s had lunch

went to bed at 10.30.

MONDAY 9

Got up at 7.30 went

down the store.  After dinner

rode over to North Beverly

after supper went to ride

with Bea & Brick up Danvers.

Home at bed at 10.

NOTE:  On the 7^th Gertrude mentions going, with her friend Bea, to the beach and the merry-go-round, and the only beach I know of that would have a merry-go-round is at Salem Willows, and that carousel is still there.  Perhaps there was another beach with a merry-go-round in 1920?

TUES. AUG. 10, 1920

Got up at 5.15 went blue-

berrying with Bea, Pa & Brick.

Stayed home all afternoon.

after supper Bea, Brick,

Bob & I played tennis then

went to ride came home at

9.15. Went to bed at 10.00

WEDNESDAY 11

Got up at 8.15. Went

down Marion’s at 11 came

home went down the store

stayed home all afternoon

after supper went to the

pictures with Eunice at home

at 10.15  bed at 10.30

THURSDAY 12

Not feeling good today

Got up at 10.30 layed

down all morning and

afternoon and evening

went to bed at 8.35. 

NOTE:  More tennis and berrying.  It is interesting to note that Gertrude woke up at all different times during her summer vacation, from 5:45am to as late as 9:30am.  Sundays seemed to be the day she slept in the latest.  She mentions her friends Bea, Bob, and Brick, her cousin Marion, and her sister Eunice.  In the last entry, Gertrude is sick again.  In the next few days Gertrude and her siblings Mildred, Gordon and Eunice all become sick, too.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “My Grandmother’s Diary ~ Part 18, August 1 – 12, 1920”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 10, 2017 ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-grandmothers-diary-part-18-august-1.html: accessed [access date]).