My Grandmother’s Diary ~ Part 27 November 23 – December 31, 1920

1975  Gertrude (in the blue dress) celebrating
her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband, Stanley Allen,
and all seven children

This is the 27^th and the last blog post with transcriptions of my grandmother's 1920 diary from Beverly, Massachusetts.  For 27 Mondays in a row I posted a small section of this little diary.  My grandmother's name was Gertrude Hitchings (1905 - 2001) and she lived on Elliott Street in 1920.  Her diary is a tiny 3" book with minuscule handwriting.  It has taken me a long time to transcribe, and the book is very fragile.  It has missing and torn pages, and the end of the book is gone.  This is the end of this project with these December 1920 pages.  You can read the first installment HERE.

TUES. NOV 23, 1920

Up at 6.45 rained hard

all day didn’t go

to school.  Home all after

noon at 4 went down to Helens

took car of Clemont.  Ellsworth

brought us home in the auto

went to bed at 11.30

WEDNESDAY 24

Up at 6.45 went to school

had short periods home

at 12.15  home all afternoon

Mr. Lowell over.  After supper

Played cards with Mr. L.

Pa & Eunice.  Bed at 10.25

THURSDAY 25

Up at 8 stayed around

the house all day it

snows hard. Russell, Ethel

and Mr. Lowell over all day

same all evening bed at 10.

NOTE:  On Tuesday Gertrude watched her baby nephew, Clemont, son of her eldest sister Helen, who had just turned 1 year old.  Her brother-in-law, Ellsworth, brought her home.  Wednesday was a short day at school because Thursday was Thanksgiving.  Gertrude didn’t mention the holiday at all, but she said it snowed hard, and her brother Russell was there all day with his new wife, Ethel, and the boarder Mr. Lowell.

FRI. NOV 26, 1920

Up at 7.45 got an awful

cold stayed home all the

morning.  After dinner

took a walk up the store.

Stayed at home all the

evening and read

Went to bed at 7.45

SATURDAY 27

Up at 7.45 stayed around

the house all the morn

ing and all the afternoon

Mr. Lowell over.  After supper

we went over to Mrs.

Butler’s and played cards

Went to bed at 11.

SUNDAY 28

Up at 8.45 stayed home

all morning  Helen, Ellsworth

and Baby up all day. After

dinner went to walk with Ida

???[missing]  Ma went to ??

?????[missing] Bed at 9.00

NOTE:   Gertrude is home sick with a cold on Friday, but on Saturday she went to Mrs. Butler’s house, the neighbor, and played cards.  On Sunday her sister Helen, brother-in-law Ellsworth and their baby, Clemont, were up to visit.  She went for a walk with her friend Ida.

MON. NOV. 29, 1920

Up at 6.45 school all the

morning home at 1.15

After dinner Eunice and

I walked up to Ethel’s

and back stayed home

all evening studying

Went to bed at ??? [missing]

TUESDAY 30

Up at 6.45 ???

??? had a ??? home

at 1.15 stayed at home

all the afternoon and

all evening ??

Went to bed at 10.30

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1

Up at 6.45 went to school all

Morning home at 1.15

Stayed at home all after

Noon rained all day. ??

All evening and tatt [missing]

???[missing]

NOTE:     Most of the text in this section is missing.  Gertrude was at school, and went to visit her sister-in-law Ethel with her sister Eunice.  The last thing I can read looks like she was tatting again.  She loved to knit and tat, and mentioned it many times through out this little diary.  It’s difficult to read these last pages.   All the pages from December 2^nd through December 19^th are missing.  It would have been fun to read about Christmas 1920!

MON. DEC. 20, 1920

Up at 6.45 went to

school all morning home at

1.15.  After dinner went

skating up to “blackbird”

great skating.  Went skating

after supper up there

Went to bed at 10.30

TUESDAY 21

Up at 6.45 went to school

had a ?? class ?? home at

1.15 went skating all afternoon

and all evening up to

blackbird  home at

10.  Went to bed at 10.15

WEDNESDAY 22

Up at 6.45 went to school

all morning.  After dinner

Eunice & I went to Salem

shopping.  After supper

went skating home at 9.45

[went] to bed at 10.

NOTE:  I’m not sure about the reference to “skating up to “blackbird””   There was a pen business named Blackbird in the Beverly City Directory (F. H. Blackbird)    It appears it must have been a very cold December if they were ice skating already!    

WED. DEC 29, 2910

Up at 8.15 stayed home all

the morning.  After dinner

went sledding over to the links

also went skiing over the meadow

after supper went sledding

over to ??? until

9.20 Went to bed at 10.

THURSDAY 30

Up at 8.30 stayed home [all]

the morning. After dinner

Sybil & Hilda come up went

sledding over the meadow but

it was not good.  Went sledding

after supper over to the golf

links.  Went to bed at 10.

[Update:  Thanks to reader Laurie Stevens from Beverly for helping with the transcriptions of this page!]

FRIDAY 31

Up at 7.45 stayed home all

morning and worked.  Stayed

around the house all afternoon

Ida came over.  After supper [missing]

To the Logan’s New Year’s Party

??? [missing]

NOTE:  More skating, sledding and skiing.  It must have been an early winter in Beverly.  Gertrude mentions sledding on the golf links.  They lived on Elliott Street, near the United States Shoe Corporation golf course, which is now the Beverly municipal golf course.  There was a party for New Year’s Eve.

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This is the end of Gertrude’s diary, but not the end of the story.  Three years later, in 1923, the Hitchings family moved from Beverly to nearby Hamilton, Massachusetts.  Gertrude never finished her last year of high school because of this move.  However, on Valentine's Day 1925 she had married the boy next door, my grandfather Stanley Elmer Allen (1904 – 1982).   They had five boys and two girls who all grew up in Hamilton on Roosevelt Avenue.

Stanley worked at several estates in the area, and then spent 40 years working as a glazier for the US Shoe Corporation in Beverly, the same place Gertrude's father had worked as a draftsman when she lived in Beverly.  Both of my grandfathers and two great grandfathers worked at "The Shoe".  My other grandmother, Bertha Wilkinson,  worked there as a "Rosie the Riveter" during World War II, but my Nana, Gertrude, stayed home to watch her seven children.  My father worked at "The Shoe" as a security guard to help pay for college.  Many other uncles and cousins worked at "The Shoe". 

Gertrude died on 3 November 2001, she was 96 years old and out lived her husband by nineteen years.  She had seven children, twenty nine grandchildren and thirty five great grandchildren who all called her "Nana".  Up until she was in her eighties she still knitted mittens and other items for everyone in the family each Christmas.  

You can read my "Surname Saturday" post for the HITCHINS lineage here:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/10/surname-saturday-hitchings-of-lynn.html

You can read my "Surname Saturday" post for the ALLEN family here:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/09/surname-saturday-allen-of-manchester.html  

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “My Grandmother’s Diary ~ Part 25, Part 27 November 23 – December 31, 1920”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 29, 2017, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/06/my-grandmothers-diary-part-27-november.html: accessed [access date]).