Diaries
I've always admired those who've kept diaries. When I was a little girl, a diary was something that I thought was just for "little girls" or "teenaged girls" to write down gossip, their secrets, or who they liked and didn't like. In the movies it was something that the brothers, both older and younger, of these girls would try to find and read them, and then share their secrets or who they liked with the whole school. That's why when I would go to the dime store I would see diaries with rainbows and hearts on them, and they would have a lock on them - that, let's be honest, was only attached to the diary by a cardboard flap which could easily be ripped or cut. What a scam. Seriously.
More recently however, I've been aching to keep a diary of different things that just happen on a day-to-day basis. I wanted to start one when my kids were born, thinking that I would document all the cute things they did, or said, or illnesses, remedies, the weather, and things in my own life as a mother. I didn't do that. Instead I find that those documentations or memories pop up on Facebook every so often and I will reminisce, and then I'll be upset with myself for not tracking them better in my own paper-journal diaries.
Now that I have a larger hobby farm, I regret not keeping a diary of when I planted certain trees, what their official names were when they were planted, which fertilizer I used, or which compost mixture seemed to be the most productive. I regret not documenting what concoction I used to kill that massive ant hill that was eating the bark on my sugar maples, or the leaves on my strawberries.... it's just things like that which frustrate me, because I think if I had kept a diary it would be saving me a lot of time right now instead of doing my research all over again.
I save a lot of things - newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, too many recipes, photographs, drawings, sketches that were found in notebook margins, emails from family or old friends... and they are everywhere. I cannot seem to organize them. I wonder if I had a diary if I would glue or tape them into the pages, or if I would grow tired of trying to be organized. The idea of it is so attractive and enticing, and my biggest obstacle if just getting started. I'm stuck in this paradox of wanting to hold onto something archaic as a paper-hand-written diary with its photographs and scrapbook qualities, and keeping up with the times and having a digital diary. The issue is I cannot commit to digital either. I've started and stopped blogs, for example, dozens of times. I have tried journals where I've kept them in google docs. I've got lists and lists and more lists on my computer hard-drive and on google docs of things I've researched... it's just I cannot commit and I don't know why. I just have not found the system that it the most convenient for me, and I think that's why Facebook has been a popular tool for me as a diary. The problem with Facebook for me is that I like to document things (and it's very easy to do!) but I don't want everyone to read them or comment on it - it's just a weird puzzle of my own personality that I need to solve. Because then if people don't comment on it, or like it, I wonder why they don't. I could probably just set the settings to be "private to me only," but then again, do I really want Facebook to house all of my information, memories, and pictures?
Will someone please invent a diary that I can keep on my phone that will take voice transcription to text, store pictures and newspaper clippings (that won't expire), ideas, the weather..... and then maybe we can get into the old art and science of keeping a diary. One of my biggest frustrations and concerns is that as a historian, we're going to lose all these records one day if we ever wanted to understand the average non-public person. I think about all the midwives, the rectors, the teachers, housewives, and professors, who've kept diaries prior to 1990 and we use that information to study social history or the average person's experience during a tumultuous time period (think the homefront during WWII). Unless we go to Twitter and Facebook for these things in the future... which is a scary thought.
So now I will go to Target or PaperSource and peruse the diary aisle and see if I can find one that will inspire me to start keeping a record of the days ahead. I suppose it's never too late to start.
More recently however, I've been aching to keep a diary of different things that just happen on a day-to-day basis. I wanted to start one when my kids were born, thinking that I would document all the cute things they did, or said, or illnesses, remedies, the weather, and things in my own life as a mother. I didn't do that. Instead I find that those documentations or memories pop up on Facebook every so often and I will reminisce, and then I'll be upset with myself for not tracking them better in my own paper-journal diaries.
Now that I have a larger hobby farm, I regret not keeping a diary of when I planted certain trees, what their official names were when they were planted, which fertilizer I used, or which compost mixture seemed to be the most productive. I regret not documenting what concoction I used to kill that massive ant hill that was eating the bark on my sugar maples, or the leaves on my strawberries.... it's just things like that which frustrate me, because I think if I had kept a diary it would be saving me a lot of time right now instead of doing my research all over again.
I save a lot of things - newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, too many recipes, photographs, drawings, sketches that were found in notebook margins, emails from family or old friends... and they are everywhere. I cannot seem to organize them. I wonder if I had a diary if I would glue or tape them into the pages, or if I would grow tired of trying to be organized. The idea of it is so attractive and enticing, and my biggest obstacle if just getting started. I'm stuck in this paradox of wanting to hold onto something archaic as a paper-hand-written diary with its photographs and scrapbook qualities, and keeping up with the times and having a digital diary. The issue is I cannot commit to digital either. I've started and stopped blogs, for example, dozens of times. I have tried journals where I've kept them in google docs. I've got lists and lists and more lists on my computer hard-drive and on google docs of things I've researched... it's just I cannot commit and I don't know why. I just have not found the system that it the most convenient for me, and I think that's why Facebook has been a popular tool for me as a diary. The problem with Facebook for me is that I like to document things (and it's very easy to do!) but I don't want everyone to read them or comment on it - it's just a weird puzzle of my own personality that I need to solve. Because then if people don't comment on it, or like it, I wonder why they don't. I could probably just set the settings to be "private to me only," but then again, do I really want Facebook to house all of my information, memories, and pictures?
Will someone please invent a diary that I can keep on my phone that will take voice transcription to text, store pictures and newspaper clippings (that won't expire), ideas, the weather..... and then maybe we can get into the old art and science of keeping a diary. One of my biggest frustrations and concerns is that as a historian, we're going to lose all these records one day if we ever wanted to understand the average non-public person. I think about all the midwives, the rectors, the teachers, housewives, and professors, who've kept diaries prior to 1990 and we use that information to study social history or the average person's experience during a tumultuous time period (think the homefront during WWII). Unless we go to Twitter and Facebook for these things in the future... which is a scary thought.
So now I will go to Target or PaperSource and peruse the diary aisle and see if I can find one that will inspire me to start keeping a record of the days ahead. I suppose it's never too late to start.
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