For years I’ve envied families who had diarists in their past, allowing them to tune into their thoughts — thoughts that are not captured in pictures. Thanks to my grandson’s school genealogy project I discovered a wealth of diaries in my own family. Marcel chose to explore why relatives first came to California in 1910. The mountains of photographs taken by JC Gordon, the photographer, couldn’t answer that question, but I did come upon a box of his personal diaries written as a young man. It was wonderful to see how honestly he portrayed his life. He wasn’t shy about describing his concern that his romantic time with Mina might be less sweet after they married, or that he was making a terrible mistake as they got on the train for California. Was he just throwing away his hard-earned money? ‘Well, we’ll see’.

Closer to home, Allegra kept a diary as well. Recently she reread parts and enjoyed seeing how her 5’th grade self wrote comments on her 4’th grade writings.

My cousin Lois has a very long shelf of her own diaries. She has taught many groups of women how to create personal writing. Now she sets up community events where older people are paired with younger to document and share their lives in a personal and community setting.

I confess I can’t get myself to write more than sporadically. Now I find I’m writing paragraphs in my mind, so I might as well write them out. I’m enjoying putting thoughts together in a loosely connected web of memories.

2/13/14