Those of you who read my Facebook posts have noticed that since the death of my friend and milestone high school crush, David Rose (Harry David Rose III) in June—June 24 to be exact, the same day we learned the results of the Brexit vote (I think I'll never forget that date) I have been going through my old journals, letters and notes. It started with my tenth grade journal, the year I knew David best, when we were in Staples Players together, our magical, powerful high school drama program run by Al Pia, a man who believed in us.
I've now moved beyond tenth grade (our first year of high school) to read about the rest of high school, the college years (including summers at the Westport Country Playhouse and two semesters in Spain where I wrote mostly in Spanish). Today I found my earliest diaries and thought I would share the entries with you. Punctuation and capitalization is preserved in all entries. The first entry is from age 7:
"Dear Diary, I stayed in my PJs all day."
[This was clearly an event worth noting].
Underneath that I listed all my teachers (including first names) from nursery school through 5th grade. I clearly added the later ones when I got older; the writing is much neater and I could not have known who I would have unless I was clairvoyant. Note: I wrote my Kindergarten teacher's name "Mrs. fooler," instead of "Fuller." This served her right considering that when I told her I wanted to be a doctor she told me I had to be a nurse.
Another entry from age 8:
"Dear Diary, Roland My brother Got locked in the bathroom Joe Palmaro Got him out before that Mother was Mad.
"Daddy was so mean he would not let me watch all of flipper."
A couple of entries from age 10:
"I went to Laura Gould's party. At night Laurie Deilius was making phony phone calls. Then I stole Laura's diary. Laurie and I were reading it in the bathroom. Laura (the tattletail) of course told. And Mrs. Gould blamed Ann Young.
"I fell asleep early. Laura tramped off to sleep in her own bed.
"Shorties: We made our own dinner + we watched LOVE american style."
[Needless to say I am not proud of this diary-stealing behavior however I think the fact that I was not blamed for it shows how atypical it was of me!]
And an entry from age 10:
" We went to all these restaurants before we found one that was opened. We decided on The Clam Box.
"We came back and I played with Claudia and Howard. Howard was chasing me + being vulgar.
"A dog (Sam) was trying to mate with him. His mother explained why the dog shouldn't do that.
"Shorties: He was throwing stones at the stones and me. We took a walk. We are sopposed to have Matza bri for Dinner. It is Easter Sunday."
[Well, at least I knew enough to capitalize Easter Sunday! I wonder what vulgar things Howard was doing? He was 4 years younger than me and 3 years younger than Claudia].
I hope to write posts with installments from later diaries and journals. Please comment if you like these.