As I sorted through closets, dressers, desks and boxes in my mom’s house after she died, I discovered a piece of gray cardboard stuffed in a dresser drawer in the guest room.  The cardboard stirred memories:  it was the kind that was the backing to the tablets handed out in school every six weeks for us to use for in our school work.  Why would Mom save the backing from a school tablet?  Nothing appeared to be on the cardboard.  Then, as I turned it over, I noticed writing . . . when I tilted the cardboard just right into the light, I saw writing.  In fact, pencil writing covered both sides. Single line entries.  Each entry dated. I read a few and realized: This was a diary of Mom and Dad’s courtship!

Mom had written one line summaries of each of their dates from their first date until the night Dad proposed.  They met in 1936 and married January 12, 1938.  I wondered why Mom was so sparse in her writing.  Why didn’t she elaborate on descriptions of some of their dates?  Then I remembered:  the nation was still emerging from the Depression. Mom came from a farming family with 6 kids.  There probably was not a whole lot of paper available for frivolous activities like keeping a diary. Probably she didn’t want her brothers to know either as I’m sure they would have teased her.  But Mom did the best she could and fifty-eight years later I found her simple, one line, diary entries on what at first appeared to be blank cardboard.  I didn’t find any other diaries of any description as I cleaned and sorted and tossed and gave away items in preparation to sell the house.

I still have that cardboard diary.  I’ve filed it with other family documents of interest – old deeds, death notices, report cards from my grandparents, parents, siblings and even some of my own.  I’m glad I stumbled upon the simple courtship diary.  Although the comments were short and to the point, each spoke volumes about the growing attraction and budding love between Honey and Emery who would ultimately marry, have 3 kids and celebrate 51 years of marriage at the time of Dad’s death.

What papers do you have in boxes or drawers somewhere that tell a family story?

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