Selected entries from my diary
Not a current one, mind, but 1986, which covers the end of third grade and the beginning of fourth. I was ten. Grammar, spelling, etc. from the original are preserved.
March 18: "I think Smoky is dying. He just floats around on the top of his bowl. He isn't dead yet, though, because when I tap the sides of his bowl he goes away and swims for a minute."
April 2: "Susan, my best friend FOREVER, told me a dreadful secret a few weeks ago. It was that she was so sick, she was DELERIOUS. She mumbled about nonsense, and walked around without really knowing it. I am the only one who knows about it. So SHHH!"
April 17: "I think Andrew Papachristos likes me. He just keeps on acting strange and showing off. I don't like him too much, though. AP loves CP and NOT vice versa!"
May 3: "I went to Patty's. We skateboarded, played baseball, basket ball, climed trees, went for a walk, made brownies, and played Uno. 8 games of Uno. The first one and the second one were very long. We didn't finish them. Then I won three games in a row and Patty won three games in a row."
June 4: "Today was Awards Assembly. Naturally, I got first honors, a reading award, an appreciation award, and an athletic award."
August 24: "I am a poet. If stars were blue, if the grass were high, if the moon was purple, what would be the color of the sky?"
August 26: "I bought two ivory elephants, two real mother-of-pearls, two real amethysts, three cullet (highly polished glass, not real) rubies and three cullet sapphires. Mrs. Stich picked out a rock and had a man cut it open. It was a geode. Bart got half and I got half. It was worth about 40 or Fifty dollars because it was real amythest inside. It was real good luck because Mrs. Stich has tons of geodes, and Bart has one besides half of the one I got and they're all crystal or smoky topaz, which is not half as expensive!"
November 11: "Going to the Botanical Gardens was quite fun. I bought a pen with rocks inside and a fancy tin box of French candy (strawberry flavor). It cost one dollar and twenty-five cents. The pen cost seventy-five cents. All together they cost two dollars and four cents (allow for tax, you know)."
March 18: "I think Smoky is dying. He just floats around on the top of his bowl. He isn't dead yet, though, because when I tap the sides of his bowl he goes away and swims for a minute."
April 2: "Susan, my best friend FOREVER, told me a dreadful secret a few weeks ago. It was that she was so sick, she was DELERIOUS. She mumbled about nonsense, and walked around without really knowing it. I am the only one who knows about it. So SHHH!"
April 17: "I think Andrew Papachristos likes me. He just keeps on acting strange and showing off. I don't like him too much, though. AP loves CP and NOT vice versa!"
May 3: "I went to Patty's. We skateboarded, played baseball, basket ball, climed trees, went for a walk, made brownies, and played Uno. 8 games of Uno. The first one and the second one were very long. We didn't finish them. Then I won three games in a row and Patty won three games in a row."
June 4: "Today was Awards Assembly. Naturally, I got first honors, a reading award, an appreciation award, and an athletic award."
August 24: "I am a poet. If stars were blue, if the grass were high, if the moon was purple, what would be the color of the sky?"
August 26: "I bought two ivory elephants, two real mother-of-pearls, two real amethysts, three cullet (highly polished glass, not real) rubies and three cullet sapphires. Mrs. Stich picked out a rock and had a man cut it open. It was a geode. Bart got half and I got half. It was worth about 40 or Fifty dollars because it was real amythest inside. It was real good luck because Mrs. Stich has tons of geodes, and Bart has one besides half of the one I got and they're all crystal or smoky topaz, which is not half as expensive!"
November 11: "Going to the Botanical Gardens was quite fun. I bought a pen with rocks inside and a fancy tin box of French candy (strawberry flavor). It cost one dollar and twenty-five cents. The pen cost seventy-five cents. All together they cost two dollars and four cents (allow for tax, you know)."