My pre-diary, 1957.
I've kept a full-fledged diary since 1958. In January of 1957, however, I had begun making daily entries in my little Memories of My Altar Boy Days. The space provided was barely a half inch per day. I noted on Sunday, February 3rd, 50 years ago today, for example, that I went to mass, communion, stayed home, watched television and studied. I probably got my throat blessed that day too since it was St. Blaise.
I was fifteen then and a sophomore at La Salle Academy, Providence. I did a a lot of churchgoing then, serving mass often. On February 2, 5, and 14, I noted that I went to St. Francis Chapel in downtown Providence. That is a code phrase for confessing to a priest that I had masturbated...and certainly not just that day. I wouldn't tell my parish priests because they knew me and I would be embarassed. It was easier to tell a priest-stranger that you had played with your wee-wee.
I kept this up until April 19, these jottings, that is. The masturbation inspired more enduring devotion. The book is blank through the end of that year. Then my real diary began on January 1, 1958. I maintain it to this day.
LiveJournal, of course, is not a diary.
Here is February 1-15, 1957:
I was fifteen then and a sophomore at La Salle Academy, Providence. I did a a lot of churchgoing then, serving mass often. On February 2, 5, and 14, I noted that I went to St. Francis Chapel in downtown Providence. That is a code phrase for confessing to a priest that I had masturbated...and certainly not just that day. I wouldn't tell my parish priests because they knew me and I would be embarassed. It was easier to tell a priest-stranger that you had played with your wee-wee.
I kept this up until April 19, these jottings, that is. The masturbation inspired more enduring devotion. The book is blank through the end of that year. Then my real diary began on January 1, 1958. I maintain it to this day.
LiveJournal, of course, is not a diary.
Here is February 1-15, 1957: