December 15
Laura M., age 15, North Carolina
December 15, 1997
Hated what I was wearing, so my day kinda sucked. But I got a present from Julie and Albert. :) Sandra picked me up. Worked with Meghan and Brian. Studied. Ate. Studied with story. Went through Em’s drawers and found dress.
Anna L., age 76, Illinois
December 15, 1960
K.J. and Sally came late. Missed the 10:30. Didn’t get to bed until 2:30 so tired. Electricians here to wire for outlet for heater. Mary Ann came before noon and stayed until 2:30. A gloomy day misting etc. but didn’t amount to anything.
Marcy S., age 14, Tennessee
December 15, 1938
Practiced. Very hard to get up. No chapel. Usual classes. Home for dinner. Back again. Had fun. Usual classes. At 2:30 went to old building for my expression. P.T.A. today. Quite interrupted by people coming thru to auditorium. I brought my rubber-soled shoes along to practice dancing and the bag that I brought to carry them home in fell out the window so I wore them and carried the others. School had been let out early so I had to hurry and get my books. [In upper margin: “Mary worked after school every afternoon this week.”] Walked home with Bobby. Mother at P.T.A. I got George to go to the library with me and I told him a story. When I came home I studied and practiced and then went over to Mrs. McClure’s and finished my sewing. Went home but since Mother wasn’t there yet I went back over to George’s to wait for her. He was listening to the radio. Soon Mother came. I went home and washed my hair. Mrs. Cummins came about some tickets. Talked (raved) about my dress. I, fortunately, was was washing my hair. After drying it (my hair) we ate supper (about 7:00). Daddy home. After supper and dishes I finished getting ready for bed. Had fire place. At 8:00 listened to Maxwell House program. Snooks and her daddy were funny. Heard Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge in Dickens’s “Christmas Carol.” In reduced form. Finished sewing. Mother did the rest. Then to bed. Nice day.
Henry S., age 26, Michigan
December 15, 1887
I took a letter over to the Court House this morning to be mailed and took along some of the specimens of penmanship, which I have to show to Mr. Nevins and Mr. Pettitt. I studied lettering a little this forenoon. Taught my classes this afternoon, had Kate’s money order cashed at the Post Office. I have been writing cards tonight for practice, and 1 pack for a student.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Cornelia H., age 26, North Carolina
December 15, 1862
I made myself a pair drawers today & filled quills for Betsey. She gets along slowly, it breaks very badly. Not very cold in the morning but cloudy & cold in the afternoon. Jim Night came home about 11. Mr. Henry wrote me a letter on a newspaper. He wants some of the hogs sent for to kill. I can’t send as I have no money. He is well. Gone down home on business, will be at home the last of this week. I do hope he may for I would be very glad to have him near me all the time. He is so kind to me & the little ones. Jeff went with the waggon. He was glad to get home. He is very lean.
*(Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journals and Letters of the Henry Family, Eds. Karen L. Clinard and Richard Russell, used with permission.)
Samuel P., age 34, London
December 15, 1667
(Lord’s day). Up, and to church, where I heard a German preach, in a tone hard to be understood, but yet an extraordinary good sermon, and wholly to my great content. So home, and there all alone with wife and girle to dinner, and then I busy at my chamber all the afternoon, and looking over my plate, which indeed is a very fine quantity, God knows, more than ever I expected to see of my own, and more than is fit for a man of no better quality than I am. In the evening comes Mrs. Turner to visit us, who hath been long sick, and she sat and supped with us, and after supper, her son Francke being there, now upon the point of his going to the East Indys, I did give him “Lex Mercatoria,” and my wife my old pair of tweezers, which are pretty, and my book an excellent one for him. Most of our talk was of the great discourse the world hath against my Lady Batten, for getting her husband to give her all, and disinherit his eldest son; though the truth is, the son, as they say, did play the knave with his father when time was, and the father no great matter better with him, nor with other people also. So she gone, we to bed.
*(The Diary of Samuel Pepys M.A. F.R.S., edited by Henry B. Wheatley F.S.A., London, George Bell & Sons York St. Covent Garden, Cambridge Deighton Bell & Co., 1893.)