June 17
Laura M., age 15, North Carolina
June 17, 1997
Up at 7:30! Went to Labor Dept again for the last time! Came back and slept. Wendy and Eric picked me up at 11:00. Came to Tarboro. Ate lunch at Abrahms. Came to Grammy’s and slept. Woke up to Katie, NeeNee, Trudie, Patrick and Rachel! :) Hung out with them. Went on walk with Wendy, Eric, and Rachel. Ate dinner. Went to Commons and saw symphony play. Came back. Chilled.
Anna L., age 75, Illinois
June 17, 1960
Miss K.J. hope she’s happier. Rained off and on coming home. Saw a wreck other side of Half Day. Weren’t delayed but a minute. Mrs. B. came for coffee. All had a nice time last nite at Russels. Was so tired but baked cookies (white), had soft boiled eggs for supper. Had some trouble with car battery at cabin, reached town car stopped. A man on street fixed it, then to Stubs. He too tightened it thot it O.K.
Marcy S., age 19, Missouri
June 17, 1944
To work at 8:30. Awfully hot and muggy! I was kept hopping all morn and more people came in!! I think Mr. Harris forgot it was hot. He left early and left me to lock up. I went to the Acme and got Mum a birthday card and an anniversary one for Mary and Horace. Trudged home. Pop was there. We didn’t eat till 1. Then Mum and I looked through the Stephensophia ’cause it was too hot in the kitchen to do the dishes. About 3:30 I was through, though, and went out in back yard and read the Robe. Took bath before supper and then I sat in my bedroom by the window (in my new chair!) and read. Late supper. We sat out on porch afterwards. I read till dark. Then I got terribly sleepy. We all sat out on the sidewalk to get what breeze there was. Then did dishes, ironed and went to bed late. Mum and Dad sat out till midnight. [In upper margin: “Sat in my bare feet in back yard.”]
Aloys F., age 16, County Cork, Ireland
June 17, 1926
To-day again the exams. upset all classes. I feel really horrible because I am doing no work, and am sure I would do twice as much at home if I didn’t go to school at all. – After reading the life of St. Aloysius last night, which Connie Deacy gave me, I really began to think whether I should not become a priest after all. But I seem to have no vocation, and the serious thought never entered my head before. I always imagined and built on a musical or a ‘philosophical’ future. But at all events I am going to become more religious than I was before. – Grace O’Brien came for tea with the Stockleys to-day. She is one of those patriotic Irishmen [sic] who live abroad, but is a first-class pianist and a great friend of Mám’s in the old days in Munich. I saw her last in Ardmore 5 years ago. She appears to me rather cool and calculating. – New sensations in the papers seem to be abnormal heights. Read of men 9 foot 3 inches and 2 foot 3 inches. – Mehmet VI, heir apparent to Turkish throne, has just died. I suppose there are royalists in Turkey as in all the republics. – The franc has absolutely crashed, and a new cabinet is being sought for. – Read that the old order of the Knights of St. Patrick are being let die out. A shame!
*(Original Archive Copyright © Estate of Aloys Fleischmann. The Fleischmann Diaries Online Archive by Róisín O’Brien is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Used with permission.)
Henry S., age 25, Michigan
June 17, 1887
We had a good hard rain last night and this morning, which we so much needed. Fred Neill, Dor and I went on a genuine excursion today, taking a boat and going across Crystal Lake to Glen Rhoda and climbing up to the top of the hills and viewing the scenery, also fighting mosquitos, Dor being especially afflicted with them. We had a pretty rough see going over, but we had a splendid time. Fred and I took a good swim. We went away back in the woods to a clearing set out to fruit. We found a canoe afloat and brought it back with us. I came home and left Dor and Fred to fish. Jessie came and stayed a while with Kate, this afternoon.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Abbie B., age 22, Kansas
June 17, 1871
Mr. Rose called acrost the river, that there were letters at the ranch for us. Philip will go down, and I can send what I have written home, to be mailed.
*(kansasmemory.org, Kansas State Historical Society, copy and reuse restrictions apply)
Cornelia H., age 25, North Carolina
June 17, 1862
I finished Zona’s drawers & began a pair pantletts for myself. Did not sew a great deal as I helped about dinner & I read a greater portion of the afternoon, a novel “Confession of a Pretty Woman.” It was very interesting. The wheat is badly damaged with spot. The Dixon is almost a failure. Mr. Henry thinks the Clingman wheat will do tollerable well. I am very sorry it is so injured for Mr. Henry has such a large crop in.
*(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
June 17, 1667
Up, and to my office, where busy all the morning, particularly setting my people to work in transcribing pieces of letters publique and private, which I do collect against a black day to defend the office with and myself. At noon dined at home, Mr. Hater with me alone, who do seem to be confident that this nation will be undone, and with good reason: Wishes himself at Hambrough, as a great many more, he says, he believes do, but nothing but the reconciling of the Presbyterian party will save us, and I am of his mind. At the office all the afternoon, where every moment business of one kind or other about the fire-ships and other businesses, most of them vexatious for want of money, the commanders all complaining that, if they miss to pay their men a night, they run away; seamen demanding money of them by way of advance, and some of Sir Fretcheville Hollis’s men, that he so bragged of, demanding their tickets to be paid, or they would not work: this Hollis, Sir W. Batten and W. Pen say, proves a very …, as Sir W. B. terms him, and the other called him a conceited, idle, prating, lying fellow. But it was pleasant this morning to hear Hollis give me the account what, he says, he told the King in Commissioner Pett’s presence, whence it was that his ship was fit sooner than others, telling the King how he dealt with the several Commissioners and agents of the Ports where he comes, offering Lanyon to carry him a Ton or two of goods to the streights, giving Middleton an hour or two’s hearing of his stories of Barbadoes, going to prayer with Taylor, and standing bare and calling, “If it please your Honour,” to Pett, but Sir W. Pen says that he tells this story to every body, and believes it to be a very lie. At night comes Captain Cocke to see me, and he and I an hour in the garden together. He tells me there have been great endeavours of bringing in the Presbyterian interest, but that it will not do. He named to me several of the insipid lords that are to command the armies that are to be raised. He says the King and Court are all troubled, and the gates of the Court were shut up upon the first coming of the Dutch to us, but they do mind the business no more than ever: that the bankers, he fears, are broke as to ready-money, though Viner had 100,000l. by him when our trouble begun: that he and the Duke of Albemarle have received into their own hands, of Viner, the former 10,000l., and the latter 12,000l., in tallies or assignments, to secure what was in his hands of theirs; and many other great men of our masters have done the like; which is no good sign, when they begin to fear the main. He and every body cries out of the office of the Ordnance, for their neglects, both at Gravesend and Upnor, and everywhere else. He gone, I to my business again, and then home to supper and to bed. I have lately played the fool much with our Nell, in playing with her breasts. This night, late, comes a porter with a letter from Monsieur Pratt, to borrow 100l. for my Lord Hinchingbroke, to enable him to go out with his troop in the country, as he is commanded; but I did find an excuse to decline it. Among other reasons to myself, this is one, to teach him the necessity of being a good husband, and keeping money or credit by him.
*(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.)