March 12
Laura M., age 15, North Carolina
March 12, 1998
Had 2 go 2 the Juice Shoppe after school. Filled out an application & chilled w/ Renée & Ashley. Mom came at 3:30. Didn’t go 2 Eddie’s ’cause Van is in town. So I just did homework & took a nap. Ate pizza. Watched “Friends,” etc. Showered. Blowdried. Homework.
Laura M., age 14, North Carolina
March 12, 1997
Well, I wrote Sean a note today telling him that he’s won. He wrote me back and said he doesn’t want to hurt me again and that I won ’cause I finally hurt him. W/E. I miss him so much — and just as a friend. Went to mall and found some COOL jeans! :) Talked to Courtney. Dad picked me up. We had bean burgers. Watched “Space Jams.” Really cute. Showered. Fell asleep so fast.
Anna L., age 75, Illinois
March 12, 1960
Hung my curtains and cleaned my room. Also extra in bath and hall. Made a small cake. Got ready to go with Cooks to eat at the Evergreens. Came home early and watched TV then to bed.
Marcy S., age 19, Missouri
March 12, 1944
Bright, beautiful day. Cool. Slept til 10:30. Read book till 11. Betty’s hair too tight. To church at 12. Excellent sermon. Saw Mr. Berry. Good dinner at 1. Met Mary and Kath. afterwards and we 3 went to show at Missouri. Betty had to study. Saw Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray in “Standing Room Only.” Very funny. We stopped by dairy for a soda. Quite chilly out. Found Jane pouring out her love troubles to Betty. Seems she and her little man had it out once and for all. Jane and I went to supper at 6. Good. Finished Jane Eyre afterwards. Didn’t feel so awfully sad because it had a satisfactory ending. Then wrote family and Mary - the latter a very lengthy epistle. Betty went to bed about 10. I was just about to give up hope of a stop day when screams rent the air and we all rushed out to find it had come at last!! Thought awhile and then to bed. Ah sleep!
Marcy S., age 16, Tennessee
March 12, 1941
Clear, sorta mild, springy. Went to chapel. Neither Jean nor I played. In history, more dull reports, but at least a saving “battle of the sexes” conducted by Dorothy Swanson. Four girls versus four boys. I was one of the honored (?) and so was Bunny. Fun “coaching from the sidelines.” G.L. told me one answer. I got one and missed two. No one had read the chapter. Boys won four and a half to four and a quarter. Prize -- a sucker. Fun. Harold S. back. Dull Latin (as usual nowadays). Used carbon paper in typing class. After school I went home with Ruth and then on to Jean’s. Met Mom there. Soon other pupils of Marshy and she herself arrived. Also some parents. We all played our pieces. Did pretty well. All raved about mine. Joe Posey came and took our pictures. Jean said she and Wanda B. had been talking about me today -- I expected the worst, but this was it -- that I looked so pretty today and that I always looked neat. To town afterwards. At night, finished theme and read. Mom and Dad to church. Birds on trees beautiful.
Henry S., age 26, Michigan
March 12, 1888
Kate and I got up at 4 o’clock this morning as it was clear and still we concluded we could go to Manistee and so we began to pack Kate’s things. Fred came over soon after 8 and we got to Bear lake about 12 where we took dinner. Una did splendidly not crying at all, she did not seem any the worse for the long cold ride. We got into Manistee in good season and are at the Durham house. Robert Tufts, an old friend of pa’s, is conductor on the train Kate goes out on in the morning.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Henry S., age 25, Michigan
March 12, 1887
Went up town early this forenoon so as to practice the pieces we sang at the Convention this forenoon. I got a little time to practice telegraphy this morning and this afternoon. The teachers formed a branch of the Michigan Teachers Reading Circle. I did not join because I will not have time for to tend to such a thing this season. I took dinner at Mr. Waters, Fred and Carrie came back yesterday to stay. It has been a warm day and the snow has been getting soft so that the roads are bad. Fred and Jessie Neill went to Platt and I will stay a day or two. I went up and practiced with the choir tonight, as Mr. Coates was away again. Got back at 9 o’clock. Sold some sugar at the store today.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Cornelia H., age 25, North Carolina
March 12, 1862
Cold & cloudy. Mrs. Common came here this evening. I finished another shirt & began the last one. Willie is improving in walking, is affraid of falling. Nothing new going on in the country.
*(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 35, London
March 12, 1668
Up, and to the office, where all the morning, at noon home, and after dinner with wife and Deb., carried them to Unthanke’s, and I to Westminster Hall expecting our being with the Committee this afternoon about Victualling business, but once more waited in vain. So after a turn or two with Lord Brouncker, I took my wife up and left her at the ‘Change while I to Gresham College, there to shew myself; and was there greeted by Dr. Wilkins, Whistler, and others, as the patron of the Navy Office, and one that got great fame by my late speech to the Parliament. Here I saw a great trial of the goodness of a burning glass, made of a new figure, not spherical (by one Smithys, I think, they call him), that did burn a glove of my Lord Brouncker’s from the heat of a very little fire, which a burning glass of the old form, or much bigger, could not do, which was mighty pretty. Here I heard Sir Robert Southwell give an account of some things committed to him by the Society at his going to Portugall, which he did deliver in a mighty handsome manner.1 Thence went away home, and there at my office as long as my eyes would endure, and then home to supper, and to talk with Mr. Pelling, who tells me what a fame I have in the City for my late performance; and upon the whole I bless God for it. I think I have, if I can keep it, done myself a great deal of repute. So by and by 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.)