September 15
Laura M., age 15, North Carolina
September 15, 1997
I woke up before Ashley and got in the shower. Went 2 school. After 6th period I asked Chris 4 a ride because I had no other way home. He said no and I walked away. Got application at Juice Shop. Got permit and drove from DMV! :) Had dinner. Picked up Ashley. I drove. She spent the night! :) We did homework and dessert.
Anna L., age 75, Illinois
September 15, 1960
Lo going for perm. at 11:00 so didn’t get home to lunch. She came about 10:30 so she could go to Carrie’s. Helen had called about her getting refrig. as Gorham was to move all the things from Josie’s. Carrie came here to do some phoning. Bess came later we had coffee and Lo came to take Carrie home about 4:45. Bess wanted to go then too. Lo worn out and no wonder.
Marcy S., age 14, Tennessee
September 15, 1938
I practiced for a half hour when I got up, then breakfast and school. We didn’t go to chapel so we studied. (P.S. The headlines in the morning paper were “Chamberland Flies to Hitler.” C., who is England’s primer minister, flew to Germany to have a peace conference with Germany’s dictator, Hitler.Will it be war or peace?) In Home Ec. class there weren’t enough chairs so I sat in the same one with Carolyn Zachry. I was leaning way over and she got up and I fell head-first on the floor, chair and all. Fortunately Mrs. Cummins wasn’t in the room and everyone laughed. Mary Lou Beck, Mary and I have the same locker for our Home Ec. things. Daddy wasn’t there for dinner. I met Elma at the corner and walked to school with her. I studied and read in the afternoon and after school I talked with Mary awhile, before going home. Today is P.T.A. day so Mother was at school and since we’re having company tonight I had to go home and dust, lay out clean clothes, clean silver and wash the dishes. During the latter the boy came with the radio and while he was fixing it I went up to Helen’s to see if she’d go to the library with me. She was taking her music lesson so I played with the kitten and talked to her mother till she got back. She had to go to town, too, so she came down to my house with me to get my book. I left the boy who was fixing the radio all alone in the house but H. said she wouldn’t have done that for the world. (P.S. It had been pretty warm in the morn but during the afternoon a cool breeze came up and it got cloudy.) I went with H. to the drug store and 10-cent stores but while she looked for a notebook I went to the library and renewed “Nancy Sails” and got “Rilla of Ingleside” which I read last spring and intend to copy every word of it in some notebooks because I couldn’t find it in any bookstores for my own. I went up to Daddy’s office and borrowed 5 cents from him to buy a notebook. I met Helen and we went home. Mother was there and the radio all fixed. I listened to it a few minutes and then went up to Mother Lane’s (who had called a few minutes earlier to say she’d take a magazine) with a receipt and to collect $1.00. On the way up, George, Allan, Jim and Helen were playing football in the street and they let me kick it. It was a pretty good kick because Jim said so and he ought to know. When I got back I borrowed 4 glasses from Mrs. McClure and helped Mother a little while and then she let me go out and play (about 5:30). I watched the “football game” awhile and then we all went up in “William’s” yard and played kick-off or something (one of Jim’s games). Meantime Charles had come and he, Jim and Helen were on one side while George, Allan and I were on the other. Helen kicked George in the head and then acted smart about it which made G. and A. both mad. Soon she had to go. A.B. came and I had him to hold my necklace with 2 real pearls and a turquoise in it. (A.B. could hardly believe it.) Soon poor George got kicked in the head again, this time by Allan, who was very sorry. When I had to go (about 6:00) A.B. and Bill Kurk chased me home. After supper and t.b.b. I started to copy “Rilla” in the living room and did so until the first of the company came, when I moved into the kitchen and copied. It is a teacher’s and officer’s of the Sunday School meeting. There were 12 there and Mother served refreshments. At 8:30 I got ready for bed, after having a midnight snack. Has been just like a late fall or winter afternoon. P.S. Mr. Johnson spoke in the junior chapel this morn and G., A. and H. were fussing about it.
Henry S., age 25, Michigan
September 15, 1887
I went over to Fred Neil’s this morning, and after helping him put some straw on his hay mower, I got his team and wagon and went to the saw mill and got some maple flouring to put in our prospective kitchen in part of the woodhouse. It took me the rest of the day to lay the flooring. I had to go up town about noon and get some more nails. Kate and Jessie went up town visiting this afternoon. The baby cried all the way home with them. It is growing cool again tonight.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Abbie B., age 22, Kansas
September 15, 1871
Philip had a chill to day, but it did not last long.
The baking was a trouble to day, I must make new yeast before I bake again. Mother sent me hops again—and I will make yeast soon.
When Mrs. North moved to town—she gave me her cat Jimmie. Now the mice and rats are so bad up at Bachelor Hall, that they borrowed Jimmie.
I will miss him. He often slept at my feet.
When on our hunting trip, the handle of the teakettle was broken, and it made it very unhandy to use. Now Philip has fixed it. He is so handy about the house, when he is well. He made a darning needle for me, out of a piece of wire. Browned coffee, and pounded a can full, in p. m. copied my expenses for the year, and did other writing.
*(kansasmemory.org, Kansas State Historical Society, copy and reuse restrictions apply)
Cornelia H., age 26, North Carolina
September 15, 1862
Breakfast very early. Berry got a good start. Skipper & Mr. Henry went to Asheville today. It is reported that our forces are in Maryland. I do hope we may soon have peace. I fixed some shirts for Willie today, at least one & will fix the other two tomorrow. Cloudy & looks like rain. I fear Sister Jane will have a bad time for traveling with her babe.
*(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
September 15, 1668
Up mighty betimes, my wife and people, Mercer lying here all night, by three o’clock, and I about five; and they before, and I after them, to the coach in Bishopsgate Street, which was not ready to set out. So took wife and Mercer and Deb. and W. Hewer (who are all to set out this day for Cambridge, to cozen Roger Pepys’s, to see Sturbridge Fayre); and I shewed them the Exchange, which is very finely carried on, with good dispatch. So walked back and saw them gone, there being only one man in the coach besides them; and so home to the Office, where Mrs. Daniel come and staid talking to little purpose with me to borrow money, but I did not lend her any, having not opportunity para hater allo thing mit her.1 At the office all the morning, and at noon dined with my people at home, and so to the office again a while, and so by water to the King’s playhouse, to see a new play, acted but yesterday, a translation out of French by Dryden, called “The Ladys a la Mode:” so mean a thing as, when they come to say it would be acted again to-morrow, both he that said it, Beeson, and the pit fell a-laughing, there being this day not a quarter of the pit full. Thence to St. James’s and White Hall to wait on the Duke of York, but could not come to speak to him till time to go home, and so by water home, and there late at the office and my chamber busy, and so after a little supper 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.)