My Journals and Diaries

header_journalsI have kept many journals during my life. Unfortunately I’ve only kept them for short periods of time, sometimes a day, sometimes several months. I have used all sorts of journals and sometimes just plain notebooks. I think that because the pages are spread out in various journals, I should type all the entries into one file on the computer. I could print it out. Or I could take pages from where they are and put them in acid free sleeves in a binder. Right now I’m sure they are not much use to anyone. Even I find it hard to locate information from a particular time and place.

I do have several journals from family members. I have my grandmother Fannie’s Little Book and a big scrapbook. I have my grandfather Mershell’s work notebook. And I have my Uncle Henry’s Diary  kept in 1936.

Below are more or less random pages from 4 of my journals from 1967, 1972, 1981 and 2001. I’ve transcribed with some correction of grammar or spelling where it makes it easier to understand.

December 4, 1967 - Bronze pour, junior year Wayne State University.
December 4, 1967 – Bronze pour, junior year Wayne State University. I was 21 years old.

12/4/67

The fire’s green, noisy, can’t hear voices hardly. getting ready to cast – pour.  have big cans set up. 2 to do it.  Katze (note: the teacher in charge of pour) has visor on. (room) smells dusty, dusty. hard to breath. dirty. sand all over floor. fire flame big, roars, loud – dust – loud dust.  Can’t be ready yet. glasses just ran downstairs. sculpt must really get involved in it.

Can even hear roar on steps. Like train. Sounds like burning. Smells like hot metal – no wonder. at other end of room someone works with some tool – makes sparks & higher buzzing noise off and on combines with steady roar. Room covered with white dust didn’t answer – the (maybe the um sound was yes) 

They poured and it ran out so had to heat more, spilled it on floor, started fire. Burned 3 folks feet. not badly. Oxygen stored in there. Fireboxes not hooked up! no evacuation of building. Linoleum on floor. Total chaos.(Note: before the spilled hot, liquid metal, everyone thought the floor was cement but it turned out that there was cement looking linoleum.)

man holed up in his house on west side.

1976 - Raising rabbits and tomatoes, Simpson County, MS.
February 3, 1976 – Raising rabbits and tomatoes, Simpson County, MS. I was 29 years old.

2-3-76

Fed goat & rabbits twice. pollinated tomatoes & pruned more for transplanting in greenhouse #1. Those need watering. soaking them overnight to get better start.  Those with roots do better (& small leaves) than large leaves & no roots.  Fill holes with water when transplanting.

Found 2 red tomatoes in #2 when pollinating. found Velma rabbit had ear canker. looked in Rabbit book & called Ruth Shiers about treatment says common & should treat rabbits monthly as precaution. Put Vaseline on it. Need camphophenic to treat it & all others as a …

1981 - Trip to Norway
July 4, 1981 – Trip to Norway. I was 34 years old.

July 3, 1981 friday

Started out a very sunny warm day until after lunch – ended up being cold & RAINY. Went to the theater to see a fairy tale of a princess a would be prince who had to get 3 feathers of a dragon to win her. Very good – even understood a few words. Before it started, a tall man came up & said he should have written a synopsis & did I know the story – then he started telling it to me.  (Note: He was the playwrite.) The people who organized this outing, neglected to call in reservations & we had to wait for cancelations, luckily there were some.  After we went in the cold rain to get varme polster, pomme frit og ice!(?) It was COLD with dress, bare legs & sandals but a good evening & it’s nice to be back & warm. Paul was at Blinern stop.

Class is harder – ie. lessons are, class remains the same. Spent more time in language lab today. Mary Kate reads at 3,000 words a minute. Now to bed.

July 4, 1981 Saturday

Classes in morning. Sunny day went downtown in afternoon with Joan & Kari. Walked all the way over to St. Olaf’s Church.

Campus party was tonight. Jilo (Note: my 11 year old daughter.) went & stayed until midnight, danced a few dances with a nice Howard student. I went for a moment with little Kari & her mother. It looked like everyone was having a good time. Reminded me of those terrible parties & never danced. it also made me miss Jim. 

Went for a long walk with Joan, little Kari, her mother & a lady I can’t remember, who also never liked parties.  Walked all over in a different direction, to the stadium.

2001 - Car trip to San Diego
June 29, 2001 – Train trip  home to Michigan from Seattle. I was 54 years old.

 June 29, Friday

“This land is your land, this land is my land…” 

Woke up in Montana. isolated cabins on the sides of wooded mountains. mountain (rushing streams) line of parked cars in the middle of no where.  a deer on the side of the tracks, pine trees, poplar or is it aspen? “Big sky” low clouds.

James, the Chinese steward, had a laugh this morning with the Irish woman across the aisle.  He’d thought she’d be Chinese (note: because her name was “Lee”.)… “Robert E. Lee wasn’t Chinese”, she pointed out, a bit peevishly. 

I awoke around 7:30 (6:30) Seattle time) yawn. Could have slept longer. Mountains of feathery pines. So close together. The highway right below, a stream leads up, up, up the mountains to a meadow. “I knew the mountains would make you well.” Breakfast of yogurt parfait.

On closer view, what appears to be meadow may be bushes. Least that’s what the one we passed was.  Going through open covered tunnels? bridges? Better than the dark holes.

Rock is gray, slate like layers, dirt was mauve this morning.  Began taking photos. Why didn’t I do that all along??? What a waste. Oh well. Jilo & ife have bot expressed an interest in cross country travel.

Down the corridor a couple are discussing their vacations & train trips.  The rocks do look like the earths bones. I need to use the bathroom…

Are we lower or higher? trees are smaller, fewer. More grass. God’s golf course out there?

Montana high plains. rutted dirt road comes out of fields to the truck. Several piles of dumped household stuff.  Irrigation. Houses, small, alone. A man with orange flags. Clouds I could reach out the window and touch.  Sage brush again every where. Wonder if it’s like my sage.

April 5, 2004 Shared Journal with my daughter ife.
April 5, 2004 Shared Journal with my daughter ife.  I was 57 years old.

My daughter and I were going to fill this journal up, mailing it back and forth from Idlewild, MI to Seattle, WA. We started it when her twins were 6 months old. We never completed the book.

Monday morning April 5 – full moon 11:04 AM

Waiting until time to leave for Ludington for my first mamogram. Another sunny, cold day. Yesterday I saw a robin on my walk and there was a crocus in the garden. Spring is really here.  (my entry from Michigan)

Tuesday 8…….A quick sketch of the Deifenbaccia that is in front of the west window of the living room.  it is doing much bettwer since it was repotted inot a larger pot and now that it gets nice strong light. I spend a lot of time watching it grow.

Both Sean and Sydney are finally napping.. they don’t want to be moved from my lap though… cuts down on being able to use this time… (ife’s entry from Seattle)

Ghosting – 1925

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My aunt Anna Cecelia was born January 29, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. She is the little ghost baby being held by her mother, my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage.
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J.L.C.
Mama and nana peela
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Barbbara & Gladys
J.L.C.
gladys_barbara_1924
My aunt Gladys looks like she is either returning or leaving the scene via time travel.
JLC_age_12_verso
Mr. Louis
Cleage
Age 12, – 1925
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Mr. Louis Cleage, age 12 wrote names on the backs of the photos.

 

family
Here is a family photograph from about 20 years later. From L to right we have Barbara (who we can actually see.) Henry, Anna, mother Pearl and in the front is Gladys.
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Snow Hill Institute

bedSnow Hill Alabama

The room is cold.
The bed hard with
too few quilts.
More fumes than heat
come from the small
gas heater in the fireplace.

All around, the empty,
crumbling campus.
Inside the spirits swirl
in the cold air.

 

edwarfpSeveral years ago my husband and I attended a conference in Selma Alabama by the Black Belt African American Genealogical & Historical Society. We stayed with our friend, Donald Stone on the campus of the Snow Hill Institute. It was once a thriving and bustling school but since the early 1970s when it was closed due to school integration, it’s been pretty much deserted.  Stone, who is a descendent of the founder lives there.  We stayed in the house next to the one he was in. It was so sad to see what was once an important educational institution, empty.  Below is a short interview with Donald Stone. Above is a poem I wrote during the August Postcard Poetry month about the experience of spending the night there.

For more information about Snow Hill Normal and Industrial School:

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A Plea for Peace – April 1, 1948

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Rev. Albert B. Cleage sitting on the steps of St. John’s Congregational Church around 1948.

Today is the International Day of Peace. My post includes a petition, “A Plea for Peace and for American Democracy” signed by my father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage (later known as Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman) in 1948.  It was printed in The Springfield Union newspaper of Springfield Mass, April 1, 1948 edition.

I have included several pages from a document prepared for the USA Senate titled Report on The Communist “Peace” Offensive.  This includes a list of people who signed the petition in Massachusetts and a few other states.  This happened as the anti-communist era got underway, leading directly into the McCarthy era. You can read more about it here McCarthy Era. As always, click on any picture to enlarge it.

A song written and sung by Victor Jara ends this post. Víctor Jara was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter and political activist. He was also a member of the Communist Party of Chile. When the USA supported coup against the elected government of Chile took place on September 11, 1973, Victor Jara was taken to the football stadium where his hands were cut off, his guitar smashed and after taunts to play his guitar now, they shot him to death.  To read more, see this link Bruce Springsteen Honors Chilean Folk Hero in Santiago.

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Describing Me

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My father, Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman/Albert B. Cleage about 1975.

I look a lot like my father did when he was my age.  I turned 67 in August, 2013. Usually, I hope people will not notice much of what I am going to tell you here, but because it is the 3rd prompt in the “Story of Me, by Me”, I am going to share it.  My hair, once sandy, now is grey, rapidly turning white.  It’s not as thick as it once was, although it still covers my head pretty well.  I have some age spots on hands and face. I’ve got one or two extra chins and 75 extra pounds. My hands are wrinkling up like they’ve been gathered. I’ve got dark circles under my eyes and dark eyelids. I’ve worn my hoop earrings 24/7 since I had my ears pierced at 15 and the earlobes are sagging a little, as is everything else.  My eyes are still blue/grey and my brows are still arched.  My eye lashes are almost missing.  My complexion has a reddish hue.

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Me

My feet have calcifications on the achilles tendons from long ago ignoring symptoms I should have paid attention to. Due to the feet going bad, I was unable to continue my fast 4 mile daily walks and put on weight, which I still haven’t gotten rid of.  I used to be 5 ft 7 in, now I’m lucky if I’m still 5’6″. Allergies I never had before make my throat, eyes and ears itch when the air is bad or the pollen is high or a cat is around. I have a c-section scar, stretch marks, skin tags, several chin hairs and too many flat moles to count.  Any childhood scars have faded away.

I’ve got high blood pressure, high Cholesterol and low thyroid.  My eyes are getting worse. I can’t read without glasses and now need them for viewing performances or anything in the distance.   My teeth are my own and I have all of them, minus one and the wisdoms. Many have fillings or crowns. I wear 1X or 2X or, even better, one size fits all.  I prefer to go barefooted. Never wear heels and dress for comfort.  That used to mean jeans and t-shirts, now it mostly means skirts and loose blouses.  I’m about to move to only flowing garments. I prefer pictures where I am smiling.

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My husband Jim and me, summer 2013.

 

Its Friday afternoon

This is another letter that my father wrote home to Detroit from Los Angeles when he was studying film in 1944. The photograph of my mother putting a hem in her skirt is also from August, 1944. I’m not sure if this picture was enclosed with this letter.

dorissewing
Putting a hem in a skirt. Aug 1944 in Sunshiny living. Los Angeles

231 South Hobart Blvd. #4
Los Angeles, 7, California
August 18, 1944

Hi Folks:

Its Friday afternoon and I just got home from school, and I thought I’d drop you-all a note on the state of the nation.  My “little” wife is still working. She gets off about five-thirty and comes home by way of the grocery store. Everything is about the same as usual. We’re still at large (out of the poor-house)…but I’ll have to find something to do pretty quick if we’re planning to stay that-a-way! I’m “dickering” with the Los Angeles Church Federation for a “position”. The “boss-Man” is out of town but I’ve filed an application and we’ll discuss the matter further when he gets back in September. It would be a pretty-good job if I can get it…sort of Negro field-worker for the Federation, co-ordinating the community work of the Negro churches… recruiting and training volunteers and organizing programs and clubs and groups and what-have-you. I’ve also applied to the Negro Community-Center, just-in-case.

On the way to school this morning a man picked me up in the safety-zone (big fine looking red-faced white man) in a Packard from here down town…and we got to bulling each other, and it turned out that he’s the Director of Audio-Visual Education for the Los Angeles Public Schools.  Of course he was very happy to meet a real authority in the field…and invited me down to his office to see the experimental work the School System is doing in Moving-picture production.  I’ll go down as soon as I can and see what them there “amateurs” are a trying to do.

School is going along fine…(no grades yet, of course!) Me and the Dean of the School of Religion are having a little long-distance controversy through his secretary.  He thinks I ought to take half of my work in RELIGION…and I think I ought to take all (or almost all) in Cinema.  He has an ace in the hole, however, in as much as I’m registered under the School of Religion and therefore pay only the special fees (Fellowships in religion make up the difference) …However, I’m not going to take half of my work in religion in as much as the religion courses will not contribute to what I’m trying to do!

 SPECIAL NOTE TO LOUIS: If he makes me pay up the REGULAR REGISTRATION FEES I’ll have to wire you for a small loan of $100.00 or so until I can work long enough to pay it back. I think we can “arrange the difference of opinion” without such a drastic step… but with the good-white-folks you can never tell…especially preachers. My wife will divorce me if I have to borrow…but I aint no sentimentalist myself…and so I’m a warnin’ you.

How’s the farm going? How’s Mama getting along? I hear that “Racial-tension” in Detroit is a thing of the past! We’re getting ready to have a riot here…The FEPC has ordered the Street Railways to hire and upgrade Negroes immediately! Maybe I can get a “Riot-Movie”.

Here are some “snaps”- Did you get the ones we sent from San Francisco – I don’t think you ever mentioned them.

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Backyard Lunch

My cousin Dee Dee, sister Pearl, me, cousin Barbara.
My cousin Dee Dee, sister Pearl, me, cousin Barbara.

This was one of the Saturdays my cousins, my sister and I spent at my maternal grandparents, Nanny and Poppy. We are eating lunch in their backyard.I can’t tell what we are eating but I do recognize the stripped plastic glasses we used when we weren’t using the metal glasses.

In the background is the Jordan’s house. It looks so much bigger than my grandparents house, which was big enough. They had a lot of children and then the mother died while the children were young and the house just went to pieces. It was already to pieces by the time we came along.

Front Page News – The Day I Was Born

I found this front page of the Springfield Republican for August 30, 1946 – the day I was born – on Genealogy Bank.  Click on it to enlarge.  You can read my birth story here – Friday’s Child is Loving and Giving.

click to enlarge.
click to enlarge.

12 Responses to Front Page News – The Day I Was Born

  1. Jill Ball (GeniAus) says:
    September 10, 2013 at 1:07 am (Edit)

    Great minds think alike. I downloaded the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald for the day I was born just this week but I posted it on my Book of Me private blog. I wasn’t as brave as you – my age is no secret but I couldn’t bring myself to share publicly.

  2. Julie Goucher @ Anglers Rest says:
    September 10, 2013 at 8:11 am (Edit)

    That is great Kristin. You will enjoy one of the later prompts……

  3. Yvonne says:
    September 10, 2013 at 10:28 am (Edit)

    I gave it a try and Genealogy Bank doesn’t have any newspapers in my area in my birth year, let alone birth date! :( Perhaps in the future… :) Such a great idea!

 

Friday’s Child is Loving and Giving – My Birth

I am the first daughter, born during a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. 

mercy_hospital_maternityI was born at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, August 30, 1946. My parents arrived there the fall of 1945 when my father was chosen as Pastor of St. John’s Congregational Church.  My mother was 23 and my father was 33. Although I was one of the people present in the delivery room, I’ve had to rely on the memories my mother shared with me. 1946_kris_birth_telegram_blogMy mother was given a wiff of ether as I crowned so she did not see me born. I had a head full of dark hair, enough that a nurse pulled it up into a little pony tail and tied a ribbon around it. The nurse told my mother that all of the dark hair was going to come out and I would have blond hair. She was right. All of that fell out and I had a small amount of blond hair. It would be years before there was enough to pull up in a ribbon. My eyes were blue/gray.info_cardMy mother said that she was unable to breast feed me because she had no milk. I always felt very sad about this, not so much for me, but because I think that if I could have gone back in time with what I learned about nursing when my own babies were born, I could have helped her make a go of it.  After ten days in the hospital, we went home. A member of the church, Reginald Funn, drove us to the parsonage because my parents didn’t have a car until I was 8 years old.  Looking at my baby book, there were many visitors and gifts from friends, family and neighbors.

Reginald Funn and car.
Reginald Funn and car.

Both of my grandmothers came from Detroit to help out.  I was the first grandchild on my father’s side and the second on my mother’s side. My maternal grandmother, Fannie Graham, had a cold so she was regulated to washing clothes and cooking and other duties that kept her away from me so I would not catch her cold.  My Grandmother Pearl Cleage had the care of me.  My mother said that her pediatrician told her not to give me any water because it would make me drink less milk.  Below is a letter my Grandmother Pearl wrote home about it below.   Poor baby me.

In this letter, Toddy was my father’s family nickname. Louis was his MD brother. Barbara is my father’s oldest sister, left in charge while her mother was in Springfield.

pearl_1948210 King St
Springfield Mass
Monday 23/46

Dear Barbara,

How are you? How are Gladys and Daddy and the boys?

We have had a time with this baby, the first nights and all last week Toddy and I were up all night each night!  She cried and cried and screamed until she would be exhausted and so was I! Last night and today, so far, she has slept a lot better. Before we talked with Louis I’ve put her feedings 3 hours apart, just last night because she acted like she would burst open, with crying. This a.m. we got the Bio Lac and are giving her water regularly too and she is acting 100% better!

When I would have given her water before, they told me her stomach would not hold it and food and had me stop her feeding at about 3 ounces, for fear she couldn’t hold it all, not to feed her too much, and Kris just starving to pieces! I did as they told me until I said I was going to talk to Louis because I had never seen a baby eat and be dry and then just act like she was starving to death and never sleep!

***************

 I regret that nobody took any photographs of little me with either of my grandmothers.kris_1_year

Two excerpts from a letter my father wrote home in January. Actually, I did look like him, and more and more so as the years passed until now, if he were still here, we could pass as twins.

January 1, 1947

“…Doris and Kris welcomed in the New Year in their own inimitable way…at home. They got out only once during the holiday…on Christmas day we went to a Turkey dinner at the Funns. We had a tree “for Kris (and Doris) which Kris ignored…disdainfully.  Our double-octet went out caroling to the hospital Christmas eve (yes Louis, for the white folks) and came back by and sang carols for us afterwards. Kris listened to them with her usual disdain…and they all agreed that “she is the most sophisticated looking baby they had ever seen!”

“…. She loves to play from 2 until 4 a.m. She had the sniffles for part of one day…but seems to have so far avoided a serious cold…even with us and the rest of Springfield down with Flu, Grip and everything else… She weigh 11:4 (last week) She’s learned to yell or scream or something…and will scream at you for hours if you’ll scream back (Just like M-V) and seems to love it…then after an hour or so…her screaming will shift into a wild crying…and then she must be picked up and played with for several more hours…SHE LOVES ATTENTION…No, mama, we do not let her cry…and her navel seems to be doing O.K.  AND SHE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE ME! All reports not withstanding!”

March 18, 1947  – from a letter to my father’s sister, Anna by my mother.

“Kris (with her 2 teeth) says anytime for you all laughing at her bald head – I fear it’ll be covered all too soon with first one thing and then another.”

__________________

March 31, 1947 – From a letter to the Cleage’s from a friend of my parents in Springfield

“Last night at home, Kris had quite a time with her teeth and I think Doris was quite anxious.  Reverend Cleage had to leave for Loring before Kris really let go so he didn’t know how much the baby suffered.  I know it won’t last long, tho’ for mother says some teeth give more pain than others, but it is soon over with.”

__________________

From an April 7, 1947 letter my father sister Gladys wrote home while visiting Springfield.

“Kris is no good- but cute! Head’s not like the picture – kids! I definitely have no way with babies – I have truly lived!”

________________________

June 29, 1947 (from a letter by my father’s visiting sister, Anna)

“… Doris went to a reception today and I watched Kris. I tricked her, I played some soft music on the radio and waltzed around the room with her a few times, then eased into a rocking chair and first thing she knew she was asleep – so I put her in her crib and the next thing she knew Doris was home waking her to feed her.”

_______________________

I seem to have done fine, as you can see below, with my dirty bare feet I am sitting on the porch with my father’s father and my parents. I started walking at 9 months and my first words were – “Bow wow.” soon followed by “Some manners if you please!”  My mother said that people didn’t usually understand what I was saying when I came out with that.

My paternal grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr. sitting on the railing. My mother, Doris Graham Cleage, holding me. My father Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. Summer of 1947 on the back porch of the house on King street.
My paternal grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr. sitting on the railing. My mother, Doris Graham Cleage, holding me. My father Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. Summer of 1947 on the back porch of the house on King street.

You can read the front page of the Springfield Republican for the day I was born here.

On Lake Idlewild

Kris, Doris and Pearl. Lake Idlewild, Michigan. 1956.
Kris, Doris and Pearl. Lake Idlewild, Michigan. 1956.

The summer of 1956, my mother would sometimes row over to the “island”, which was downtown Idlewild, not a real island, although you did have to go over a bridge or a drainage pipe to get there. At that time, Idlewild was booming, a place for Idlewild_signsblack people to go in segregated America and forget about all that for awhile. Big name acts preformed at the Flamingo Club and there was a skating rink in the club house. But when we rowed over in the morning, we were going to get the paper or milk or something else mundane.

Sometimes my sister Pearl and I would take our savings and shop at Lee-Jon’s or at Ma Riddle’s Log Cabin.  At Lee-John’s we bought tiny bears with movable limbs, about 3 inches tall. At Ma Riddle’s, we mainly looked while she tried to sell us salt and pepper

Picture 2
Idlewild is located at the red A

shakers that looked like picnic tables. Her store was a real log cabin.  I don’t remember going inside because it was so small that the front was a shutter she raised and lowered and you looked at the merchandise right there.

I wonder why we weren’t wearing life jackets in the photo above. We certainly couldn’t swim at the time. There were life jackets because I remember playing in the water and wearing them. The lake was 4 miles around and there were spots, my Uncle Henry used to say, where the bottom had never been found.

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