The Diary of Jeffa Porter Hill, SENIOR - Dec. 1937

Emily came to spend the night tonight, and we went through a few things that I brought home from Gran & Grandaddy's house. We were looking through an old cigar box and found a Memorandum book that belonged to our great-grandfather, Jeffa Porter Hill, Senior. He kept records in it of his business, and I'm not sure what that was. The records show the name and city of someone, what they paid for a deposit (anywhere from $1.00 to $5.00), the amount of the sale (from $200 to $700), and the monthly payment amount (from $5.00 to $10.00). He lived at 322 Lincoln Avenue in Pasadena, California. And it's not lost on Emily and me that Pasadena is also home of the Rose Bowl... WE'LL WIN THEN!

Anyway, there was one page in the Memorandum book that had "Diary" written across the top. This is what was written (typos included):

Dec. 17, 1937 Fri

Movie today for atheletic fund. Weather fine

Dec. 18, 1937 Sat.

Got up at 9:30. Started working. Moped all floors. Mamma followed me around redoing it. Done Xmas shopping. Saw Mrs. Smith. Played with erector set after supper. Went to bed at 9:00. Listened to radio until 10:45. Weather O.K.

Dec. 19, 1937 Sun.

Went to S.S. Sang in choir at C. Went to the valley and got a turkey. Didn't go to C.E.

I really enjoyed going through the little cigar box. We also found a letter that my great-grandaddy's brother wrote to him after their mother died. Or at least that's what I think. From what I can tell, great-grandaddy wasn't able to go to the funeral, and his brother mailed him a letter and included a copy of the obituary and a picture of the grave the day after the funeral. WOW. History is amazing. It is awesome to hold fragile pieces of paper in my hands and read the words written by someone related to me that I never met! Perhaps one day soon I will copy the words of the letters onto this blog, and perhaps scan in the picture of his mother's grave and post it. There is an old car in the picture (this was 1930) and I just think it's cool.

Well, I better go... Leyden and Emily are playing Wii Bowling and I'm missing out on all the fun!