Tuesday's Treasure: A Journal

Quite a few years ago my father handed me a book, stuffed with pictures and newspaper clippings, telling me it was his father's journal and I should be the one to have it.

We had a seven hour drive ahead of us and I read the entire journal on the trip. I was fascinated, to say the least. I knew very little about my grandfather. Sure, we visited with one another on holidays and had occasional dinners out. I knew he loved the Buffalo Bills, that he had worked at Merrill Lynch and that he loved cars. His journal was a revelation.

The bound diary was dated 1923, but my grandfather relabeled each page, beginning with 1896, the year of his birth. He allowed three pages for each year. He went back to fill in some information from the years before the diary was published. 

Each year he would make brief entries about trips, people he met, accomplishments and often about what car he was driving! There were many pictures, newspaper articles, programs and letters stuffed into the pages that filled in the gaps. 

Ten years ago I created an electronic version of the diary and had it printed in an effort to preserve the information and to share it with my family. My sweet hubby, my son and I scanned over 400 documents and transcribed each entry, embedding the pictures and articles in the text.

I am so thrilled to have had an opportunity to know more about my grandfather; I am saddened that I didn't know this before his death. What great conversations we could have had!

In some ways, our Blogs are like journals. They mark important events in our lives. I kept a diary through middle school and high school, but have not 'journaled' since then. What about you? Do you keep a journal?