October 30th, 2009

I received microfilm of Elizabeth Custer’s journals from Yale University yesterday and it reads like the diary an 11 year-old girl would have written. Her father gave her the journal for her 10th birthday in April 1853 with instructions to “keep and preserve a record of her life.” Elizabeth didn’t use the journal until her 11th birthday. She felt she had nothing of interest to say until then. After reading one of the entries from February 24, 1854, I think she should have held off a few months at least. It read, “Have been making underclothes for my larger doll.” Day to day life isn’t always filled with exciting events or insight?unless of course you’re Anne Frank. I decide to compare the journal entry I made in my own diary on February 24, 1972. I was 11, same age as Elizabeth in 1854. “Oh, how I wish Dale Thoeni noticed me. Maybe if I didn’t have big teeth and a big nose he might. My mother said I’ll grow into my teeth and nose and that Dale would one day notice me for my other qualities. Parents always say things like that. What other qualities?! When are these other qualities supposed to arrive?” Elizabeth Custer’s journal goes on to describe her life leading up to the days of the Civil War. My journal describes a list of local beauticians who refused to cut anyone else’s hair like Farrah Fawcett’s. I’m grateful that Elizabeth kept a record of her life and times. It’s a wonderful piece of history. It’s right that an institution as prestigious as Yale would have her journal. My journal, which I have maintained since I was eight, is safely tucked away in a cedar chest under my staircase. No one is going to go looking for it unless there’s a toilet paper shortage. Sure, maybe I wasn’t as astute as Elizabeth Custer, but I did one thing she never would do. I dotted the I in Dale’s last name with a heart. My journal won’t ever make it into a libraries special reading section, but it’s been a wealth of humor for my friends and I. And maybe that was what I was suppose to “keep and preserve.”