The blog posts below are taken from my grandmother's diaries. Althea Green Smith Crook was lovingly referred to as Nanny to her immediate family ~ thus her diaries are called Nanny's Diaries.

Nanny wrote in her diaries when she remembered to - mostly in the evening. There will be some years in which she didn't keep diaries and there will also be some days/weeks in her yearly diaries in which she skipped or forgot to write in them. For the most part, these are her words - written as she wrote them. There will be typos, forgotten punctuation, and other grammatical errors - but I am rewriting these as my Nanny originally wrote them.

As with all old handwriting, there are some entries that I can't quite make out - and these entries will be followed with a (?) to signify that this may or may not be correct or I can't figure out what she is trying to write.

Thank you Nanny for leaving us 50 years worth of memories! We miss you!

Thursday, July 16, 2020

July 17 - 19, 1975 Haying


Thursday, July 17, 1975 Began to mow Walt’s hay

A hot and humid day. At last it has cleared and been a nice sunny day except it is hot and humid. Betty took Lloyd to town to shop. It was so hot. He had a dizzy spell. I had Zak. Carmen and Kim over to Joy’s. Betty and I went over after supper to get them but they stayed all night. Zak stayed here tonight. He and Billie got some lightning bugs. Butch Gorham called and told him to start mowing as they will do the haying at Walt’s this weekend if the weather is good. Bill cultivated the gardens. He got quite hot. He shouldn’t have worked in such heat.



Friday, July 18, 1975 Betty to doctors in Portland, mowed rest of the hay. Hot.

A sunny day but hazy with humidity. I was busy all day. I done regular work, washed, ironed, went to town, defrosted refrigerator. Washed kitchen and bathroom curtains, ironed them and put them back. I washed and waxed kitchen floor. Zak here all day. Betty to the doctors in Portland for late afternoon appointment. She brought Italian sandwiches for supper. We ate on the picnic table. Bill done rest of the mowing except the stripped-down by the road. The machine pump broke. This is been a very hot and humid day. Bill gets so hot when he works out in the field. Betty to the doctors in Portland. He said there wasn’t anything he could do for her ear. Zak up here all day. They brought Italian sandwiches, we all ate here. Girls over to Joy’s. Walt and Betty went after them.


Check out the nice red Farmall tractor!

I love Freya in the back of the truck!



Saturday, July 19, 1975 David, HAYING all done

A hot humid day yet a good day to dry the hay. Up quite early and Billie got ready and went to Oxford at Twitchell’s to get the part for mowing machine. Bill down to Walt’s to get the hay conveyor put up. About 9:30 a happy surprise. DAVID came to help hay and he was a big help to. We all was glad he came up. I hope he and Dorothea get back together. He don’t look very good then and a sad look as though he was unhappy. He ate supper at Betty’s. I made a cake and divided it with Betty. I put a hair rinse on. I picked peas, beans and greens for Dorothea. I was down to Betty’s in p.m. to watch them hay. Walt had to work most of the day.


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