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!

Sunday, January 28, 2024

August 5 - 8, 1988 Nanny's 78th Birthday

 

Friday, August 5, 1988

 

Another awful hot day. So uncomfortable. Esther was busy all day, made pies. Brud called. Also Carlton and Phyllis to say goodbye. They are leaving tomorrow. They called at Fern’s and Dorothea’s to say goodbye. Dorothea came and did bill. He is getting weaker. Billie been busy all day as usual. Very hot.

 

 

 

Saturday, August 6, 1988 WICKED HOT, HORSES WENT

 

Another one of those wicked hot days. We didn’t do any more than we had to. Mostly regular work. They came early and got the horses. Came at 730, left about 1130 or so. They loaded hard. They had to get tranquilizers. It seemed odd not to see all them down there. Betty came up, she soaked Bill’s foot. Esther cleaned them up. He had a hard day. Feed swollen bad. Hard to manage. Esther went over to Susan’s. Monica was mowing, but got stung she said. Billie mowed all of Walt’s field. They were up to the Lake today. Bill McDade called.

 

 

 

Sunday, August 7, 1988

 

On the cloudy side this morning. Dorothea came early and did a good job on Bill. Esther is working like a Trojan cleaning up getting meals etc. My eye is getting better. Walt up for breakfast. A great birthday. On the 78th one of my life. We sat the picnic table out on the new lawn (the old raspberry bed) and had it out there. I made a very nice spot. Esther made some very good sloppy Joe’s, beat pickles, fancy food. Kim made a delicious and a beautiful cake. The guests were very good too. New electric beater and electric can opener. A brand-new vacuum cleaner, candy, beautiful cards and $90 in money. They brought Bill out in the wheelchair. A decision was made tonight.

 



 

 

 




 

Monday, August 8, 1988

 

Bill very weak this morning. Well the decision is Dorothea is going to move Fern down here and she and Betty are going to move in here and care for Bill. We can’t care for him at all. He is so helpless. Esther has got everything all changed around and ready to move them. They been very busy caring for him. It was quite warm today. We did a big wash. Billie got corn tonight from the garden.

 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)