52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 24
Prompt- Dear Diary
I have always enjoyed writing a diary /
journal. My first diary was written in my pre-teen years. I am sure
that I had read Anne Frank, A Diary of a Young Girl and found the
idea of writing a diary intriguing and at some point it even became
therapeutic to tell the world those things you dare not tell anyone. I think that my blogs are just an extension of my
journal writing days.
In a one of my blogs of 2018, I spoke
of my mother's diary of 1940 - 1941. It was written when Betty was
an infant. Like so many other people of the time just coming out of
the depression and heading straight into the war, they were broke and
dad was having trouble finding work to support their growing family.
Mom wrote of the circumstances of my father's enlistment into the army.
They were truly surprised.
Vivian and Jake Peters (aka mom and dad).
 |
| Mom and Dad - Christmas 1975. |
Mom loved to write diaries too. Mom decided to keep a Trip Diary of
their experiences in Honolulu. The details she wrote astounded me. I mean I never paid
attention to the altitude and cruising speed of the airplane trips
I've been on. Maybe it was just such an exciting trip that she
wanted to record every little detail to remember it by.
On their second day according to mom's diary, they were already
tanning at the beach in their bathing suits. Now there is a picture
we rarely saw at home except when we went camping in the Okanogan.
Mom tells us of their Sunset Sail and Dinner. Mom writes how
the hula dancer chose dad in the crowd and took him up on stage to
dance. Wow I can just imagine how dad felt. He was such a quiet
reserved man, this would have killed him so to speak. I love that
mom speaks of dad's curiosity in the style of garages on the island. And
I can see my mom talking with the bus tour operators; she was like
that in that small talk with strangers was not a problem.
On January 30th they were
suppose to be on a tour of the Polynesian Center however it was
overbooked so they had to re-book for the next day. So instead they
went to Pearl Harbor to tour it. Mom wrote how sad it was because
in their tour was a couple whose son had gone down on a ship. Later on that night while back at their hotel they heard the fireworks of the Chinese New Year Celebrations.
I can see how dad might of thought he
was under attack after visiting Pearl Harbor and then hearing the
noisy firecrackers that evening.
On their fourth day the headed off to
the beach for a sun tan. Not that unusual seeing how it was Hawaii,
but what was surprising was that mom rented a surf board and “fooled
around with it for an hour. Hard to manage but finally made it.”
She got up on a surf board! Who knew! I can see dad sitting on the
beach smoking (it was allowed back then) and shaking his head at his
wife.
Mom's diary gives us such vivid detail
of their time in Honolulu. However it also gives us insight into
their thoughts and feelings and their plans for the future to return
to the island.
Their time on the island was during a
bad weather event. Mom's writings reminds me that as a family we are generally quite pessimistic. She just knew that when she got to paradise the weather would turn rotten! In further reading of the paragraph below it brought back two sayings that I forgot about. "The heavens opened". She always said that during any good rain downpour and in Saskatoon that was often. Also the term "boob tube" is a long forgotten derogative term for the television.
This is something that I did not know. Well I knew they wanted to go back but I did not realize that they dreamed of having family with them. Wouldn't that have been nice for them. I know the want to share those beautiful times with one's own family.
Mom's final entry in her Hawaii Trip Diary is a touching note of thanks to us, her family. I know they both thanked us many times but seeing it in writing just seems more poignant.
Wendy
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