Saturday, June 30, 1928

Sewing girl came today! Mom was feeling worse so she sent me downtown to do her errands. I got home about ten thirty. Francis Bonner called up and asked me to go to the the barber shop. We waited so long for an empty chair that it was about twelve before we left there. This afternoon I went swimming with her and her mother and dad. Elizabeth Penn was having a swimming party out there so I saw quite a few of the Brent School kids. Gwen, Edgar, Durbin, etc., etc. I wish I was going out tonight.

Jane’s Notes: Sewing girl - I can tell from these diaries that many of the family’s cloths were custom made, I presume by local Philippine seamstresses, although there are references to buying cloths off the rack as well. I have a trunk full of lace clothing, beaded dresses and other treasures (along with the diaries and letters) from Mom’s days in Manila that were also in the chest that I have inherited.

Friday, June 29, 1928

The next two days of rest will be very welcome. Next Monday we’re going to have our new teacher I think. Thank heavens she has finely come. We won’t have those two extra periods to work Spanish and Physics any more. Helen saw Don in the office today so I guess its a sure thing he’s coming to Central. Monday we are to start our Physics experiments. I’ve heard they’re the hardest part of the course. I got 95 and 96 in two Spanish tests. Pipe that. In the afternoon I went downtown with Mom and June and got my watch and pearls. I took Mom home then because she wasn’t feeling well, then went back. I got some lovely print for a dress and a new record, “Persian Rag”. It’s good. June went to the doc and had three warts removed with an electric needle. I’m reading a book called “Cloudy in the West”. Its very amusing.

Jane’s Notes: You will read several references in these diary pages about “Mom not feeling well.” My mother said to me once that she thought her own mother was a bit of a hypochondriac. I remember our Grandmother visiting us in Oregon City one time. A TV tray was placed next to her bed and it was covered with pill boxes and bottles.

Thursday, June 28, 1928

When I took out the combs this morning, I discovered the most beautiful waves. Lovely glossy waves. This noon I put a ribbon on to hold my hair back. Can’t tell whether I like it now or not but I think it will look look pretty nice when my hair gets to the ugly length. At four thirty I went to Frenchie’s. We sat around and played the Vic and the likes. I wish I could change cords as quick as Frenchie does and do the roll stroke as well. At six Mom came and took me to the Polo Club to go swimming. After I had put on my suit I found the pool was closed and would remain closed until further notice. I got dressed and went back to the club house for tea. Don and Phil came down this afternoon.

Jane’s Notes: I’m not sure if “Vic” is a reference to Victrola or a guitar reference. I never knew my mother to play a guitar.

Wednesday, June 27, 1928

There was much discussion this morning as to whether June should go to school or not. In the end she did and she has gone thru the day without a relapse. At Physics today the teacher changed all our seats around. I sit all the way across the room from Helen. I do’t know what I’m going to do. I was so surprised this noon when I came home and told Mom I wanted to go and see the “Fair Co-ed” and she said she would like to go with me. I tho’t she didn’t like movies. We had lunch right at twelve thirty and hurried down so we could be there at the beginning of the one o’clock show. It was a peach of a show. More wise cracks!! We came home and I fooled around and spent lots of time getting dressed. As a result I made Mom twenty minutes late to the tea. It was St. Luke’s Hospital Benefit tea. After spending about a half hour there I went and got Frenchie and Ruth and we went to the Polo Club. The water was only about 1 1/2 ft deep. So we walked around for half an hour and then came home.

Jane’s Notes: Mom was an amazing swimmer and throughout this diary you’ll read references to swimming. There are several references to swimming in the scrap book as well. There is a Junior Life Saving Corps badge dated September, 1927. One of the earliest home movies I remember was one my father took on a visit to Lake Port, California, where my grandparents ultimately lived when they retired from the Philippines. It is a picture of mother swimming out quite some distance into the lake and back. She was quite a swimmer and she told stories of swimming in the swift current of the Mill Race in Eugene when she was in school at Oregon. This badge is the first evidence I’ve found of her interest in swimming.

Tuesday, June 26, 1928

I didn’t get the letter from Bess. But I did get Bettee’s commencement card and a letter from Gault. Still no history or English teacher. Helen wore Alice’s Kappa Sig sister pin to school. It’s beautiful. Charles is a Kappa Sig. Helen had finger waves in her hair that Alice had put in. They looked plenty keen, as Bettee would say. I saw Alice for the first time since she came, this noon when Helen brought me home. At 3:30 I went with Frenchie and we sent Alto a Radio. At four I was due at a Camp Fire meeting at Mrs. Stagg’s and I got myself in for all kinds of things. Mom had the Eastern Star G Officers in to tea. After Camp Fire I took the car and went for a ride. About 6:20 I saw David G. and Johnny T. and picked them up. We rode around until 10 to seven.

Jane’s Notes: Camp Fire - Mom was a member of Camp Fire Girls. The organization started in 1910 so she was a member pretty early in it’s existence. It still exists, now called Camp Fire USA and includes boys and girls. When Mom belonged you had to be 12 to join. The earliest reference in the scrap book is March of 1924. It’s a letter. “Dear Litahni. This past year has brought new experiences, new joys. I imagine chief among them has been your association with campfire. I know I have heartily enjoyed having you as one of my own campfire girls, and trust that this simple gift may express my desire for you this year - that you may “be pure in your deepest desire, be true to the truth that is in you and follow the law of the fire.” With Love, Guardian Wawona.” I assume Mrs. Stagg must have been the adult leader or Guardian “Wawona”. Everyone took sudo indian name. Mom’s was “Laitahni”. So it would seem that the earliest Mom might have been a member was 1923. The Camp Fire tradition continued. All three of us girls (Missy, Edee and I) were in Camp Fire as well. And Mom served as the volunteer swimming instructor at Camp Onalee in Molalla, Oregon when she was a young bridge before she had any children.

Monday, June 25, 1928

School was terribly dull. Every body including myself was sleepy and stupid. We haven’t any english or history teachers yet. Our history is a huge book and we have to finish it in half a year. So when we finally get started will have lengthy lessons and I don’t mean perhaps. This Noon I got a letter from Phil. S. A boat came in this morning and if Pop doesn’t bring me a letter from Bess what a hot letter she’s going to get from me.

Sunday, June 24, 1928

Frenchie and I were going down to send a radio to Alto to congratulate him on getting in the Point. But I had to stay to church. I like the new preacher still better after hearing him speak. I couldn’t get Frenchie to tell her I couldn’t go with her so we went around there after church. After I had explained myself she asked me to come and see her in the afternoon. After lunch we went to see “It”. I’ve seen pictures I like better. After the show Pop dropped me at Frenchie’s and Mary, Ruth, Frenchie, and I chatted and danced till 6:00 when the family came after me. Frenchie and I went swimming yesterday afternoon. There were many people in. I’ve got to do more swimming if I don’t want to get fat.

Jane’s Notes: “Radio” - I’m assuming this is a “radiogram”. Wikipedia defines it this way: “An instance of formal written message traffic routed by a network of amateur radio operators through traffic nets. It is a plaintext message, along with relevant metadata (headers), that is placed into a traffic net by an amateur radio operator. Each radiogram is relayed, possibly through one or more other amateur radio operators, to a radio operator who volunteers to deliver the radiogram content to its destination.”

Saturday, June 23, 1928

Yesterday afternoon I went to the reception given for the new minister. He seems to be very nice and he made a very favorable impression on me. I wish people would stop telling me how I have grown because I know I stopped two years ago. Some people, no matter how often they see me they say it every time. Ada was there and as usual she was trying to make an impression by pretending to be so old and superior. This morning when I went to have my hair cut, Mom bought me a sport dress at the little store next door to the barber shop. You see so many pretty things when you go shopping. This afternoon we took my watch down to be fixed and I got some stationary at Phil. Ed.

Friday, June 22, 1928

Yesterday afternoon I went after my hat. It’s good looking and how. It makes me look very dignified. A young lady. I’ll have to act my age when I wear that hat. When Helen came to school this morning she was just full of Alice. But I had to get her started. After I had asked her a few questions she opened up and told me all about it. Alice must be heaps of fun. They have a bride staying with them. It must be thrilling. She came over on the boat with Alice. And they both just graduated from U.C. The bride can’t be married for ten days so she’s staying with them till the time’s up. Our new minister came over on the same boat with them.

Thursday, June 21, 1928

The beginning of my Senior Year. Here it is the middle of the second week of school and still no English or HIstory teacher. I hate my uniform more and more every time I wear it and cotton stockings. Ugh! In the paper this morning it said they were beginning to be sorry they had passed the bill. I should think so! Helen’s sister, Alice came in this morning so she didn’t come to school and I was completely lost. I had to walk to Physics by myself an I had to walk home. I didn’t have any one to talk to all morning. I enjoy Physics and I like our teacher. He is so much better than Mr. Baltozar. I wish my English period could be changed so I could have my Spanish with the second year class. I had a date with Fred yesterday afternoon and I had a good time even if we didn’t do any thing but go to the movies. Marion Davis in the “Fair Co-ed” is coming soon and I am anxious to see it. I got a commencement invitation from Lucile this morning. It’s good looking and how I wish we could have a handsome one instead of the same old one every year. Maybe we can change it this year. I hope there’s a letter from Bess for me at the Post Office. She has had plenty of time to write.

Jane's Notes: According to Wikipedia "Fair Co-ed" was released in 1927. In the Philippines most movies came much later than their original release dates. As I read her diary I realize what a typical teenager she was. The School year starts in June and ends in March. It also only lasts until mid-day, probably because it is too hot in the afternoon. The family pattern was to have “dinner”, the biggest meal also sometimes called lunch, mid-day and then “supper” in the evening which was a lighter meal. Sometimes they took a nap after “dinner”.

WELCOME

Thanks for subscribing to the blog. The blog begins on June 21 with the first entry into my mother's diary, two weeks into her senior year of high school. You can read a little bit more about my mother, the blog and why I decided to write it by clicking Jane's Blog in the right side bar. When my Dad moved to senior living in the fall of 2010 and we emptied the home where he and our mother lived beginning in 1973, I inherited my mother's diaries that span the period from her senior year in high school (1928) until she married (1937). She also kept a scrap book and from time to time I'll also include images from that scrap book that relate to the stories in the diaries.

I hope to post daily. The entries aren't long (two paragraphs at most) and should be fun. In many ways she reads like a typical teenager. But her life in the Philippines is unfamiliar to most of us and these diary entries give us a chance to view the events of her life and the period through a different lens. I invite your comments. If you know more to the story, please add, especially my brother and sisters and our cousins who grew up on stories of Manila. If you think of others from the extended family you think would enjoy the blog, send me their email address and I'll add them.

The blog begins Tuesday. I hope you enjoy.