About the diary writer
- Barbara McDowell Whitt
- Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
- ~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.
Hay is Pretty - Monday, June 12, 1961
I babysat for Fudges from 8:30 to 2:00. She got me out of bed when she called. I had an hour and a half at home and then we went out to Grandma's to bale hay. We have a new baler. The hay is pretty. Dale got stuck, I went too far and pulled the pulley off the side of the barn, and I went when they weren't ready because Rikki had said "okay" - I asked and thought I heard them say "yes." Phyllis went to her first driver training class.
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10 comments:
Barbara,
I found your blog after you commented on one of our posts over at the WM Freelance Writers Connection. I have been reading through your posts and really find it interesting to get a glimpse inside of your life 50 years ago. This is a great idea you've got here, very unique! Thanks so much for sharing it. I'll be back to keep reading. :)
Angie Atkinson
Hi Angela,
Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. It is interesting for me, too. I don't read ahead in the diary I am posting entries from. That way I can experience each new post the way my readers will.
Hi Barbara,
What a fabulous blog and fun read. I'll bet you never thought you'd have a chance to share your diaries with the world. Especially 50 years later.
Happy Blogging!
Barbara Swafford
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your comment. I find blogging to be a dream come true. I love the gratification that can be found as we bloggers leave our comments for each other.
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for visiting my blog and posting a comment. I've just been looking through your diary entries and I agree with the other comments here - it's a fascinating view of a very different time. Thank you for opening up your life to us like this!
And it's wonderful that you're not peeking ahead, but you're rediscovering each entry as you share it with us.
Please keep up your wonderful work.
Best wishes,
Linda
Pulling the hay up into the barn was my job too until I got old enough and strong enough to set the forks in the hay bales. Back then I sometimes wondered what would happen if I went too far. Now we know.
Bill, it is always fun to know the things we had in common during our growing up years on each of our farms.
I only got to help once or twice but I helped your dad put hay bales up in Grandpas barn. It was great. Hot. Dirty. Great hay smell.I still remember that whenever I catch the smell of fresh hay.I really do cherish those experiences.
Ron, I know what you mean about the smell of fresh hay. That is neat that you know what putting hay in Grandpa's hay loft was like - you were there.
Linda Dessau,
I just a short while ago found your very nice comment that you wrote following my Monday, June 12, 1961 "Hay is Pretty" diary entry. It is a real "Go ponder" as to why Google/Blogger thought it was "spam" of all things. I have found one needs to hustle to "keep ahead of" "technology".
Your comment [which now is here where it should be] Angela Atkinson's, Barbara Swafford's, + Bill's and Ron's comments following the same entry, are charming, keepers, gems - and yours is in no way "spam". On the contrary - I see all of your comments as "blurbs" worth getting your and their permission to post again further down my Blogger blogging path. Linda, thank you for your kind words about my blog.
Barbara McDowell Whitt
Sunday, July 24, 2011
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