Sunday, January 31, 2010

Coming Attractions

A few years ago, at an estate sale, I picked up a small black pocket diary from 1910. It was in with a bunch of papers and not marked with a price. When I asked the woman running the sale how much she wanted for it, she casually looked at the first few pages, saw nothing was written on them, and charged me $1 for it. (note-the diary pictured is not the actual diary.)

Had she been paying closer attention she would have seen that starting in February, the owner of said diary, F. E. Filsinger, of 504 Stinard Avenue, Syracuse NY, had written something each and every day until the end of the year. (504 Stinard Ave no longer exists as an address in Syracuse, incidentally)

What a find!

Since it's been exactly 100 years since Mr Filsinger penned the words in his diary I thought it would be neat to share them with you daily on the date that he wrote them. The don't start until February 6th so you'll have to wait a few days. I'll also still be writing my other posts as these are short.

There is nothing sensational or lurid in the pages. Nothing shocking or embarrassing to him so this caused me no moral pause at sharing it.  (Although there are some sweet and surprising things.) Sometimes he just eats dinner at his mom's house. He's a gentleman. He's just a regular guy living his life like you or me. The entries are short, and each day he reports the weather and the time he's writing. However,  I find this little glimpse into his life 100 years ago fascinating and a little special. I hope you do too!

I wonder what he would think about me sharing his words after 100 years.

I only read until October because I didn't want it to end.

If I share it with you, then it does not have to.

4 comments:

Meredith said...

What a wonderful idea! I am looking forward it!

Unknown said...

Oh I'm looking forward to it.

Unknown said...

ok thats pretty great, but the writer in me wants to weave a fictional narrative through his life!

Christine said...

You'll have to Steph, because like I said, sometimes all he does is eat dinner.... But I guess we all have days like those.