June 5-7, 1910

June 5, 1910


Up at 8 and went to BAC.  ------ at the ---- gym. Clara Merle graduated & it poured & we did not leave till 2pm. I took B to the cars & came back for the rest. Clara Merle, Lucille Martie, Ed Schrai- & B & I over home to dinner. 


W. Poured from 11 till early morning. 
R. 9

Clara Merle eventually marries his brother Oscar. (But not in the diary)


June 6, 1910


Caught in a shower coming home. Developed a roll of film, ironed my aprons 7 read. It poured steady till late. Mrs W. & B & her ladies up in the afternoon. 


W. Rain at night, shower. 
R. 10


June 7, 1910


After supper I started to build a stone wall along the line side of the driveway. It rained some.


W. Rain
R. 10

Although I feel like I could do a few more entries tonight, This is a logical stopping point because of something I noticed in the entries this evening. They appear begnin and focus inordinatly on the weather. 3 days in a row.
What could I have possibly noticed?

The weather does not appear unseasonably bad or noteworthy (meaning, he's not stuck home in a 3 day blizzard or anything like that.) and yet he has talked about it 3 days in a row. Why?

These entries actually answer one of the big questions I have about the diary-When does he write?

Notice in the first entry he goes to bed at 9 but that it rains until early morning. Obviously he is not writing this at 9, as I sometimes imagine he does. He then talks about the rain 3 more days. This is because he is writing the entries all in one day and thinking about the weather and reflecting that it has rained for 3 days.

I've noticed before that he changes pens and sometimes uses pencil and sometimes uses a fountain pen. However, I've never paid attention before on how often he makes that change or when 3 in a row will be in one format and then changes to another.

 Additionally, I've never quite paid attention to the fact the his handwriting stays the same for a block of entries at a time (all big, all small, neat, sloppy, etc...) I mean I've seen this but it just was not registering with me. Tonight it hit me over the head.

Duh....

Looking back through the diary I see that this is the case for a number of the entries. This would also explain why he knows things like the Custiss flight on the day they happen. He's writing after the fact.

I also learned something tonight. I've been troubled by his use of the word till, for until.  In the diary he uses very good English and punctuation. He's rarely makes mistakes. Except for the use of the & symbol, he does not take shortcuts.

I have always assumed that till (for until, not for an actual till) was slang. It is not.  Is this an embarrassing mistake for me to have made or am I telling you something you don't know? I've never discussed this word with anyone before. If it's an embarrassing mistake don't berate me too badly!

 Till vs. ’til. vs Until

Since it looks like an abbreviation for “until,” some people argue that this word should always be spelled “’til” (though not all insist on the apostrophe). However, “till” has regularly occurred as a spelling of this word for over 800 years and it’s actually older than “until.” It is perfectly good English.