i am someone who finds journaling important, both in the moment and when you can look back on it days/months/years later.  i've been journaling since i was old enough to write, basically, and someday i'll regale you with my ridiculous elementary school journal entries.  but in the meantime:

in 1948, my freshly-married grandparents left the US for a four month stint in england, where they took master's level courses in english literature, as best i can tell.  they were 28 years old.  they journaled - both of them.  when my grandma died, we found the journal, and my cousin sara transcribed it (a labor of love, for sure).  i'm going to post some of my favorite entries in an occasional series going forward.  it's such a personal little look back into a different era and a different version of my grandma.

this entry is written by my grandma on day two of their train trip to new york to get on the boat to england.  cigarettes and beer - love my grandma.

June 21, 1948
Into Chicago at 8a.m. - breakfast, cleansing. Practically ran uptown to look at typewriters, ran back & hopped onto the Pennsylvania for N.Y. Played cards, smoked surreptitiously in “no smoking” car. Off at Pittsburg for a long, cold beer. To the conductor: “How long do we have here?” “Out at 9:40.” “Time for a beer?” “Fifteen minutes. I should think so. I could get away with 3 in that time.”

after a few days in new york, they board the queen mary for england.  this is my grandma writing again.

June 24, 1948
This is our day - to make our Maiden Voyage. About 8:45 when we first see the Queen. All I could do was gasp. She is enormous, making the Borinquen at the next pier look like something in miniature. Went thro’ the lines rapidly - no questions, no trouble. We walked thro’ the ship, getting lost at least 10 times, but 99.9% of the rest of the passengers were too. Very foggy until we were almost ready to hoist anchor when the fog began to lift. We stayed out on deck until lunch time & had to run out of the dining room to see the Lady [the statue of liberty, i assume] as we left the harbor. Quite slow going until we got out of the harbor. Drank bitter British beer and continued to fight our way around the labyrinth. It is amazing: no two turns produce the same picture. There seem to be lounges everyplace - beautiful & spacious, even for those of us who are going in something below the upper 2 classes. Cinemas, bars, restaurants, shops, beauty salons, everything. Met a wonderful young couple with whom we shall eat the rest of the journey - Jerry and Mary Billiter - he a psychiatrist who will work in England for a year, she a clinical psychologist. We danced in the evening & drank more bitter British beer until 11:30. 
Our cabins are small - 4 single bunks. I asked the steward please to leave my trunk in the hall so the girls wouldn’t kick me out. Very comfortable bunks. Safety drill. For horns blowing wildly. 
[written in the top and side margins]: All hepped up about famous personage Harry Richman on board, but was taken down a peg when Mary & Jerry asked if I’d seen the passenger list. We are travelling (several decks apart) with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Lord Beaverbrook, and several famous psychiatrists. But to me “there’s no business like show business.”I.G.R. Wylie also.

cookbooks

when my grandma died last year, among her belongings that were passed down were a bunch of cookbooks.  i love to cook, as this blog can attest, and i have a lot of food memories of my grandma: being forced to eat this gross ground beef/potato/apple (is this memory even correct?) casserole as a child, making cookies with her in the kitchen on many occasions, being taught to make the fruit cake recipe for my dad.

both before and after she passed away i got some of her cookbooks.  today you get a tour of them.

cookbook 1: the new york times cookbook from 1961

for about the last 10 years of her life, my grandma kept trying to give away some of her belongings.  "look through the bookshelf and take some books!"  "would you have any use for…?"  her belongings had already been condensed to fit into a tiny apartment and were being reduced even more to fit into her room when she moved into the skilled nursing facility.  this is a book that i took during my last visit to see her before she died, when it was clear that, yes, there wasn't room for all her books anymore.

cookbook 2: staples' treasure of personal recipes from 1952

grandma grew up in staples, minnesota, and this is a cookbook that the women in her parents' church put together.  she gave me this book even earlier - maybe 7 or 8 years ago when i went to visit.  inside - and shown below - is mrs. kenneth kingsley's recipe for fruit cake, which must be made around the holidays.  grandma showed my sister and i how to make it - measuring crisco from a can into a measuring cup because that's what the recipe said - and then gave me the book.  (don't worry, when i remember to make this for dad, who loves it, we use margarine instead of crisco.)  i love that this recipe says to cook the fruit cake "in lower oven in 3 coffee cans."  below my grandma has translated this: 325 degrees.

cookbook 3: betty crocker's picture cookbook from 1950

this is a book i was incredibly touched to receive.  after my grandma died, we held a memorial service for her at my parents' farm.  we set up a little exhibition of her things in one of the rooms of our house, and family members took things as the weekend ended.  this cookbook was left behind, i thought accidentally, but my aunt monica wanted me to have it.  this was grandma's daily cookbook, and it is so well-loved...stained from years of cooking with it open on the counter...with handwritten notes...duct-taped back together...extra recipes shoved between pages.

ruby likes the illustrations.

the cookies page was definitely the most well-used.

cookbook 4: gold medal flour cookbook from 1910

this little paper cookbook was my great-grandmother's and is 103 years old.  i was baking this morning (peach muffins to bring to a meeting that i'm leading tomorrow), and thought this was a fitting picture.  i should be in an ad.  gold medal flour people: call me.

i think this cookbook must have been one you sent away for after buying so many bags of flour; it's personalized with my great-grandmother's name (lilah poore) on the cover.  this cookbook, too, is well-loved: stained and taped together and a little crumbly at the corners from its age.

it's one big advertisement for the flour, but has tons of recipes, too.  gold medal people: i will even stand in this pose for our TV ad if you want me to.

this thanksgiving we'll have my grandma's green bean casserole and blueberry cobbler on the table.  we'll keep eating the same things that have been eaten in our family for years and years…and years and years to come.

grandma's jewelry

when my grandma died, she left behind a LOT of jewelry.  she was never rich - or even close to it - so there was no discussion of whether any of it was worth a huge amount of money, but she loved jewelry.  it's amazing how much of it is timeless - things that we, her 30-ish year old granddaughters love and were happy to have.

my grandma had one daughter, my aunt monica.  monica had taken a couple special things for herself, but she generously brought most of it for the granddaughters to share.  she spread it all out on a table last saturday afternoon and we looked through it all.  my cousin sara proposed a draft; each of us would take one piece per "round," assuring that we didn't feel like others had taken everything we wanted.  my first round draft pick?  this cameo ring:

after that it's a blur - i don't know which piece i took when.  a couple months ago i have decided that when i am an old lady principal i want to have a brooch collection.  here are three to add to the...one...i already had:

horrible picture wherein i demonstrate how i will wear said brooch:

a ring i remember grandma wearing a lot - it's the end of a spoon bent around on itself - and necklace.

charm for a necklace:

awesome earrings that i will probably never wear - they are made from 1940s dimes!  do not ask me how someone did this.

also, FDR isn't on the dime!  wikipedia informs me that it is "mercury" or "winged liberty," and this is what the dime looked like from 1916 until 1945.  i mean, makes sense, right.  you don't put a current president on your money...

another ring - love this one, too:

and then there was my grandma's owl collection - 14 owls that she'd collected over the years.  we split them up among the family members.  i definitely got the best one.  (shh - don't tell.)

i'm really excited about having these things of my grandma's - she'll always be with me!

(ugh, vomit - too cheesy.  but TRUE, people.  sometimes cheesy is TRUE.)

pumpkin date cookies

this one is one of my grandma norma's, which aunt mary made and they disappeared almost instantly.  i'm not really a cookie person, and i loooooved these.  so you should make them.

pumpkin date cookies:

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
mix and sift.
add 3/4 cup rolled oats.

cream:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
beat in 1 egg.
add flour mixture alternately with 1 cup pumpkin.
stir in 1 cup dates, nuts, 1 tablespoon grated orange rind.

bake at 350 for 15 minutes, but grandma says that she reduces the heat to 325 because they burn easily.

handshakes

a couple weekends ago i spent 7 hours at school interviewing students who are applying to our school for next year.  it went by quickly - 15 minutes of interviewing, they do a writing sample for us for about 15 minutes, i write up the interview, and it's on to the next kid.  all the kids i interviewed today are in 8th grade and applying for 9th grade.  it's really fun to see them all dressed up and a bit nervous and trying to impress us.  they shake hands with me like real grown ups would, both before and after the interview.  i imagine that this is something their parents drill into them - "make sure you shake her hand afterwards and thank her for taking the time to talk with you!"

i had this vivid memory at the end of the day, shaking hands with the last girl i interviewed, of my grandma giving me the same talk.  i don't know what award i was about to receive, but i knew that the next day i'd be shaking hands with some grown up after they gave me an award.  this was when my grandma lived next door to me, so i must have been in elementary school - maybe 4th grade?  my grandma made me practice with her the night beforehand.  "okay, hold your hand like this.  good.  now, firm handshake.  not limp like this - no, firm.  good.  the first thing a person will notice about you is your handshake.  you have to make a good, strong first impression."

and a handshake is one of those things, isn't it, that we do judge people on if they give a limp handshake, or just use the tips of their fingers, or just hold their hand out and give no pressure in return.  for a working girl like myself, a handshake is important.  and when i was 9, my grandma knew that.