Ruthless Knitting

Over the weekend, David and I painted the deck.
Here it is holding up like a champ to its first experience of rain.

Yesterday, a present arrived in the mail from my parents.
It’s an antique sewing table!
They thought I could use it for stashing my knitting things.
Both sides are drawers that open from the top.

It came stuffed with old junk, which I sorted through. There was a tin full of buttons, many of them very nice (but all of them a bit dirty).
These are the ones I decided to keep.

There were also some nuggets of historical interest, including this memo book, in which someone kept accounts for a few years in the mid-1960s.

Far more exciting, to me anyway, was this little book — a freebie memo pad promoting Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia . . .

. . . which Florence of Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, used as a diary!
The diary is from the late 1920s.
Florence seems to have been young, unmarried, and on the prowl.

Consider these two entries:
“Met Bill B. around the last of Dec. or first of Jan 1927. He was over here with Mr. Quig to play cards Jan 11 and Jan 13. I had a date with him liked him real well. Had a date for Sunday but he called from Pitts[burgh] that he could not come down, as he had to be in town until Wednesday to report on a railroad accident which the train he works on had a few mornings before, Monday morning I guess. He said he would call me Wed evening when he got in.”

“Still going with Bill (Slim) enjoy his company more every night. He puts me in mind of Bob. Have not missed many nights in the week since I started to go with him. Bill has real nice ways gets mad playing cards, But I do not take it up and get mad at him so it is alright. The only fault I am afraid of is playing cards for money (poker) But hope it doesn’t mean anything. We went to several shows. John Quig went along we all had a real nice time. Was in town (Pitts) met Slim and went to Dinner attended a show and enjoyed every minute!”

I love this kind of thing — glimpses into the secret lives of strangers.
Do you suppose that’s why I read blogs, too?