Datebook 1919

Saturday, April 26, 1919

Cold with little snow at intervals during day. To college 8:30 to 12. Studied. Down town. Bowled at star. To Hayes room for call. Home. Studied in evening. To bed 10:15 P.M.

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Cold. Temperature 18 degrees. Few flakes of snow during day. To college 8:30 to 2:30. Down town. Played pool at Y. Bowled at Star. To mission study at college 7:8 P.M. To drill at Armory. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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Looks like Stanford is back into his old routine, having recovered from his illness.

Thursday, April 24, 1919

Cloudy and rainy at intervals all day. To college 8:30 to 12. Studied in P.M. Received letter from C.W. Wagner. Down to call on Hayes in evening. Not home. To Morse alleys. Watched bowl and pool. To bed 9:30 P.M.

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I wonder what Charles Wagner had to say in his letter? I guess we'll never know.

Wednesday, April 23, 1919

Very beautiful and mild. Ruth left on 9:51 train. Played tennis at Central Park. Studied. Helped wash auto in P.M. Home in Evening. To bed 9 P.M.

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I guess Ruth went back to college? He must have been tired--an early bed time!

Tuesday, April 22, 1919

Very beautiful day. To country place in morning and cleaned up. To Troy in P.M. Father bought 2 cars of eggs. Florence Lavery rode along. To Guy Thorpes home in evening to class meeting. To bed 11:30 P.M.

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Florence Lavery is mentioned in detail in the August 9th post.

Monday, April 21, 1919

Very bright mild. day. Up 8 A.M. Home in A.M. Down town in P.M. Bowled at Star. Sorted eggs. Chored and read in evening. Hanford and Ruth to Proctors. Grace went home in A. M. Thankful for prohibition.

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Grace Cornell must certainly be a relative, a cousin, perhaps as a descendant of Richard Cornell, Susan's father. Susan was Catherine Cramer's mother and therefore Stillman's grandmother.

Sunday, April 20, 1919

Bright in morning. Cloudy rest of day. To Easter service at 7:30 A.M. To Church & Sunday School. Easter exercises at noon. Out riding P.M. Grace Cornell here. To Epworth League and Church Service. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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About this blog . . .

I've created this blog to make a record of the hand-written journals of Stanford Stillman Closson (1900-1982), who was in his life a Methodist Minister, grandfather, father, brother, husband and son. I'm starting with the first one, written in 1919, but I plan to record subsequent years (they continue into the 1970s). I'm matching the days--May 5, 1919 to May 5, 2013, for instance--with one entry per day. So it will take a year to get through the first diary.

The daily entries are pretty short, though, so in addition to recording the diaries, I'm also annotating them, giving additional information about the people, places and events mentioned by Stanford. By doing this, I hope to convey a sense of 1919 Schenectady, New York and the people Stanford interacted with. Of course, I'm also hoping to give Stanford's descendants a fuller picture of who he was as a young man.