Years ago I worked with a woman who found the ultimate treasure (to me) at a yard sale - a personal journal written by someone from a different generation. The journal she found was written by a woman who wanted a career but in 1920s society was being pressured to marry. Much of the journal was about this woman's struggle with her desires and her role in society.
I've spent years looking for old journal of my own. I love personal journals. I can't say what ignites me so much but I've been keeping my own for years and I love blog posts abut journals and journaling - sketchbooks, color studies, art journals, diaries- I find them all fascinating.
Saturday we stopped at an estate sale. It was in a trailer park so I figured there probably wasn't too much of an estate. There was a box of notebooks in a corner looking forlorn and untouched. Kelly found it first and then I went through the whole box looking for paper ephemera for my journals. As a was looking through the box it took a while for it to sink in - I was looking at years of someone's personal travel journals. Long entries of handwriting with maps and brochures and pictures taped in.
The one on top is a log of a travel trailer journey undertaken in a Dolphin in the late 80s. The orange one is from 1982 and the black one (the only one written in German) is from 1954 - the year the author came to America. 
There were quite a few more binders and notebooks but I ended up taking just three - the ones that really spoke to me. At the bottom of the box were these:
About 40 pre-war German postcards. It looks like they were glued into some kind of family album and then pulled out. You can see in the upper left corner where she labeled some of them. The cards are in excellent condition except for where you can see the glued paper in the back. I think I might be able to remove it without destroying the postcards. Here are few I especially liked:
The last thing that I had to have from this estate was this picture:
It's about 13" x 20", mounted on thick cardstock and says Gossip 303, Hans Comotio on the back.The estate seller explained that the woman died and all her heirs are in Germany so no one was interested in taking any of this stuff. From a wartime teenager in Germany to a senior in Brookings, OR with bountiful road trips in between. No one interested? Hard to believe.
All of the above (plus a book) is in great condition, no musty smell, no damage and I paid $1.25 for all of it.
Wow! What a find! I love reading old published diaries, but have never found anything like that!
ReplyDeletei would've had chills looking at those old photos and handwriting. you know, when i keep journals, i always imagine someone somewhere will eventually find and read them, even though i write for myself. i can't help but think this person may have had similar thoughts as she wrote hers. i think you've fulfilled something for her, even if "no one was interested." what a find.
ReplyDeleteW-O-W! Major score! I am swooning over the old postcards (I have a small collection). Love that goose pic too. They're wrong about no one "being interested"... we are!
ReplyDeleteThe pose cards are amazing bits of history- thanks for sharing those. Beautiful find1
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I would stopped at an estate sale in a trailer. Glad you did- that goose pic is a trip!
ReplyDeletei have two yes TWO boxes of similar stuff, te-hee!
ReplyDeletei love it and treasure it!
yours is wonderful, good job ;-)
Wow, what a great find! I am always humbled when I come across finds like these, glimpses of someone's life, a record that they left of themselves for others to enjoy. If you would like to ever have the German journal transalated I am fluent and would do so gladly just because I like to read old journals too :)
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