Senior Center Talk a Success

The most poignant part of last night's talk at the Senior Center came afterwards. One very sweet older lady asked me during Q&A if I would continue Dusty Diary. "I read you every day," she said. My heart was touched, and I've truly been a slaggard at maintaining this blog during vegetable-gardening planting season. That was lazy and rather irresponsible of me. The lady's kind words, and some nods in the audience, have given me resolve to return to and do a responsible job of maintaining this blog.

Last night's talk at the Senior center was fun. About 30 folks attended. We blasted off with a game of Ypsi Jeopardy, which folks enjoyed. I had set up chairs into 2 teams and asked each team to pick a team name. One picked the Towers, the other the Braves. And we were off, with a game set up on an old slide-projector screen. James kept score, sort of.

Afterwards James gave a talk on Oscar Lawrence, a man possibly linked with the Dan Corey murder. I did not vet this talk. The talk was based on secondary source material. Primary source material available at the Archives that includes census records, grave records, genealogical records, and a WWI draft registration card collectively present a factually different portrait of this man--and of his character. Afterwards I gave a talk on Depression-era social worker Inez Graves. There was a raffle for two of my books and two of James's books--his book comes out in late July and will be available at Salt City, Mix, and Amazon.

I noted several aspects of my presentation skills that need improvement. I need to relax more, monitor the pace of my speech, and I was wearing heels that made a distracting sound on the floor. Also, I later realized I'd talked about Inez before at a former talk, and there might have been at least one of the same audience members--think I recognized one--at that former talk. Not too bright. An oversight. Mistakes are an opportunity for me to learn and get better.

As folks drifted in my husband manned the Victrola, changing needles and rewinding as necessary. The whispery, tinny music created a nostalgic atmosphere. This beautiful machine was recently renovated by an Ypsilanti artist. It's now at the house of a fellow Ypsilantian "Victrolian" [term coined by husband] who lent me a few of his 78s for the talk. Today's Courier contains a story about its renovation. So welcome back to DD, and hope to have the compliment of a visit tomorrow!

The 1919 Diary of Ypsilanti High School Teacher Carrie Hardy

Part of a year-long weekly serialization of Ypsilanti high school math teacher Carrie Hardy's diary.



You may recall that last week Carrie started teaching her 1 morning and 2 afternoon summer school classes. She moved her ice box onto the porch, mended some clothes, visited Alley Festa, and missed her traveling friend Lillian. She finished her week by visiting the cemetery.

July 5 Sat. Cleaned bathroom + kitchen. Moved ice box to back porch [why? Did these early refrigerators, which were cabinets containing blocks of ice in a top compartment, become too drippy in an un-air-conditioned house in the summer? Also, it is likely Carrie had home ice delivery service at 223 River, in addition to milk and paper delivery]. Slept, bathed, hoed garden. 5 gals. of gasoline. May telephoned that Rob would not come Sun.

July 6 Sun. Did not go to church-feel mighty blue without reason. Did some cleaning + sewing. Wrote to Lillian in St. Paul. Rode in car to cemetery [According to information from Carrie's Bible, recorded on her father's obit card, Carrie's father had died July 16 four years before and was buried in (Union)-Udell Cemetery at Huron River Dr. & Textile Rd.; perhaps she visited his grave. Carrie's mother had died in 1874, which is probably the year Carrie was born; she may have died in childbirth. At the time of this diary writing, Carrie is around 44 years old.]

July 7 Mon. Washed & ironed. Dusted car. Trig from 1-3. At four attended Summer school faculty picnic. At 6:45 Victrola concert at Pease Aud.

July 8 Tues. Rec'd card from L.-She is homesick. She returned home about 5:30 this P.M. She stayed all night with me.

July 9 Wed. 1-3 class off today + the 3-4 class did not meet on account of extra assembly. Mr. Burton, Pres. of Minn., spoke. Student-faculty get-together in eve.

July 10 Thurs. After 7-8 class we went berrying. Mrs. Fletcher, Miss Lambie, Lillian, little Mary, and I. Martha in eve-S. Lewis, May Webb, Lillian & I.

July 11 Fri. All classes on. Miss Creech called on Miss Gieske. After supper went with Lillian for her father at huckleberry marsh.

July 12 Sat. Bo't 7 qts. of cherries from Miss Creech and canned 10 pts. Was sick from noon on. Lillian stayed all night with me.

July 13 Sun. Took 7:30 [interurban light rail?] car for Detroit. At 10:00 boarded steamboat Thousand Islander [pictured at right] for Chatham, Ont. Returned at 11:00.

Thanks for reading; tune in next Tuesday for the next series!