The day I stopped hoarding old notebooks and started actually reading them

I used to collect every journal I found at estate sales and thrift stores, just piling them up in a box under my bed. Changed that about 6 months ago when I picked up a 1987 diary from a sale in Portland and sat down to actually read it cover to cover. Turns out the woman who wrote it had this whole secret life as a folk singer none of her family knew about. Now I take photos of the most interesting pages and share them here instead of just letting them gather dust. Has anybody else had a moment where a found notebook totally surprised you with its story?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul33029d ago

Wow, that's wild. Finding a secret folk singer's life in a random diary? That's like finding a whole hidden world inside a dusty box. I did something similar with a notebook from the 1970s I found at a flea market. It was full of recipes and notes about a family restaurant that burned down. The woman who wrote it kept track of every customer's favorite dish, even nicknames for regulars. Felt like I was reading a love letter to a lost place.

the_spencer29d ago

Man @paul330's family restaurant find hits different, shows how we sit on someone's whole life story without knowing it.