Friday, February 4, 2011

Upon Which We Share Two More Pages of Lennie's Photo Album

More Excerpts from the 1898 diary of Charles Leonard "Lennie" Davis, age sixteen, Wakefield, Nebraska

Thursday, February 3, 1898

Had the gloves on in depot.
(Was Lennie enjoying the fine sport of boxing?)


Friday, February 4, 1898
Had examination Rhetoric - 45.
(It's difficult to believe that a man who could talk so much could do so poorly in rhetoric. But then, age brings wisdom, and Lennie was only sixteen.)
Went to band practice.
(We believe Lennie played the cornet in the Wakefield Cornet Band.)


Saturday, February 5, 1898

Charlie ? and ?? had a trile??
(While Lennie's hen-scratching penmanship makes some of this entry illegible, it appears that a couple fellows went on trial. But Lennie does not mention their crime! A mystery unsolved!)
Slid down hill. (There must still be snow on the ground.)
Fred & Will went to Norfolk.
(Norfolk is a good 46 miles. Since they did not have an automobile I'm thinking they took the train. Or rode horseback, but that would have been quite a trip.)


Sunday, February 6, 1898
Plaid horns at elevator.
(I didn't know they had "plaid" horns, but Lennie writes that they did. Okay, okay, I'm making fun of Lennie's spelling.)
Took G home.
(Lennie is a little leary of someone reading his diary. He knows who "G" is, but he's not letting us in on that secret. Later on, he mentions his female friends by name...most times.)
Read.
(Keep reading, Lennie. It will improve your spelling!)



Here are a couple more pages from Lennie's photo album. Lovely young ladies. I'm guessing these were pasted into his little book after he graduated from high school. Perhaps in his early twenties. You can click on the photos for a closer view.




Lennie's photo collection included his male friends as well. I wish he had written in their names.


Perhaps Monday I will show you a photo of Lennie's father, Josiah Davis. Josiah sports a marshall's star badge on his suit lapel and wears a bushy beard.




1 comment:

  1. Lennies youngest daughter Francis also played in the cornet band. She tried very hard to lay the trumpet/coronet playing on her oldest son, myself, but sad to say it never took.

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