Celebrating Memories

Beth was ten years old when she got her first diary. She filled in every day's page religiously, even if it meant nothing more than documenting what she had for lunch and what she wore to school.

An avid chronicler of life, Beth continued to fill a diary every year from then on. If the Meyer family ever needs to know what happened on a certain day, or exactly when an event occurred, Beth can probably find it in her diaries.

Although she's not as disciplined a diary-writer as she was back then, she still keeps a yearly diary. To celebrate her recorded memories, she stacked all 40 of them, and read excerpts from a few.

A few choice excerpts:

Nov 5 1968 (11 years old in Tallahassee). Today is election Day. Our class voted and Wallace won. BOO! After dinner Mom and Jenni went to the Humphrey headquarters. I went to rehearsal with Dad and then we went to headquarters. I'm going to bed now so I don't know who won.

April 22 1969 (12 in Florence, Italy). Jenni and I had ice cream cones on the Ponte Vecchio. Some gypsy children came up to us smiling and begging. We gave them some money and then one of them grabbed Jenni's ice cream cone.

April 27,1970 (13 in Tallahassee...the very first Earth Day). We got to wear sweatshirts and SHORTS to school! We made posters and signs and the whole class walked to the dump. We screamed "Down with Pollution!" for about 4 miles. We were escorted by police who stopped the traffic for us. By the time we got to the dump we were so tired, but we started cleaning and putting trash in huge bags and taking them to the dumpsters. Dirty, sweaty and hot!!! Didn't make a dent.

April 15,1971 (14). My science teach, Mrs. Silvey had a baby yesterday!!! Everyone just
thought she was fat!

Feb 14, 1973 (15). In French class we are doing soap carvings. I was carving the building where Marie Antoinette met with her lover. But Folly ate it. So Now I'm carving the Arch de Triumph.

June 27, 1973 (16 in Ann Arbor, Mich). The family stopped in an antique store and Mom and Dad bought this gigantic,wooden cookie mold of a crazy looking man. David (age 11) wants to name the mold John Dean...because whenever Dad watches Watergate he always says, "He's a cool cookie." when John Dean comes on. But Dad didn't think that was funny.