Today I Spread Manure.
I love old diaries and have owned a few over the years. I had one once that was kept by a farmer near Fort Plain during the year 1917. It wasn't very exciting. In fact, the most common entry was “Today I spread manure.”
As I read it, I kept hoping to find some reference to World War I which The United States had entered that year, but there wasn't any. At first I was a little annoyed with the guy. How could he write about spreading manure when such a terrible event was going on.
But since I have kept a paper journal for six years now, I can better understand this diarist. It is very easy to get caught up with my own life and forget the world around me. My paper journals, which I keep in those marble composition books because they will stand up on a shelf like a regular book, often don't reflect what is going on in the world, just what is going on in my world. Sometimes days go by during which I forget we have troops getting killed in Iraq. If you don't have someone stationed there it is easy to forget what is going on there.
Furthermore, I have begun to see the value in spreading manure. Fertilizing the earth is an important part of the cycle of life. Without a fertile earth, we won't need a war to destroy us. Did this Fort Plain farmer realize that? I don't know for sure, but he must have thought that spreading manure was important because he not only did it almost everyday, he also recorded that he did it in his journal.
Another journal that I owned was kept by a lock tender at Fonda's Basin on the Erie Canal in the 1800s. Fonda's Basin was not in Fonda but was somewhere near Clifton Park. This diary which chronicled life on the canal had more varied entries and was more interesting than the one kept by the farmer in Fort Plain. This diary is now in the New York State Museum.
Another time I owned a number of journals kept by various members of the French family from Amsterdam. I read many of them, and they gave a fascinating insight into life in Amsterdam in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Now that many people have turned from writing journals on paper to blogging on the internet, I wonder how many journals future historians and antiquarians will turn up. I will most likely leave my composition books to my daughter when I die, but to whom do I leave my blog? Is a blog worth preserving, and how do you preserve a blog for posterity?
As I read it, I kept hoping to find some reference to World War I which The United States had entered that year, but there wasn't any. At first I was a little annoyed with the guy. How could he write about spreading manure when such a terrible event was going on.
But since I have kept a paper journal for six years now, I can better understand this diarist. It is very easy to get caught up with my own life and forget the world around me. My paper journals, which I keep in those marble composition books because they will stand up on a shelf like a regular book, often don't reflect what is going on in the world, just what is going on in my world. Sometimes days go by during which I forget we have troops getting killed in Iraq. If you don't have someone stationed there it is easy to forget what is going on there.
Furthermore, I have begun to see the value in spreading manure. Fertilizing the earth is an important part of the cycle of life. Without a fertile earth, we won't need a war to destroy us. Did this Fort Plain farmer realize that? I don't know for sure, but he must have thought that spreading manure was important because he not only did it almost everyday, he also recorded that he did it in his journal.
Another journal that I owned was kept by a lock tender at Fonda's Basin on the Erie Canal in the 1800s. Fonda's Basin was not in Fonda but was somewhere near Clifton Park. This diary which chronicled life on the canal had more varied entries and was more interesting than the one kept by the farmer in Fort Plain. This diary is now in the New York State Museum.
Another time I owned a number of journals kept by various members of the French family from Amsterdam. I read many of them, and they gave a fascinating insight into life in Amsterdam in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Now that many people have turned from writing journals on paper to blogging on the internet, I wonder how many journals future historians and antiquarians will turn up. I will most likely leave my composition books to my daughter when I die, but to whom do I leave my blog? Is a blog worth preserving, and how do you preserve a blog for posterity?
posted by Anonymous at
7:33 PM
1 Comments:
Historians will keep track of the wars, floods, hurricanes and other "big" happenings in the world, although I think our perspective on these things matters for future referrence.
Still it is the little day to day events in your life, i think, that will offer folks in the future a real window into life today.
I also have a farmer's diary and one from my great grandmother and I love how they give me a chance to see what they did every day and how they got it done.
By
threecollie, at 10:37 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home