From my grandmother, Lina Dreher’s, diary when she was sixteen and working in the family bakery in Orange, NJ. Other first names mentioned are those of her siblings.

Nov 16

Nights when I go to bed, I have an awful dread of the coming winter. I feel as though I’m going to get real sick and die or either that I’ll suffer awful from the cold. The cold never did agree with me very well. This may be foolish and I hated to record it, but I feel this way; if anything should happen, the others will know I was prepared.

Nov 20 

Went in to see Hattie’s girlfriend [Rose Burns] who was sick. She is alright again and is coming back to work tomorrow. I came home sometime after nine and got to bed about ten minutes to ten and I didn’t fall asleep until after Tillie and Mary came home about 1:30 AM.

Nov 21

Got up 4:45. It looks like rain again. These last two days it’s been awfully warm! Why, most of the people go without coats or either real light ones. I am still preparing for Christmas. I embroidered a guest towel and another handkerchief case.

Nov 22

Mrs. Sanger, a poor sickly woman who has five sickly children, was killed by being struck with a taxi cab. And a few days later, a car and an auto crashed into each other. These both things happened right in front of our old bakery in Newark [NJ]. 

Joe and I rode to Haledon [on their bicycles]. It certainly is a grand ride. We went quicker than when Joe and Mary went. We got there in 2 hours and 20 minutes and home in an hour and a half. Some fellow told Joe a new way to get there, which he claims can be done in an hour. We’ll try that next time.

Started wearing my new corsets today. Will see how long they last. Snowed today.

Nov 24

Helped Mama wash [laundry] today. It’s the first washing I did in the longest while.

Nov 25

Collecting day. Just think, only one more month for Christmas. And five months Sunday, Em died [of consumption, age 20]. The time passes no matter what happens.

Nov 26

Oh dear! More sad news! Mrs. Dickfield died Monday, November 24. Poor thing. She suffered, too. She had sugar diabetes for years and she could have lived real long had she not worked so hard.

Nov 27

Note to the reader: Kindly excuse any poor writing for I assure you, I could have done better as I will prove if I get another diary. [She never does]. It is on account of a poor pen or because I had to stop in between to wait on customers for I always had this book in the store that some pages are so sloppy. Hoping this will serve to account for the appearance of some of the disorderly parts. I am, yours respectfully, Lina Dreher.

It's Thanksgiving today. We had turkey and all the trimmings. I helped Mama cook the meal. Took all day, too. Tillie didn’t help but much. She just played the piano. 

Nov 30

Tillie went to see Mrs. Kastner [nee Lulu Blank] a neighbor of ours ten years ago. Mrs. Kastner was an old maid living with her father when we lived on South 10th Street in Newark and she got married after we moved and we hadn’t heard of her since a few weeks ago when Mama met her on the way home from Newark. She’s married seven years now with a child four years-old.

To be continued…

RAMONA JAN is the Founder and Director of Yarnslingers, a storytelling group that tells tales both fantastic and true. She is also the roving historian for Callicoon, NY and is often seen giving tours around town. You can email her at callicoonwalkingtours@gmail.com.