May 5
Laura M., age 16, North Carolina
May 5, 1998
Got lots of compliments on my new shorts. Casey just hasn’t been as perky recently, except in 6th period. :) Took Karen and Zach home. Courtney and Liam stopped by. Found out Liam is moving to Canada in Sept. Never seen her so sad. Shit. Had guitar lesson and a shitload of homework. “Dawson’s Creek.” Thought ’bout Sean…
Laura M., age 15, North Carolina
May 5, 1997
Good day at school. I officially don’t like Mike C. anymore. He’s too brain-dead. BURN-OUT! Zach and me got along especially well today. He’s awesome. Eddie picked me up from school and we gave Zach a ride home. Did homework straight through with Woodstock/story. Had mac & cheese. Went to softball game and WON!
Anna L., age 75, Illinois
May 5, 1960
Rained in the nite and early this A.M. Finally cleared off. Mrs. B. here. Later out to clean up alley and around. In P.M. became cloudy and rained. Lo late again coming home. Went out in the rain. Fire in fire place felt good so damp.
Marcy S., age 19, Missouri
May 5, 1944
Cold and snowy!! Awful. Lecture in tennis. Went to library in afternoon and read for history — then some very interesting marriage books. Betty and I didn’t go to dinner. Washed my hair and put it up. (Got bulletin from Cornell.) Then about 7:30 I went to the library and read some books on “Youth’s Problem,” etc. I have been repeating “Poise” to myself all day and I think it has helped. Oh, I feel so different since reading those articles — I know now for sure why I can’t make friends easily — it’s the wrong attitude fundamentally. For the first time ever really, I feel as if I’m a part of other people and not different from them. It will be still hard to change but that’s the place where I’ve been stuck for so long. I felt like a new person. Wrote the big letter to Mom and Dad when I came back. Felt greatly relieved. Even if I don’t have a life goal yet I can have smaller goals — like mastering a piece of music.
Marcy S., age 16, Tennessee
May 5, 1941
Nice. Warm. Need rain. Chapel in morning. Went to town with Helen after school and took note to Mary. Got “Show Me a Land” at library. At night heard Ginger Rogers in “Kitty Foyle” on radio. Made 100 on history test.
Henry S., age 26, Michigan
May 5, 1888
I spent the forenoon in clearing up around the dooryard and putting up a frame for the trumpet vine. This afternoon I went to Dexter. Kat and Una went as far as father Queal’s with me and came back when I did. Maude Williams spent the evening here. Una took her first step all alone today.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Kate S., age 25, Michigan
May 5, 1887
It has been unpleasant all day. Henry is improving. Pa is breaking [?]. Baby has been first rate. [?] is afraid he is coming down.
*(R. Henry Scadin Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville)
Cornelia H., age 26, North Carolina
May 5, 1863
Jinnie scoured my room & the dining room today. I took one bed out of my room & changed the furniture a little. Matt & Pinck will sleep on the little trundle bed & Zona, the babe & I in the bed. Willie in the crib by the bed. I have done nothing of importance today. Helped arrange the things in the room. Mr. Cagle no better.
*(Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journals and Letters of the Henry Family, Eds. Karen L. Clinard and Richard Russell, used with permission.)
Cornelia H., age 25, North Carolina
May 5, 1862
I began Willie a dress but did not finish. Hanes attends to Willie. It is warm & pleasant today. I stay in the hall room every day. I did not work very steady for Hanes is very thoughtless with Willie. The Dr. did not come over today. I hope will come tomorrow as the negro is no better.
*(Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journals and Letters of the Henry Family, Eds. Karen L. Clinard and Richard Russell, used with permission.)
Samuel P., age 36, London
May 5, 1669
Up, and thought to have gone with Lord Brouncker to Mr. Hooke this morning betimes; but my Lord is taken ill of the gout, and says his new lodgings have infected him, he never having had any symptoms of it till now. So walked to Gresham College, to tell Hooke that my Lord could not come; and so left word, he being abroad, and I to St. James’s, and thence, with the Duke of York, to White Hall, where the Board waited on him all the morning: and so at noon with Sir Thomas Allen, and Sir Edward Scott, and Lord Carlingford, to the Spanish Embassador’s, where I dined the first time. The Olio not so good as Sheres’s. There was at the table himself and a Spanish Countess, a good, comely, and witty lady — three Fathers and us. Discourse good and pleasant. And here was an Oxford scholar in a Doctor of Law’s gowne, sent from the College where the Embassador lay, when the Court was there, to salute him before his return to Spain: This man, though a gentle sort of scholar, yet sat like a fool for want of French or Spanish, but [knew] only Latin, which he spoke like an Englishman to one of the Fathers. And by and by he and I to talk, and the company very merry at my defending Cambridge against Oxford: and I made much use of my French and Spanish here, to my great content. But the dinner not extraordinary at all, either for quantity or quality. Thence home, where my wife ill of those upon the maid’s bed, and troubled at my being abroad. So I to the office, and there till night, and then to her, and she read to me the Epistle of Cassandra, which is very good indeed; and the better to her, because recommended by Sheres. So to supper, and to bed.
*(The Diary of Samuel Pepys M.A. F.R.S., edited by Henry B. Wheatley F.S.A., London, George Bell & Sons York St. Covent Garden, Cambridge Deighton Bell & Co., 1893.)