Notes on the Teenie Weenie Funny Book

 

This diary is for July 10 1927 to Sept 12 1927. Mother was 12, Iris 15, Raymond 17 and Oris 19. Harry was 20 and had been married 10 months. Vivian was 22 and had been married 7 years. Mother and Iris are teenagers and sleep in the bedroom over their parent’s bedroom. Raymond and Oris are young men and sleep in the bed over the living room. Harry and Vivian lived away from home with their spouses. During this summer Vivian was away at Charlottesville studying to be a grade school teacher so husband Henry has some free time on his hands. Vivian is back home near the end of the diary. Harry and wife Bettie live close enough to drop in often. During the summer Iris goes to Charlottesville to spend a week or two with Vivian. The visit gets extended a week because of overnight visitors. The summer is spent in everyday farm family things. There is the summer revival at church called Big Meeting. The family attends each night. There is a church social, visits to and from family and neighbors. And work! The hard work is with handling the tobacco crop. But there is normal work like picking tomatoes and washing dishes. And Mom learns to milk a cow during this summer. The little fun things are looking at catalogs, eating watermelon, writing letters, and enjoying each other’s company.

 

The following populate the pages of the diary:

Mama and Papa are Lemuel (Len) and Margaret (Mag) Waller

Shirley, Iris, Raymond (Ray), Oris, Harry and Vivian are the children

Bettie is Harry’s wife and Henry is Vivian’s husband.

Mr. Venable is the pastor at New Chapel Church; Mr. Murray is the Revival preacher

Grandpa and Grandma are Lens parents

Josephine Puckett is a neighbor girl Oris took to church

Aunt Mollie is Mag’s sister and Bettie’s mother. George, Hoover and Fannie are children

Cousin Lillie a neighbor? That made dresses

Aunt Ora played croquet she is an old maid, Len’s sister

Otho, Ralph played croquet, may be neighbors

Mr. Hedrick, Mrs. Talley, Mrs. and Mr. Wilkerson, Junior and Christine Wilkerson, all neighbors

Aunt Cate: I have a picture but can’t say she is a relative, unless she is Lem’s aunt

Uncle Alonza, Aunt Lota, Irma are Len’s brother and his wife and daughter.

Two Chinese girls, friends of Vivian at the University

Aunt Mary, Mrs. Blackstock, Ruby. Aunt Mary is the wife of Robert, Mag’s brother. Mrs Blackstock is Mary’s mother, and Ruby is her daughter.

John Compton an ancestor remembered by Alonza as a joke

Gordon (Steppe) a neighbor, my father’s brother

Hassie sold ice cream at the church social, may be Hassie Hunt Bagby, a great-aunt.

Rover the dog

 

I have made a best guess as to the reading in some places. In places the handwriting is illegible to me and in other places the apparent reading is nonsense.

 

NEXT CONTENTS