The History of Thurber in 12 Objects: "Dear Diary"-A Teenager in Thurber
by Lea Hart
Diaries serve as historical objects that give historians a primary source based on a single person's memory. Whether keeping a journal for a class assignment or reading the words of Anne Frank, diaries are objects that everyone has come across at some point in their life. They have been used to record daily life for hundreds of years and most likely will continue to do so. While diaries do not give us traditional research information like tax records and marriage licenses, they do give us memories of neighbors, school friends and the ordinary details of day to day life. A donor recently gifted the Gordon Center a diary with such memories. In this instance, the writer was a 14-year-old girl from Thurber: Dorothy Bayer Hoid.
The diary in question measures roughly five by four inches and no longer has a cover after years of wear. The month and date are printed at the top of each lined page and is segmented into five spaces by a red line with 19 in each right corner allowing the former Miss Bayer to write in the remainder of the year. The diary covers the years 1937, 1938, a small bit of 1939 and 1945. Such a wide date range gives us the unique experience of watching someone grow up years after they’re gone.
We are currently transcribing the diary and have yet to fully read through all of Dorothy’s memories. The diary encompasses everything from her dislike of school to the home remedy of all minor illness (and horror of most childhoods) castor oil. Some of her early entries include looking at vacant houses in Thurber as most people were moving away, and her disappointment that a friend left without notice. Like most teenagers today she preferred to sleep in while she could before school started up again, and when classes did start back she occasionally overslept. Mentions of playing with her sister Betty Lou and brother Teddy, frequently fill the pages. One in entry gleefully tells that Teddy was not happy about losing to Dorothy in baseball.
During her time in Thurber Dorothy’s Aunt Bebe moved to Oklahoma in search of work. Other sources from the collection show a deep love and affection for Bebe and how much she was missed. Dorothy’s diary gives us a peek into the lives of Thurberites during the Great Depression, most poignantly viewed through the perspective of a teenager who expresses her disappointment of her father returning home from work with no check, and thus no food. Like many families during the Great Depression, financial strains caused the families to move. The Bayer family left Thurber in the early spring of 1937 in the pursuit of work and a way to support themselves.
Diaries like Dorothy’s still exist today, albeit in different forms. Digital dairies, like blogs or vlogs, for public consumption, can be published through various websites, while some private diaries are typed out and stored digitally and later printed. Traditional paper diaries are now either written with the intent to be published as an autobiography or kept for personal thought and family memories. Fortunately, diaries will continue to be purchased and written in, much to the gratitude of historians like us who will continue to learn from them.
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| Diary of Dorothy Bayer beginning when she was 14-years-old. Jacobson Collection |
The diary in question measures roughly five by four inches and no longer has a cover after years of wear. The month and date are printed at the top of each lined page and is segmented into five spaces by a red line with 19 in each right corner allowing the former Miss Bayer to write in the remainder of the year. The diary covers the years 1937, 1938, a small bit of 1939 and 1945. Such a wide date range gives us the unique experience of watching someone grow up years after they’re gone.
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| Dorothy Bayer (far right) with some of her Thurber friends Jacobson Collection |
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| Dorothy's siblings, Betty Lou and Teddy, often appear in her diary entries. Jacobson Collection |
Diaries like Dorothy’s still exist today, albeit in different forms. Digital dairies, like blogs or vlogs, for public consumption, can be published through various websites, while some private diaries are typed out and stored digitally and later printed. Traditional paper diaries are now either written with the intent to be published as an autobiography or kept for personal thought and family memories. Fortunately, diaries will continue to be purchased and written in, much to the gratitude of historians like us who will continue to learn from them.
