A daily diary of Depression-era life, told on Twitter.
Late last year, my family found a line-a-day diary maintained by my great-aunt from 1937 to 1941. She was in her early teens, living on a small farm in rural Illinois with her two brothers, one of which was my grandfather.
It's a fascinating account of life in a bygone era, a time when my family's only connections to the world were schoolhouse chatter and a neighbor's radio.
Looking at the terse journal, my sister quipped, "This is the Twitter of the 1930s." We glanced at each other and almost immediately began planning the Twitter account that would become Twitter.com/Genny_Spencer.
I've gotten great responses since launching the daily diary feed on Jan. 1, 2009. People seem to enjoy the mixture of monotony and mystery woven through the posts.
Admittedly, most of the entries are pretty dry. That's farm life for you. But there are some real slice-of-life gems, like when my great-uncle Norman shot his first rabbit — at age 8.
There's another entry (which hasn't been posted yet) where my great-uncle won a contest at school, and his prize was a knife. Those were different times.
Oh, and to answer a few common questions I've gotten:
• My great-aunt is still alive, although she has severe dementia. She lives with a wonderful caretaker in Missouri, and my family tries to see her as often as possible. UPDATE: Genny passed away on Feb. 26, 2009.
• No, there's nothing deeply personal in the journal. It's very factual, more like a ship's log than a young girl's diary. Still, I asked my grandfather's permission before starting the Twitter feed.
• Unfortunately, the diary ends before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I'm not sure why. The last entries are from early 1941. Once war broke out, my grandfather, Kerby, enlisted as a fighter pilot and served proudly in the Pacific.
• No, I'm not the first person to think of this. There's a Twitter version of a 99-year-old's diary from 1974, though I hadn't seen it until after I started the Genny_Spencer account. There's also a blog that's posting George Orwell's diary.
• I'm using a service called TweetLater to prepare the posts in advance. I've been quite happy with it.
Thoughts? Impressions? Questions? This is obviously an open-ended experiment, so I'm definitely curious for feedback.
That sounds like a wonderful tribute to a family member who will probably never be online. And the Tweets are neat. It makes me wish that one of my grandparents had done the same thing.
Incidentally, I think DeSoto is close to Carbondale, where I went to college and got my start in TV news.
Posted by: Dana | January 28, 2009 at 05:17 PM
I think that is fantastic. What a great find.
Posted by: lara | January 28, 2009 at 07:06 PM
Caught this yesterday on Twitter. Awesome idea! I wrote a bit about it. Hope that's ok :)
http://fakeplasticnoodles.com/2009/01/29/twittering-the-great-depression-the-first-one/
Posted by: Melanie Seasons | January 29, 2009 at 03:46 PM
Very cool. Following. :)
Posted by: thordora | January 30, 2009 at 01:36 PM
Great resources! Thanks. Love the @genny_spencer
I'm gonna use the twitter later tool for some o my @artlineage tweet.
Posted by: Vargas | January 30, 2009 at 06:35 PM
Excellent job - very enjoyable
Posted by: Miss Middle of Manchester | January 31, 2009 at 01:19 PM
Definitely cool. Definitely following.
Posted by: Fred Alan | February 01, 2009 at 05:57 AM
I think this is AWESOME. I'm a science teacher, but showed it to the history teachers in my high school - they eat this kind of thing UP. So that's being shown in at least two classrooms every day. Thanks! :)
Posted by: Julie Argo | February 01, 2009 at 03:07 PM
Very cool. Following right away.
Posted by: Aarthi Ramamurthy | February 02, 2009 at 01:44 AM
Very cool David! Just started following @genny_spencer looking forward to reading her tweets.
Posted by: libby | February 02, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Thanks for all the feedback, everybody. It was unexpected but rewarding to see the account explode from 50 followers to nearly 1,000 over one weekend. Looking forward to seeing what other discussions it starts.
Posted by: David Griner | February 02, 2009 at 01:00 PM
This is really neat. What do you do if the entry is over 140 characters?
Posted by: Maley | February 02, 2009 at 06:22 PM
Thanks for sharing. Count on my follow. Sometimes there's value in the mundane...
Posted by: Heru Mafudi | February 02, 2009 at 11:45 PM
That's an excellent idea - I'm sure there are hundreds of museums around the world with similar diaries or texts that they could release out into the world like this. I seem to remember someone running a '100 years ago today' blog from their great grandfather's diary - last year, perhaps?
Posted by: Stef | February 02, 2009 at 11:49 PM
nice post, gives a real feel of someones life. we are about to add a twitter integration that allows you to diary your interactions into your lifes memories and experiences. For me these memories are the most valuable thing you can pass on to future generations of your family. check out our site at http://www.arcalife.com
Posted by: Paul Taylor | February 03, 2009 at 12:17 AM
What a wonderful idea. Thank you.
Posted by: Kate Foy | February 03, 2009 at 01:43 AM
This is just fantastic - Immediately following!
Posted by: claire | February 03, 2009 at 04:25 AM
This is amazing.
Posted by: Ms. Single Mama | February 03, 2009 at 09:41 AM
What a perfect way to share your Aunt's life. I've been blogging the diary entries of my friend Armand Singer as I have volumes of his diaries. I just wonder how many sentences he wrote under 140 characters!
Posted by: Barbara Uechi | February 03, 2009 at 09:47 AM
What a wonderful way honor your great aunt!
I had a similar privilege of learning about the lives of other forgotten heroes of the Great Depression -- the boxcar kids who hopped freights and criss-crossed the country.
I've posted a selection of their stories on my website - Letters from the Boxcar Boys and Girls. http://erroluys.com/HoboLettersfromRidingtheRails.htm
These are excerpted from my book "Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression" that tells how those quarter million kids survived the hardest of times.
Posted by: Errol Lincoln Uys | February 03, 2009 at 04:06 PM
Thanks so much for doing this ... I grew up in Midwest in the '40s- '50s and this is such a nice trip back, even tho my surroundings were more urban.
Following you on Twitter.
Posted by: Mary Dodge | February 03, 2009 at 04:52 PM
rather like phil gyford's website based on samuel pepys' diary
one thing that would be great is if people could join the twitter whenever they wanted rather than just when the author decides to start posting it. that way it could actually deliver incredible benefits - like our health service called sweet talk
Posted by: dan | February 04, 2009 at 09:24 AM
Brilliantly creative!
Posted by: Cristina Cassidy | February 06, 2009 at 07:13 PM
Hey David...You are making me tear up and smile and squeal simulataneously. Not only have I wanted to pen a biography about someone who lived a century ago, I've wanted to do it in a way that uses social media. I've had this idea...and I kinda started it..not a diary..rather just tweeting texts of her book. This is an incredible idea. And 2ndly, my 85 yr old grandmother just asked me to help her with her memoir :) THANK YOU for heeding the nudge to do this. SO looking fwd to more. :)
Posted by: Tresha Thorsen | February 07, 2009 at 02:50 AM
This is fascinating! Glad you are doing this. Best regards.
Posted by: fred | February 08, 2009 at 11:10 PM