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January 28, 2009

A daily diary of Depression-era life, told on Twitter.

Genny-spencer 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.

Genny2  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.

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Comments

Dana

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.

lara

I think that is fantastic. What a great find.

Melanie Seasons

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/

thordora

Very cool. Following. :)

Vargas

Great resources! Thanks. Love the @genny_spencer

I'm gonna use the twitter later tool for some o my @artlineage tweet.

Miss Middle of Manchester

Excellent job - very enjoyable

Fred Alan

Definitely cool. Definitely following.

Julie Argo

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! :)

Aarthi Ramamurthy

Very cool. Following right away.

libby

Very cool David! Just started following @genny_spencer looking forward to reading her tweets.

David Griner

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.

Maley

This is really neat. What do you do if the entry is over 140 characters?

Heru Mafudi

Thanks for sharing. Count on my follow. Sometimes there's value in the mundane...

Stef

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?

Paul Taylor

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

Kate Foy

What a wonderful idea. Thank you.

claire

This is just fantastic - Immediately following!

Ms. Single Mama

This is amazing.

Barbara Uechi

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!


Errol Lincoln Uys

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.

Mary Dodge

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.

dan

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

Cristina Cassidy

Brilliantly creative!

Tresha Thorsen

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. :)

fred

This is fascinating! Glad you are doing this. Best regards.

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