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Show Joy to Gather My Share 37 v One thing Madelyn's membership in Camp Fire Girls did was encourage her to keep a diary, and we have entries in her long hand that go back to July 21, 1914, after she shortly joined Camp Fire Girls." She was only thirteen. The original, in a University Notebook, is entirely handwritten, sometimes in pen cil. The commentary is written simply and clearly, with correct grammar and almost always correct spelling; there were no cor rections or erasures. Madelyn was in writ already accomplished ing. She wrote about what she did during the day, about her housework, sewing, and visiting; about girl friends and boyfriends, about games of jacks and dolls; hide-and go-seek, baseball, and block (whatever that was); play dinners with Graham crackers, apples, and peaches; candy pulls and making her own chocolate fudge. Above all, she wrote about how she felt-whether satisfied or dissatisfied with what she had said and done during the day. She had high expectations, and chas tised herself if she failed to achieve. She made demands heavy herself, was very self-conscious, and was not entirely sure whether she had done right in everything. She always refers to her father as Papa and her mother as and her beloved Mama, Ranch is always capitalized. Colorful of descriptions nature, the weather, ranch bonfires, people, and traveling sometimes sparkle her narrative. In her early diary the usual transportation is by horse and buggy. She is thrilled when they see a deer, which was not on uncommon on the road to the ranch or on the ranch itself. In the summer of 1914 at the ranch she toasted marshmal lows at bonfires, did her assigned chores of and mak cleaning ing beds, assisted in using the clothes washer which had to be turned by hand, went with her father to separate sheep, swam in the river, chewed with the milking, some pine gum, helped times had a difficult time the on river crossing logs. Their ranch experiences were sometimes "a positive circus!" During the winter of 1914-15, in addition to academic courses in spelling, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and histo ry, Madelyn took sewing and cooking in school, while the boys took manual arts. In the fall of 1914 she began to take piano |
