1945

Mother says I am the naughtiest child she has ever seen. I don't like to play with toys because Mother's and Daddy's, and Betty's and Robert's things are so much more interesting. Sometimes I just want to help and it doesn't suit mother...

Yesterday--August 12--I got into the chicken feed and scattered it over the garden tractor. I also took the lid off the gasoline tank on the tractor. Mother and Daddy couldn't decide whether I had scattered the feed before or after I took off the lid. Since I can't talk yet, I couldn't tell them even if I wanted to. Will Daddy ever be mad if the feed got into the gasoline tank, and it doesn't work when he wants to cultivate the garden. Daddy said to keep the garage door locked after this.

In the afternoon, I couldn't go to sleep, so I got up on the little rocker and pulled down the airplane framework that Robert has been gluing together. It took just one squash and all the little pieces of wood were on the floor.

Since it was Monday morning, I decided it was time for Mother to change the sheets on Robert's bed, so I pulled everything off including the mattress pad.

Next Mother blamed me for losing a rubber wheel which goes on the sewing machine. She couldn't fill the bobbin without it, but I don't remember where the wheel is.

Next I wandered downstairs and played some at the sink. Mother hadn't washed the dishes so I could make a beautiful mess. Then I saw a cup of sand on the window, so I emptied it and washed it for Mother. Was Mother angry when she found me. It seems she had planted two baby cactus plants in the cup last night.

Pretty soon I pushed a chair over to the wall where the little pink cabinets are and emptied one or two drawers which had ...paper clips, needles, pins, rubber bands, keys, labels, and other odds and ends. I dumped them all into the vegetable basket. Wonder if Betty or Robert will have to sort everything out again.

Mother went out in the garden so I decided to help her. I managed to reach a box of plant labels by climbing up on the trailer in the garage. I didn't get to stake out my sand box before Mother saw me and put the box of labels away.

Since that didn't work out, I went back in the house and found one of Mother's lipsticks which she had hidden in the back of the towel drawer. She doesn't have to think she can hide anything from me. I got the lipstick on rather crooked, but it's not bad for an amateur.

Things went smoothly for a while and then I tried to carry some water to the flowers, but I dropped the glass jar on the sidewalk, and it was smashed to smithereens. I helped Mother pick up the pieces, but she says some pieces surely fell on the grass where we couldn't find them. Robert and I can't help but step on some pieces when we are barefoot.

Mother wasn't around when Betty brought me in for lunch, so I took things into my own hands. I found a fine piece of fried chicken in the ice box (refrigerator). Of course, it didn't make any difference to me that my hands weren't clean.

After an uninteresting day, Mother and Daddy suddenly grabbed me up, dumped me in the bathtub and out again. Everybody seemed very excited and were talking about a surrender. We drove in the car and saw many other cars, many of which were blowing their horns, and everybody was shouting. It was very interesting for a while, but I went to sleep before we got home.

I went to my first birthday party. Mary Florence Edwards was four years old and all her playmates were there. I went with Betty and Robert. We had ice cream and cake.

We went out in the car again and saw lots and lots of dogs. When we walked in among the pens, they barked like mad. We came home with a pretty black puppy for Betty. I like him (her), but I'm also a little afraid.

While Betty was finishing our dinner, I managed to pull a milk pitcher off a shelf, and it broke all over the floor. Then I went into the dining room and emptied a bowl of flowers and water all over the floor. Betty spanked me, but I just wanted to see the flowers.

All of us went on a picnic and Betty, Robert, Mother and I went walking on some rocks. Sometimes the rocks were way up high above us. Sometimes we got on top of the rocks and there was a deep, deep hole below us. Mother was afraid we would fall. She held so tightly to my hand it hurt, but I wanted to go where Betty and Robert were.

Betty's dog's name is Cherry (Cheri or Sherry). I like her very much, but I don't like to have her touch me.

This morning I climbed up on a chair to get down the key to the garage. I tried to open the garage, but when I couldn't, I just dropped the key. When Mother came out to use the car and was in a terrible hurry, she was mad as blazes when she couldn't find it. Betty finally found it, and they were off, leaving me with Robert and Judy. I didn't like it a bit, and wish I had really lost the key.

This morning Daddy was a little late--so Mother had to hurry downstairs to help him get off--so I found some interesting things to do. I can now reach the shelf in the bathroom where Mother keeps tooth paste and lipstick. I squeezed tooth paste out of the tube, messed around with that beautiful lipstick. I also managed to get a screw out of the bathtub faucet. Usually, I just drop it down the drain and Mother has to buy a new one, but she caught me in time this time to save the screw.

Today Mother went shopping and had her hair done, so Betty had to take care of me. I led her a merry chase. I got into the ice box and tried to help myself to some of my cod liver oil. I don't much like the stuff, but it's fun trying to help myself. Later I tried concocting myself a drink with some mint sauce and chocolate syrup that I found in the cupboard.

Later I was looking through a drawer and found some dark paper like Betty, Robert, and Mother used a few weeks ago to look at the sun. I tried to look at the sun, too, but Mother was angry because I had ruined a good film.

When Daddy tried to feed the chickens tonight, the key to the chicken house was gone. Nobody saw me climb up and get it off the hook, but everybody blamed me. Daddy spanked me hard. I cried for a while, but pretty soon I was singing again while he took off the key-less padlock and put on another one.

It's been a long time since Mother has had time to put down everything I've been doing. Last week I put a bunch of bath towels in the sink and poured water down the register. Another day I messed up a bunch of peaches that Daddy had brought in from the orchard and left on the back porch.

I've found out that Betty often has gum or candy in her purse, so I examine it every time I can find it...Last night I found a bottle of Milk of Magnesium and emptied the milk down the sink, and mixed some of it in the water glass.

I am also playing with Cheri more now. Mother says I hurt the pup when I pick her up by her hind legs. But she also likes to play with me when I pull her toys around.

We are getting ready to move to Virginia, and with the house in more of a turmoil than usual, I get into more things. Betty and Robert have been putting together all the jigsaw puzzles around the place, so Mother can take them to the Children's Hospital. They're wonderful to throw around and Cheri likes to chew on them when they fall on the floor.

Started the day out right this morning when I found a box of flea powder in the lavatory. The cover came off and I managed to spill it all over the shelf.

Today I brought a cupful of sand into the house and tried to wash it down the sink. It managed to clog the drain properly and when Mother tried to force a drain wire through to open it up, the wire went right through the pipe. Mother had to call a plumber to put in a new pipe, but it wasn't my fault the old pipe was old, and I mean OLD.

Mother likes for me to write on the blackboard but I find it's more fun to break up the chalk and hear it crack--or better yet, to step on it. That makes beautiful colors on the floor.

Today I found a lovely thing to play with in a drawer in the breakfast room. Mother says it is a cake decorator. It has a shiny tube with a do-gigger that goes up and down. There are many other parts to it that just mostly fall on the floor. Mother says she wouldn't mind my playing with it, if only I'd put all the parts away again.

Saw Daddy come on a train. He's been gone quite a while now. (To his new job in Virginia). Later when Mother and Daddy were away, Cheri and I--one or the other--so said Betty and Robert--knocked over a lamp and we had broken glass all over everything. Mother was very angry the next morning.

Today I broke two phonograph records while I was trying to bring them out. Mother doesn't want me to touch the records, but I just love to put the records on the machine. I am always after Mother to play records for me. She says she doesn't really think I want the music as much as I like to watch the changer work.

This morning Mother was frantically looking for her watch which she had left in the drawer in her night table. As soon as she asked me, I found it in the back of the radio. She should have asked me in the first place.

Mother went out tonight and left me in Betty's care. I decided to help Mother with the wash. First I dumped half a box of soap flakes into the bathroom sink and then I proceeded to wet and wash a pair of my overalls, some wash cloths and towels, and a pair of stockings Mother had washed and hung up to dry, but I'm sure it didn't hurt to wash them again. I couldn't repeat what Betty said when she found me--and I bet Mother said something about soap being in short supply when she got in later.

Today while I was playing with Mary Florence on an old truck in the yard next door, we found a bucket of paint someone had left out. We were having a wonderful time painting the truck when Mother came to get me for lunch. She didn't see the nice painting, but she did see the paint I had on my overalls, my cap and scarf, and most of all on my new snowsuit jacket. She said I'd have to stay indoors now until she could take it to the cleaners.

(We were very busy getting the house ready to be sold, and to move to Virginia where Daddy had already gone to a new job, that Mother had no time to keep records of me. In Virginia I was soon enrolled in a nursery school, and was out of Mother's hair for part of each day.)