Book of Me, Written by Me–Prompt 6: Journals & Diaries

The continuation of the 15 month, weekly writing project about my life and memories, created by Julie Goucher.
The prompt for week 6 is Journals and Diaries

• Do you keep a journal or diary?
• How far back do they go? What do you record?
• Where do you keep them?
• Do you always buy the same one or vary them?
• Have you inherited any?
• Do you intend to pass along your journals or destroy them?
• Pictures
• Do you have a favorite?
• What do you use to write with – biro, pencil, ink or fountain pen?

I currently do not keep a journal or a diary. I have not really kept either one any long period of time. In high school we had to keep a journal in an advanced writing class I took as a senior. I mostly wrote about the stories I wanted to write, nothing really about myself.
I often keep short journals when I am on a trip, writing about the things that I do on the trip. My first one was started in 1974 when I traveled with a school friend across the country on a Greyhound bus with an Ameripass. There was lots of time to write while riding a bus and in those days and taking photos was expensive because of the cost of developing and printing the film. Mostly I wrote in English, but sometimes I would write in German.
The next time I took a similar trip on the bus with a different friend, I wrote, in addition to the sights we saw, a story. Part of the story started on the bus, so it was easy to be factual about the sights seen from the bus window.

I still keep a brief journal/diary on trips so if I put the photos taken on the trip into a photo scrapbook, I have the details to include for the captions.
I have inherited some diaries. My husband’s great grandfather wrote in little notebooks during the Civil War and continued long after. It is dry reading, but does give a glimpse into their everyday lives.