Like Steve, I once went through a few and typed them all up ... but that was part of a research project. I take my hat off to you Steve as I would never go through that process again. It was really hard work. I used to struggle with how to type up some parts of it ... like diagrams and things. I suppose these days you could just scan them in though?
I have done many different things with old journals. Sadly. And sometimes regretfully I actually threw lots out. We moved around a lot as a kid and there was always the need to cull belongings and thus any writings from my childhood have disappeared.
In my early adult years I lived in crazy share houses ... and I was a total paranoid freak and had ritual burning of old journals. Almost a crazed event with another friend who also did the same thing. I remember lighting a fire in the back yard of our Shenton Park rental house that had people ccoming and going at all times of the night and day. We were both absolutely sure our lives were so interesting that people were reading our journals.
More recently ... I have kept some. Many in fact. I have made a point of keeping all my 'Gratitude Journals' since I started writing those so regularly. But I make frequent culling decisions about everything else. And one ... my best friend keeps. We wrote it together over a few years ... but neither of us really want it out in public ... and neither of us wants to get rid of it ... Now those were really good years!!!
So what do you do with your old journals???
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I keep them in a cupboard, and fish them out when I want to look at the photos in them.
I also have three on the table I'm transcribing on to the computer right now. One is December 1981, when I was recording the golden wedding of the parents of a friend. The couple were Bertram and Ruth Vanderplank, of Melmoth, Zululand, and at the time Bertram (or BV as he was known) was thought to be the oldest living Springbok rugby player -- he was in the team of 1924, and people who spoke at the celebration told what a dirty player he was.
Another use I found for them: A couple of years ago Beyers Naude, one of the great anti-apartheid activists, died. I found that an institute had been set up in his name, so I offered to send printouts of my diary excerpts relating to him. They said they were publishing a book for the youth, called "Oom Bey for the future", and asked me to write an article for it, so I was able to fish out all my entries relating to him to write my memories of him. Am I glad I didn't burn them!
I've got a box full of old journals in the basement! LOL
A "gratitude journal" - now that's a neat idea!
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Hi ... thanks for stopping by my blog earlier!
I've kept a journal since I became pregnant with my first child in 1970. I've kept every last one of them and will continue to do so. My journaling these day consits more of writing in my blog ... but I've saved all the good posts to my hard drive so that I can print them off one day and include them with my journals.
I've done this for my two adult sons who will inherit the journals. I have a single journal from my mother that spans most of my life till she died. She didn't write often, but when she did it was wonderful. It tells me things I only have dim recollections of and it tells me about how she thought and who she really was. That is what I hope my journals do for my sons. There are good times and bad times represented. Times when I've been mad at them and times when I've adored them. Its all there for them to read ... and hopefully they will know me a bit better when they are through reading them. THEN they can burn them .... but not before.
Yeah, mine are all stashed away, but I do need to consult them now and then to find a fact, prove a point or just because. Great question. ;-)
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