Every once in a while an antique diary catches my eye on eBay. Most of the time I don’t buy them because they are similar to things I already have in my collection. Sometimes they are more tempting but too expensive, usually because the contents might have some historical interest, such as a soldier’s memoirs of one of the world wars. But every once in a while there is something that looks a little different and seems worth a try if I can get it for a low bid. That was the case with this diary.

I paid $0.99 for this diary, plus a couple of bucks for shipping. I’m glad I didn’t pay more. It’s a bit musty and the spine was broken and re-glued in a wonky way that makes it all crooked and impossible to open fully.

So often these old diaries are a smaller 2.5 x 4″ format but this one is about 3.5 x 6″. As is typical, it has frontmatter with populations of cities, distances between cities, and a list of holidays. Somewhat more unusual are the 3 pages of detailed information about postal rates. Then you have a page per day diary, and a few pages in the back for recording cash received and spent, and telephone numbers and addresses. The endpapers have yearly calendars for 1940 (in the front) and 1939 and 1941 (in the back). Whoever owned this diary made note of a couple of birthdays in pencil, but it is otherwise completely empty.

The coolest thing about it was this old telegram tucked inside. Nowadays it boggles them mind to think of arranging a visit via snail mail and telegrams, then arriving in a new city with a plan as vague as “meet me at this hotel on this day.” But I guess people made it work!

This is not the most exciting vintage diary in my collection, but I guess it’s nice that it didn’t end up in the garbage. Whenever I go to estate sales or yard sales or antique shops, I’m surprised in a way that there are so few diaries and notebooks on offer. Maybe avid collectors snap them up. Or maybe the original owners’ families destroy them because they are seen as private and of no value to others. But I always enjoy these links to the past– every notebook has a story, even if it’s blank.