DAILY REMINDER 1960

Wow, it's been a while. Anyway, just a quick post to mention a new/old project. I semi-started this a couple of years ago, and it kept being put on the backburner for various reasons. The draw is undeniable though, and now is a good time to work. I have begun the scanning/research phase, and finally scanning some pages has gotten me really excited, and very happy to get this project moving again. So, I'm posting this in case someone stumbles upon it. The project will actually be updated on my website: chadpelton.com

The gist: I discovered a small red diary a few years ago while shopping at my favorite secondhand store in Knoxville, TN (A&R Furniture). The "A" in A&R is Alex, a very kind man that I had gotten to know while working at a local record store. He would come in and we would talk old country music and swap records. Extremely nice guy, with a fascinating accent/turn of phrase (but that's another story). I bought the journal mostly to reuse, or just out of curiosity, but found it was filled with roughly 6 months of entries; some handwritten, some neatly typed. It was purchased by Alex along with many more personal items in an Estate Sale, and I have since learned the owner's name, and quite a bit about the fascinating life that unfolds.

Husband and wife, Reece and Doris, are the main characters. We get a glimpse into their daily routines, places of residence, hobbies, work life, family life, and an overall view of the happenings of a North Knoxville family for 6 months in 1960. So, there's that. It's interesting, and full of familiar and not-so familiar places. Places still there, and places long abandoned. If you read it a bit more deeply, we also see something else, an undercurrent if you will.

This project will attempt (through photos, scans, ephemera, interviews, etc.) to deconstruct one man's journal, and hopefully tell his story, while at the same time get at the heart of what all of us experience. Through 6 months of writing we are able to see love, loss, mental anguish, husband/wife conflict, gender roles, social constructs, and a host of obvious themes ... as well as a subtext that I will get to as the project progresses. It's a goodern!

Follow along if you will.
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