Retro-Twitter - Tweeting Through The Great Depression

Genevieve Spencer

This is the story of a young lady who was a farm girl keeping a twitter-like diary in the 1930’s.  David Griner, her great-nephew, is tweeting her ‘line-a-day diary’ at @Genny_Spencer.  Most of the entries are pretty dry and sound almost monotonous yet taken altogether they have a sense of mystery.  As David states at his blog:

Late last year, my family found a line-a-day diary maintained by my great-aunt from 1937 to 1941. She was in her early teens, living on a small farm in rural Illinois with her two brothers, one of which was my grandfather.

It’s a fascinating account of life in a bygone era, a time when my family’s only connections to the world were schoolhouse chatter and a neighbor’s radio.

Looking at the terse journal, my sister quipped, "This is the Twitter of the 1930s." We glanced at each other and almost immediately began planning the Twitter account that would become Twitter.com/Genny_Spencer.

 

I can trace my ancestors back to 1725, and their arrival in this country in 1750, but there are no photos until the late 19th century, and very little more until my grandfather.  Future generations will have a tremendous amount of details about our lives, with progressively more of that information online.  Genny’s diary on twitter gives us a glimpse of life 70 years ago during simpler times.  Thank you David and Genny!

Genny’s brother Kerby, whom she mentions in her diary entries, served during WWII as a fighter pilot in the Pacific.

 Genny Spencer was still living when David started tweeting her diary. 

She passed away on February 26, 2009.

Thanks to @augustusgroop who tweeted on this story

See Also:  Letters from Boxcar Boys and Girls of the Great Depression

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Tags: David Griner, Genny Spencer, Genny_Spencer, line-a-day diary