Sallys Diaries

Sallys Diaries I've been collecting, reading and researching handwritten diaries for over 25 years now and I share

This page is devoted to my diary collection and the amazing stories they tell. I try and share photos and excerpts of many of the diaries in my private collection.

June 11, 1979. LOOK Magazine. “Seven months after he sailed out of the world aboard a sloop christened with the name fro...
07/05/2025

June 11, 1979. LOOK Magazine. “Seven months after he sailed out of the world aboard a sloop christened with the name from a fantastical poem, the Brillig,John Arthur Paisley has become a legend of the Times -“The Missing CIA Man,” who, according to the wilder speculation, appearing in nationally, circulated magazines, may be alive and well and walking about in Russia. There have been allegations that Paisley may have been murdered by the Soviet KGB, that he may have been a long suspected communist “mole” in the central intelligence agency, even allegations that it was not Paisley‘s body that was found floating in the waters of Chesapeake Peak Bay last October 1978, with a bullet wound in the head.”
At least 10 years ago, I purchased a large tub of photos, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and other items belonging to John Paisley and his girlfriend. He was a CIA agent in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70s. I asked the buyer where he got all these items and he had said they were buried in the basement of a church in Maryland. Now 10+ years later, I’ve decided to pull out this group and read it, research and finally share it, as it will be the subject of our next podcast. The group is so incredibly mysterious because on some of the binders are titles such as secret logbooks, codes, life after his death?, dream journals, and so much more. What happened to John Paisley? Well, I think after researching this lot, I’ll definitely know what his girlfriend thought happened to him. And if the CIA asks, I don’t really have these items….

Two women born the same year, 1879, both given the same first name, both poets, and living only 150 miles apart. One was...
05/24/2025

Two women born the same year, 1879, both given the same first name, both poets, and living only 150 miles apart. One was a black woman, the other, a white woman. Both eventually were known as Effie Smith. What are the odds? In our next episode on our Diary Discoveries podcast we uncover the fact that one writers work has been credited to the other. I acquired a 1906 diary and two journal like composition books filled with short stories, essays and poems. The author’s name was not in any of the three manuscripts but when I read the diary, and used the clues within, I discovered the authors name; Effie Smith! But which Effie? And with the help of writer/poet, Leatha Kendrick, the real author of the 1909 poetry book, “Rosemary and Pansies”, is finally known.

Who are you!!!!???? I just posted the excerpts of this mysterious diary on my website, Sally’s diaries private collectio...
05/09/2025

Who are you!!!!????
I just posted the excerpts of this mysterious diary on my website, Sally’s diaries private collection. There is no name and there are only 13 days of entries, but those entries sure tell a story……
“January 1, 1914. Today is my 18th birthday and six weeks I will be married off to old Mr. Halsted. I don’t want to be married to him but pappy and Papa give me no choice. What about Cecil? I’ve loved him so long.”
And I might add old Mr. Halsted is 57!!!

Dreams in the midst of grief: I just posted on my new website, “Sally’s Diaries Private Collection” part five of John’s ...
04/16/2025

Dreams in the midst of grief: I just posted on my new website, “Sally’s Diaries Private Collection” part five of John’s 1927 grief diary. I remember transcribing this diary back in 2012 just four years after my husband Kevin had been killed. So it was like my own private diary as I would add my own thoughts to the transcription. One of those was a dream I had had in 2009 only a year after my husband had died and I call it…..
THE STORM
Kevin and I were standing in the kitchen of an old Midwest farmhouse. The kids were also somewhere in the house. I felt so content at that moment. I remember that the house itself was in the middle of acres and acres of farmland; cornfields. It was a summer night, twilight, with the sun almost gone beyond the horizon. It was hot outside, so we had all the doors open and he and I were standing at the stove cooking. Suddenly, I noticed that he turned to look out the screen door and way off in the distance huge dark clouds were forming with the most incredible burst of rose colored light shining through them. The storm was all around us and the warm wind was slowly picking up. I could see Kevin calmly head for the door and I followed him in a panic. As I stood on the back porch, I watched him standing by the dirt road right in front of the house. Right then an old truck pulled up beside him and the driver, an old farmer, leaned over and opened the door for Kevin, and then turned and looked at me through the back window of the truck with the most loving look. I believe that old man was Jesus. I called out to Kevin with tears in my eyes, telling him not to leave, and that I wanted to go with him. Before he got in, he turned to me so lovingly, and said, “You can’t go just yet, not now, but I’ll be back to get you one day. I love you, Sally.” He then got in and slowly drove off towards the ray of light. I sobbed as I watched the truck disappear in the distance.
I do you know this, one day he’ll be back for me. And Jesus will be in the lead. There is a reason I am still here, and there are reasons for our “storms.” I will keep loving, depending on, I believe in God until that precious day.

Gypsy Caravan Diary from 1924. How fun is this. A group of friends set out in the summer of 1924, camping along the Engl...
03/11/2025

Gypsy Caravan Diary from 1924. How fun is this. A group of friends set out in the summer of 1924, camping along the English countryside, writing in their diary and taking photos along the way. The only thing I could wish more from this diary is to see photos inside the caravan. Other than that, I’m having so much fun reading their entries and sharing in their adventures. Here’s one of those entries….
“June 15, Trinity Sunday. After a truly caravan night of utter discomfort and trying to get sleep on 18 ticks of board covered with half a mattress, I called to the boys at 7 o’clock, as it had been a night! I endured it until three and then could stand it no longer so I dragged my mattress onto the floor, rolled myself up in blanket and cushion, stuffing the latter one into my back and really got a true sleep. The moon shown in at the caravan door, though it was almost dawn. We washed in the open, and as the others were not ready for breakfast, I went down to early service by myself through an awful pretty village to a charming little church. The altar was Arum lilies, and oriental poppies, and Mr. Nast took the service. When I returned, breakfast was ready out of doors and a lot of the packing up done, so we were able to leave about 10:05 through a lane wooded on either side, to Manningford Bruce, another pretty village with the church bells ringing as we drove through”

In episode 59 of our Diary Discoveries podcast we’re sharing a 1940s dream journal that I’ve had in my collection for qu...
02/20/2025

In episode 59 of our Diary Discoveries podcast we’re sharing a 1940s dream journal that I’ve had in my collection for quite a long time. As many of us know, dreams are always pretty crazy and this diary is no exception.
Jeff and I also share on this episode several dreams we’ve had in the past, one of which I had right after my husband Kevin died. It was one of the most profound dreams I’ve ever had in my life, and I really felt God was speaking to me through it.
If you’d like to hear this episode, just go to our Diary Discoveries website or my Sally’s Diaries website under the heading podcasts.

Well, we finally got all 4 episodes devoted to the diaries of Scottish ship surgeon, Dr. Alexander Watson, up on our pod...
01/12/2025

Well, we finally got all 4 episodes devoted to the diaries of Scottish ship surgeon, Dr. Alexander Watson, up on our podcast, diarydiscoveries; most of which took place in the late 1800s. We not only shared all about his life, but I also put the entire transcript of his diaries on my other website, sallysdiariesprivatecollection. Both sites include some wonderful original photos. In part 4 of Dr. Dunlop’s Scotland he sails to Iceland in 1888 and his entries are simply amazing. Here’s a brief excerpt of the many entries you’ll hear and read about……
“July 5th, 1888. Still coasting. We reached the North Cape at 10 AM and Eymundsson took 2 or 3 photographs of it. Passed within the Arctic Circle. No one could think, however, that we were in the Arctic regions. The air is excessively clear and still, the water smooth as glass, and the sun is shining brilliantly. The only sound comes from the ship with now, and then the almost silent splash of a duck…..One can see great distances, indeed and when standing well offshore, you may see 50 miles. How lovely the shore looks bounded by immensely high irregular rocks, some springing up in clusters of peaks and pinnacles. The snow is lying all over in patches and is perfectly dazzling in the sunlight. Just a beam is a waterfall coming down about 200 feet into the water. So all appears to my eye, but how to the captains? He listens gravely whilst I dwell on the grandeur of the landscape, the warmth amidst the snow, the uncanny stillness of earth and air and sea, and at the conclusion merely remarks, “But I fear it is all too still, there must be ice ahead.” Alas too true. Very shortly we begin to encounter blocks of ice that floated silently a stern at first in solitary pale green masses with pure white caps and ever thickening groups until at about 12 o’clock the engines had to be stopped. The captain went to the masthead and had a look around, but could find no path ahead… and so it was. I went up to the main top to have a better view and indeed it was magnificent. Ice everywhere and to the eye not a pathway extending more than a quarter of a mile anywhere.”

Well, I haven’t been real good about posting diaries here. Will try to do better in 2025. I did however, post several mi...
12/18/2024

Well, I haven’t been real good about posting diaries here. Will try to do better in 2025. I did however, post several miscellaneous diary entries that had to do with Christmas and the New Year from different authors and different eras on my Sally’s diaries private collection webpage. Here’s a sample of one of those entries written on New Year’s 1945 by a World War II nurse….
“January 1945. Another night, the air alert caught us at a dance. My es**rt had two helmets, fortunately. We sat on his veranda to watch the blacked out scene below. I took off the white slippers and put on a pair of his field boots in case we’d have to dive for a cave. We didn’t, I’m glad to say, it would’ve been full of bones. But the excitement went on for a long time, for hours. We sat and sat, “sweating out” the time while people back at the place of the dance were rolling up in blankets on the floor, to get some sleep under their helmets since they could not return to their posts. You simply don’t move under such circumstances, no matter how long you must wait. The nurses and I got home late, but not too late. You can probably understand why, to us now, the lovely moon no longer means beauty and peace. Brilliantly lighted land and ocean, it is a matter of apprehension. Going through the dimly lighted tents, I couldn’t lose the remembrance that people at home during the holidays were wondering about each man, that at home each one has his own place, perhaps a room to himself and certainly a desk and dresser rather than a tiny pile of belongings on the coral dust beneath his narrow hospital bed.”

Toilers of the Sea. I just posted part two of John’s 1927 grief diary on my Sally’s diaries private collection website. ...
11/04/2024

Toilers of the Sea.
I just posted part two of John’s 1927 grief diary on my Sally’s diaries private collection website. It represents his entries for February and I titled it “Toilers of the Sea”, which is a book John is reading by Victor Hugo. Here is a sample entry…
“12:00 Midnight. February 2nd, 1927.
I am grieving my heart away, it will stop someday. If I were not such a coward, I would have been dead now. If God holds any grieving against me, I can never enter his kingdom, for I am powerless to prevent it. I could plunge into a life that would cause me to forget my sweetheart, as the world calls it, but I do not want to forget, if that is what I should do, then I am doing wrong and I know not what to do. In “Toilers of the Sea”, Hugo says, “Virtue conducts not to happiness nor crime to retribution; conscience has one logic, fate another and neither coincide.” That is true. It seems what I do matters little, and yet for her, I live still in hopes, and her hand seems to guide me; it is unseen, it is beyond my comprehension. The world would say, “He is a fool and crazy.” I do not know. Ilya toyed skuisya. 12:20 a.m.”

Dedicated to all of those who have lost a loved one or anyone who knows someone who is going through the darkness that g...
10/26/2024

Dedicated to all of those who have lost a loved one or anyone who knows someone who is going through the darkness that grief brings upon us.
I am sharing one of my all-time favorite diaries on my new website at Sally’s Diaries Private Collecrion. It is a grief diary written by a 32-year-old man, John, in 1927. He lost his precious wife in the midst of her pregnancy with their first child. It is the diary that helped me get through my grief when I lost my husband back in 2008. I’ve always said this about John’s writing, it is as deep, raw, and honest as any diary I’ve ever read. And if that wasn’t enough, he writes like F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here’s one of my favorite entries…..
January 15, 1927. I used to think my cup of contentment would be full to overflowing when I had my sweetheart, a little car and a baby all our own. I was happy with her and life was sweet for us both. When we got the little car, it was an added joy and then we planned so much. For her it was always a tiny, red haired daughter and for me I had no choice only that I wanted the little one to be a pride to her mother’s heart. Now I have only the little car and each Sunday it carries me to her grave. May God speed the day when I shall not have to leave that spot. As I came home this evening an aeroplane passed overhead, and I had a longing to be in it as I have always had. Tonight I wished I had a powerful plane, could point its nose heavenward and lock the control, then drop the key to earth. Foolishness! For it, it would only be su***de. Tomorrow is Sunday and I am anxious for it to come.”

My two girls! ❤️  So about 20 years ago, possibly more, I found this incredible old box that held a vintage diary. I fel...
10/24/2024

My two girls! ❤️
So about 20 years ago, possibly more, I found this incredible old box that held a vintage diary. I fell in love with the picture on the front showing a 1920’s woman holding a feathered pen and sitting at her desk. Since then she’s been my logo for my business, Sally’s Diaries. About a month ago a person contacted me and said they had another box with the same girl on it. I’ve been searching and searching for others like her and now, thanks to him, I have another one and look at the difference in the colors. I was so excited and and I can’t thank this person enough. Now the two girls are together.
We’ve been working hard on our next podcast which should be out in a couple days… going finally. It’s going to be a three part series and it’s all about a Scottish surgeon and hisadventures during the 1880s and 1890s. Stay tuned.

My kids have a wonderful business where they your own photos of your pets and turn them into works of art. They make won...
10/12/2024

My kids have a wonderful business where they your own photos of your pets and turn them into works of art. They make wonderful Christmas gifts so check out their Instagram if you’re looking for a real special gift for someone or just for yourself.
P.S. more diary post soon. I hope I’ve been so busy with the podcast and trying to catalogue my group that I haven’t had time to post on here so I promise to do so soon.

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