Introduction

Virginia Dell Clift was born on December 14th, 1916, in Knoxville, Tennessee, and lived in Strawberry Plains when we meet her in 1932. Strawberry Plains is in the Knoxville Metropolitan area, and was named for the wild strawberries that grew there when colonists arrived in 1785. One of the first colonists, William Williams, created an agricultural industry of the wild strawberries and the name stuck. Indeed, the Cherokee Nation called the Knoxville area kuwanda'talun'yi, meaning “Mulberry Place,” so it seems that berries were valued throughout the region. Before colonization, Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee peoples called the area home. By the 1930s, it was an unincorporated town with some general stores, a gristmill, auto repair shops, restaurants, a train depot, and a post office, and had a population of about 500 residents.

Virginia signed her diary as “Virginia,” but I learned from my research that she was commonly called “Mimi.” Because she signed it “Virginia,” that is what I will continue to call her. Her parents were Robert (1892-1984) and Susie (Walker, 1888-1978) and she was the middle child and only daughter among the five siblings including George (1913-1980), James (1915-2017), Charles (1919-2011), and Reford (1922-1977). Robert had a few different jobs over the years. When he was young, he was a farm laborer, and then went to work in a zinc mine. He started at the mine as a miner, but moved up to a supply clerk by 1940. 

Virginia was 16 years old when she started her diary in 1932. Let’s catch up with her there as she is getting ready to go camping for a few days that summer.

The Diary

This diary is a tiny notebook whose pages come half-filled with text information about camping, hiking, fishing, first aid, and collecting flowers. The rest of the pages, interspersed with the text, leave the writer space to write a sentence or two about their days at camp, note the flowers and insects they found, the length of hikes they have taken, the birds that they saw, and a place to draw animal tracks. There are also thick, porous pages in the middle meant for pressing flowers. It is an adorable bit of ephemera from the 1930s that any child going to camp would love. It is in beautiful shape after all its years.

Virginia used it to keep some notes about her camping trip in July of 1932 when she was 16 years old. These entries were about the people that she met at camp (mostly boys) and how to remember them and the things she did at camp, including swimming, picnicking, and going to a ball game. In the rest of the space, Virginia wrote to herself in the years after 1932 about things that she wanted to remember about her later experiences. She started many of these remembrance entries with, “Remember” or “Rem” before writing a sentence or two about a memory that she hoped to keep forever. In some cases, she noted the date that she wrote herself the note, but most of the time the notes are undated. What a precious way to keep her memories safe throughout her life.

Virginia got her diary to take notes on her camping trip from Thursday, July 21th to Saturday July 23rd, 1932 and she started by putting her information in the Identification section. She wrote her name, where she lives, and her telephone number. Then, the diary gave her room to write a sentence or two about each day for two weeks. Since she went to camp on a Thursday, she started by describing the days leading up to her camping trip beginning on that Sunday. She went swimming on that Tuesday, noted that a family named the McPeters lost their house to a fire on that Tuesday, and prepared to go to camp on the Wednesday before. On Thursday, she arrived at camp and made comments about the people she met right away. Some of these people she called by their initials, their first names with a last initial, or their whole name. There was a group of boys at camp that she just referred to as the “Fountain City boys.” She noted that these boys carried her suitcase to the car at the end of the camping trip.

Her camping trip was short, but the diary gave Virginia space to describe a second week. She took advantage of that and described the week she had after her camping trip. During this week, she got a “brown cow” (a rootbeer float with chocolate ice cream), went on a picnic to a lake, visited her grandmother, and went to a ballgame. On that Thursday, she mentioned meeting a boy and used the space to remember something for the first time- “Remember the letter.” Next, the diary offered a space to record the birds and insects that a camper saw on their trip, but Virginia used it to record the people she met, their “striking characteristics,” and little phrases that they had said.

BIRDS I SAW AT CAMP

COMMON NAME STRIKING CHARACTERISTICS

Polly                            Funny redhead

Willie Mae                  Crazy

Walter Wheatsby         Sweet + nice

Ken Portwood              Good looking

Frank Green                Cute

“Jon” Johnson              Smile

Earl Smelner                Hair

Joe Somebody Singing fool

Joe Maynard                Swell

After this, Virginia used some of the pages to write things about her time at camp and some of the pages meant for “Birds and Animal Tracks” and “Flowers I Found at Camp,” and the thick and porous blotting paper meant to press flowers to record her rememberings in following years. These are mostly one-sentence entries and decontextualized, making them feel cryptic. Of course, to Virginia, each made perfect sense and brought her back to a precious memory. She mentions some places such as “The Strand” and “The Hup,” as well as some people including her future husband, Guy, and others like Louise, Joe, Beulah, and Fae. Here are some of the entries that I think were about her time at camp and written in the summer of 1932:

THINGS THAT MADE ME SMILE AT CAMP

“The argument that Louise “Lon” Walter + me had. It ended in our favor.” “The night Mayford brought me home.” “The boy I had to march with” Ft City boys sitting behind us. Dan tied my sash in a hundred knots. “Blondie” is my new name.

MEMORANDUM

Remember the first night. The “Chewing Gum” boys. Curly hair.

Rem. the first night in bed.

Rem the last day how we sat by Ft City boys.

Hot dogs.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do “Blondie””

Interspersed with these were entries that I’m sure were not written about camp and were from later years. Here are a sampling of these  rememberings:

Went to the revival out at Lyons creek. Rem. who brought me home

Always remember commencement day

May 19, 1933. Louise

James, Guy + I on the bus also that night.

Let’s go! Ha ha

Always remember:

Easter Sunday, 1934

Joe + I, Beulah + S.C., Louise + Fae (In the Hup)

Always rem the good time Beulah + Louise + me had at the show “Going **ally**”

Many of these later entries were about her future husband, Guy Turbyville (1917-1955). Virginia and Guy married on January 17th, 1938, but from one of the entries above, we know that they met before 1933. These entries are extra sweet because they give us a glimpse into their future together. 

Always rem the Sep picnic. Guy + I went riding.

What a time!

Mother’s day I was also in the Hup again but with another boy (Guy) both of us had on white. (scratched out). Thatop* was down. Rem the garden + pond + the petite cottage. 

O that sunset ride home!

What a thrill!

Rem my first quarrel with Guy “I’ll get over”

Above all rem the night of Guy’s birthday party when we played “old Doc Jones.” “Did we put on the dog?” Jo + I

Virginia ends her diary with some uplifting and happy words: And they lived happy ever after.

INSECTS I FOUND AT CAMP

COMMON NAME STRIKING CHARACTERISTICS

Ken Portwood             “Be Good, Blondie”

Walter W.                    “Glad to know you”

Jon J.                    “Meet my friend”

Earl S                          “Heres my girl”

Allan Powers               Charming

Milliard Stipes             I’d like to beat his time

Clearance Chiles

Tom Shipe

After

As I wrote above, Virginia married Guy in 1938 when she was 21 years old. Guy was also born in Knoxville and he was a salesman, then a store manager, and then a electrical equipment and manufacturer’s agent. Virginia and Guy had three daughters together in 1943, 1947, and 1949, and Virginia wrote many sweet memories about him in her diary. During this time, she received a degree from Draughon’s Business College and was then a secretary for the Knox County Trustee for 20 years. 

Tragically, Guy died in a traffic accident during a heavy rainstorm on March 21st, 1955 when he was only 37 years old. The man driving the truck that Guy hit was charged with manslaughter at the time, but this was dismissed not long after. To the best of my knowledge, Virginia never remarried. Virginia remained in Strawberry Plains for the rest of her life. She died on April 2nd, 2011 at the age of 94. In her obituary, she was called, “an extraordinary mother and an unfailing source of joy to her daughters. She was the foundation of her family for 94 years.”