Joe Monroe Currie, Sr. (1917 - 2006)

My father

My parent's home burned to the ground in January 1960. The only thing that was saved was my mother's washing machine. All of our family treasures burned to ashes, including photos  of my paternal grandparents and their love letters. Daddy's parents, Wayne Huff Currie and Gertrude Irene Pike died within 6 days of each other when Daddy was only two and a half years old and his sister Jacqueline, was about two weeks old. Wayne and Gertrude were two out of the many millions world wide who died from the 1918 influenza pandemic. Daddy was raised by his maternal grandparents, Joesph P. Pike and Georgia Etta Lentz. Jacqueline was adopted by family friends. Daddy's grandfather, Joe Pike, died when Daddy was nine years old. Daddy didn't have much growing up.  Most of the time it was Daddy and his grandmother, Georgia.

So, to have those photos and love letters of my paternal grandparents go up in flames was a real loss.

After Daddy died I slowly went through his papers of which there were many! Most were newspaper clippings, and magazines. But, my patience and slow going proved to be rewarding. Tucked away among all those papers were two composition books. Daddy had used them as diaries. 

The first was dated from March 21, 1930 - May 30, 1931, which covered his life from a couple of months before his 13th birthday through a couple of weeks after his 14th birthday. 

The second composition book was dated from May 31, 1931 - January 30, 1933 covering ages 14 through 4 months before his 16th birthday. This was a treasure indeed. Over the years Daddy had shared stories about the few possessions he had left from his childhood. I never remember hearing any stories about these two diaries.