Weekend Stubble

It's not at all unusual to find old diaries turning up on eBay -- battered Jackson-era journals of a traveling minister, yellowed notebooks kept by a 1920s housewife, the battle-scarred account of a long-dead soldier. These are the kind of things that get washed away in estate sales and bob up to the surface at junk dealers.

But it's a little strange to find the teenage journal of a living person for sale:

Have you ever wanted to read someone else's diary? Are you a bit of a 'voyeur', in so much that you are interested in peeking into people's lives? Perhaps you are the same age as me (I was born in 1976) and you think it would be neat to read about what someone else was going through at the same point in history? Are you a teenager right now and want to see if the things you're feeling and thinking are 'normal'? Maybe you're an academic, sociological, psychological type and think that this would make for a unique insight into the stream of consciousness of a 13 year old Canadian teenage female? Or hey, maybe you just think this would be good for a read, or a laugh (it is).

Well, you're in luck today! In June, 1990, I was just leaving grade 8 - elementary school. I had a whole summer aheard of me before the beginning of high school, grade 9. I decided to keep a journal of the things that I did, the places I went and generally, what was going on in my life at the time.

In this amusing diary, you get coverage of every day of summer vacation from June 22 to September 3. Read about my experiences at work (my paper route, my adventures in babysitting, volunteer Candy Striping at the hospital, my first 'real' job - at McDonald's), what I did for fun, where I went (Niagara Falls on both sides of the border...Canada and the USA), what I got for my 14th birthday, what movies & TV I watched and YES, EVEN MY DREAMS!!! Where else are you going to get this kind of a book?!?!? No where! My life experiences are for sale - get them while they're here!

Yep, that's her -- Tammy -- taken cerca the 1990 edition of the diary. This is apparently the first in a line of "Tammy Books" in which she sells not only her old teenaged diaries, but will also reproduce for you photos from back then, and even provide a typed "List of Characters."

Say, I wonder if she's met Gerald Murnane?...