I Want to Share a Site I Found
Thu., March 20, 10:17 AM
When I was a kid in elementary school, dictionaries were among the standard texts assigned to us at the start of the school year. I always had extra time after finishing the lesson — whatever it was — and I would look for new reading material among my other books. Once I had gone through the reader, there was still the dictionary.
You look up a word; maybe there’s something on that page that reminds you to look up another word. I could spend hours doing that, even now. Except that, now I have the internet. So I cannot tell you how I got here, but I have found the most extraordinary site. I was just going to mention it to a few people whom I know would enjoy it, but I think it deserves more widespread publicity. Let me introduce you to:
Papa’s Diary Project, the 1924 diary of Harry Scheuerman, transcribed and annotated by his grandson, Matt Unger. Mr. Scheuerman, a Jewish immigrant in New York City, kept a handwritten journal in 1924. I felt a connection because my mother’s family arrived a year earlier and I thought maybe they would have some experiences in common. As a matter of fact they did, although Mother was a child of about ten when Mr. Scheuerman was already an adult.
I see similarities to my grandfather, also in the “needle trades,” even though their social lives would have been very different. Grranpa was a married man with a large family. Home entertainment for Matt’s Papa was listening to the radio. My Grranpa read the Forward aloud to the whole family.
I love the way this is organized. Matt retypes one of Papa’s entries, then comments from his own point of view. Occasionally there’s a note from his mother, Papa’s daughter, that clarifies a question. There are comments from readers who contribute historical information, for example, an old photo of a theater that Papa mentioned attending. Matt includes links to all kinds of information he has found since beginning research on this project.
I have read up to March so far. What resonates throughout is a love of family — from Papa for his sisters here and his family in the Old Country, for Papa from his grandson. I do indeed connect to this.
Just a note about dictionaries: I grew up with them. My dad had a huge Webster’s copyright around 1910. It has no monetary value, you understand; Dad had it rebound when it was falling apart, and somehow the title page got lost. But it’s still fun reading. I gave it to the M.D. a few years ago.
In the same way, I always had dictionaries and other references in the house. When a child asks a question you can’t answer, “Let’s look it up.” So I was astounded to find out that schoolkids are no longer issued dictionaries.
When a question arises in class, the student may borrow the teacher’s dictionary. Should the teacher actually assign a dictionary lesson, the student must use the library or buy his own dictionary. The parents often have no idea of why this is necessary.
Charitable organizations like the Rotary actually make a project of providing personal dictionaries to schoolchildren. Isn’t it a shame that the kids are deprived of such a basic tool? By the time they receive them, the habitual use of a dictionary must be learned. (By comparison, if you’ve always had them, it’s second nature to reach for a reference.)
No wonder we see people who don’t know how to do research on the internet. What a waste!
