Reaching for the Moon
More Diaries of a Roaring Twenties Teen (1927-1929)
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Tuesday, March 15, 1927 Took car this afternoon and went for a ride. The folks went out for dinner so about 7 o’clock I took a hot bath and went to bed intending to break up my cold. About 7:30 the door bell rang and it was Johnny. I made Joe entertain him while I got dressed again. Then we played Poker, talked and had a good time. We decided to phone Alyce and not let her know Johnny was here and let Johnny listen upstairs and get her to talk about him and see what she said. He did it just for a joke but I didn’t know she was going to say what she did. She talked terribly about him. Said that the only reason she went with him was because he had the money and she hated him and oh, awful things. I couldn’t stop her when she got started. Finally Johnny could stand no more. He let go a flow of eloquence, gave her the merry ha ha! Broke their date for Friday and hung up. Alyce will simply slaughter me when she sees me but it serves her right. Bet she doesn’t have a chance to make a fool of him again. Sunday, March 20, 1927 Johnny and Frank O’Conner came up this afternoon and we went for a ride. Had a fairly good time but I must admit, I’m terribly disappointed in men. Jack bored me to death last night. The poor little sap hasn’t even a sense of humor. He’s altogether too materialistic. Frank is Irish and supposed to be clever but I was terribly bored this afternoon. I’m through with boys. They don’t even interest me. They’re all the same. I can’t imagine myself ever falling for a boy again. There’s nothing about them to fall for, the conceited animals. Animals, that’s all they are. And girls are even worse. They’re cats, everyone of them. I’m disillusioned in all humanity and especially in Jack. I want to get away from the city. I want to go away. Out in the desert or to the beach or away up in the mountains. Away from curling irons and powder puffs and MEN. Above all, men. Tuesday, March 22, 1927 Went downtown and bought a new coat and hat. Coat was $110 and the hat $12.50. Both perfectly adorable. The coat is gray with gray fur. The hat is imported from Paris. Saw Jack Freidel. I guess he’s home for Spring vacation. Had an adorable mustache. Went for a ride with Fanny this afternoon and saw Jack Kaplan. I put my hand out the window to turn a corner. I guess he thought I was going to wave to him. Anyway, he started to wave to me but when he saw that I was only putting my hand out the window he didn’t want to be snubbed, so he pretended to be pushing his hat back. By that time it was too late to speak to him. It’s funny about us. We never know when the other one is going to speak.
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About the Book
“I’m glad I’m alive.”
Doris Louise Bailey, a teen in the Prohibition era, writes this sentiment over and over in her diaries as she struggles with a life-threatening bout of scarlet fever. But it’s also an apt summation of how she lived in the years following her brush with death. Reaching for the Moon: More Diaries of a Roaring Twenties Teen (1927-1929) contains Doris’s true-life adventures as she flirts with boys, sneaks sips of whiskey and bets on racehorses – breaking rules and hearts along the way. In Portland, Oregon, she’s the belle of the ball, enjoying the attention of several handsome gents. In Arizona, she rides a wild strawberry roan, winning races and kissing cowboys. From hospital wards and petting parties to rodeos and boarding school, this older, more complex Doris faces the dawning of the Depression and her own emergence as a young adult with even more humor, passion and love of life than she showed in her earlier diaries. Readers of all ages will relate to her pursuit of true love, freedom, and adventure in her own time and on her own terms.
About the Author
Julia Park Tracey is an award-winning writer, editor, and journalist. She is the great-niece of Doris Bailey Murphy, who left dozens of diaries covering an 80-year span. The Doris Diaries is a multimedia project designed to publish and broadcast the historic contents of Ms. Murphy’s journals. Read more at www.thedorisdiaries.com. Park Tracey has also written a novel, Tongues of Angels (Indie-Visible Ink, 2013), and poetry collection, Amaryllis (Scarlet Letter Press, 2009). Her long-running, award-winning blog, Modern Muse, was named the best multimedia site by the East Bay Press Club in 2010; the same association named her blog Best Independent Blog in 2007. She lives in the East Bay and in the Russian River Valley, California. Follow Julia on Facebook, Twitter and GoodReads.