Recently I began to look at my personal journal from Sept. 8, 1980, to May 18, 1981, when I was 37 years old.

First I found a photo of Loretta Lynn at a concert we went to in 1980. It was between the front cover and the first page. Next, there’s a table of contents I wrote for the journal. It’s very interesting, and I will share with you a few memorable events I wrote about.

October 7 begins I saw the most beautiful movie tonight — “Days of Heaven”.

October 25: Went to Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger last night, came home and read until 1 a.m., and went to bed with Howard’s letter under my pillow. He was working on his first book, “How to Tell a Tornado.”

December 1: How good morning feels. Most often it is my euphoric time. I could have written poem after poem.

February 12: 9:15 p.m. I’ve been writing and typing my rural education paper since 8:30 this morning with 1/2 hour out for lunch and 1 and 1/2 hours for exercising and dinner. Now I’m going to read E.A. Robinson and go to bed.

March 2: In a dream I was at the Ferguson, Iowa, gym, because there was going to be an alumni — woman’s basketball game I would play in. Would anyone be able to tell I was 37?

March 10: Going to take a passenger train. Missed the connection. Place was tracks in Ferguson.

March 16: “The Education of Henry Adams.” In this book he is trying to make sense out of his time, with an 18th century education and outlook. His attitude seems arrogant.

March 31: I won’t know if I ever wrote down the line that occurred to me as I was waking up from a dream — “Our hands sweep floors not time.” I think it came to me as a response to E.A. Robinson’s idealism.

April 9: I was begging to read a book by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and I could see that it wouldn’t lead to a thesis. On the cover it said something like “Children’s Guild of Books.”

April 15: I wanted to remember talking to the 84-year-old woman on the bus the other day. She was born in 1897. She never got to go to high school … Went to the birthday party for Jerry.

April 21: I had a good dream last night. My husband bought a new sports jacket, shirt, and a pair of plaid knit pants. In another dream I was in charge of serving a large cake in a tent after a poetry reading. Then I saw everybody walking up the hill to their cars.

April 22: I’m in a gym for a bicycle race of some kind.

April 29: I forgot to write down a dream from Monday night. I was outside our house in Ferguson, and planes were flying low over the town.

Last night I went with a friend to the movie “The African Queen.” I had forgotten that James Agle (and someone else) wrote the screen play. The book is by C.S. Forrester. It is such a good movie. The audience loved it, of course. We laughed, lovingly at the right places.

May 17: Since this is the last page, I thought I would write about something appropriate. Why did I worry about the “forever” after I die? There was also a “forever” before I was born.

Interested in chronicling your life story? These books might be helpful: “You: the Story,” by Ruth Sepetys 870.7 SEP; “Why We Write About Ourselves,” ed. by Meredith Maran 874.07 WHY; “Writing Your Life,” by Mary Borg 874.6 BOR; “Memoir Your Way: Tell Your Story Through Writing, Recipes, Quilts, Graphic Novels, and More” 874.6 MEM. You can also share those stories, photos, movies, and more in the Mark S. Goodenow Preservation Lab. For more information, visit marshalllyonlibrary.org 507-537-7003.