Introduction by Dave

Much like Maddie's discovery of the Page diaries, I found this diary of my great grandfather, Harold Dickerson, who they called Gramp (tho I never met him) at her grandmother's (not surprisingly, my mother's).

Amusingly, he describes himself and his actions in the diary in the third person, so when he talks about the Captain, he is talking about himself. The First Mate is his wife, Floey (which I just realized - I don't know how to spell that name). It's interesting to see her in a new light, since as a kid, I only knew her as a very elderly, yet elegantly poised, lady who would sit quietly in random places around my grandmother's house. Rarely would we ever hear her speak, but I guess in her time, she had quite the strong personality.

I originally typed this baby up on a manual typewriter. (Maddie, I was going to rudely say that you'd have to search Wikipedia for the definition of that, but in reality it's the same one on the basement shelf). I then used OCR (this I know you'll have to look up) to convert it to the digital realm.

I think it's fun to read Gramp's account and follow his track across the East, from Ohio to his hometown of Poughkeepsie. Hope you enjoy it!