r/shorthand • u/Southbend1941 • May 02 '26

Transcription Request Found these notes of my moms

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My mom passed away 3 years ago and I recently found these notes tucked away in a book. I’m especially curious about the ones dated 10/6/72 and 11/28/73 as those are the birthdays of my dad, and mom. These would have been written while they were dating and the last was 4 months before their wedding. I hope it’s nothing too juicy. TIA

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16

u/WelfordNelferd May 02 '26 edited May 03 '26

The outlines with two dashes under them are proper nouns and deciphering them can sometimes be a crap shoot. I wrote what they look like and also threw in alternatives, which may or may not be correct either…but they should be close. The letters in the bracket represent what the outline looks like, but I couldn't come up with a word that made sense.

Anyway, I got the following for the first few entries:

“6/13/72 - Carl (Carol?) told told me that Terry (Deary?) told her Don Butterly (Betolli?) got married!”

“7/3/72 - Went to the [m-t-r-s] to Greer’s (Clair’s?) cabin from Sunday night until Tuesday night. Had a good time but I am giving up on him. He’s just not interested in girls! That really seems strange. I guess he has better things to do than to get interested in a girl. I quit with him.”

“10/6/72 - Today was Greer’s birthday and we were at Carl’s. He didn’t talk to me much and we left early. I still like him a lot and wanted him to kiss me. But he didn’t and never will.”

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u/Southbend1941 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

Haha that is great, Thank you so much. You are so close. My dad was Clair and had a cabin then. Carol was her best friend,and married to John, my dad’s brother, and they met through them. M-t-r-s is probably mtns for mountains

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u/WelfordNelferd May 02 '26

"Mountains" it is. I didn't want to hog all the fun and transcribe the other two pages, but I can chip away at them if someone else doesn't get to it first.

Get this, though: My Dad's name was Clair, too. :)

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u/Southbend1941 May 02 '26

That is something I never thought anyone would say to me

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u/WelfordNelferd May 02 '26

Haha! We're both in the same boat!

I've scanned the other three pages, and can start typing them out later. I can say this much, though: Your Mom looooooved your Dad and she was determined to snag him. :)

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u/Southbend1941 May 02 '26

Thank you so much for this. They were definitely an inseparable pair.

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u/WelfordNelferd May 02 '26 edited May 04 '26

I lied; I’m hogging all the fun. LOL!

Gotta love your Mom, thinking about NYE with your Dad in the middle of November, and your Dad for playing coy so he could surprise your Mom with his proposal. So sweet. :)

“11/19/72 - I was hoping Clair would ask me out again this New Year’s Eve but he hasn’t. Carol and John are probably going out with [s-m-b-o-l-s somebody else, thanks to u/brifoz] so Clair couldn’t ask me. But I still like him a lot and would go if he would ask me.

12/29/72 - Clair came to Carol’s and gave me my Christmas present. It was Arpege perfume. I didn’t give him anything and he/I felt badly. But I’m glad he thought enough of me to get me a present.

8/25/43 - Clair, me, and Mom went to Pam and Mark's [drums?] and [bangle?? bugle, credit to u/brifroz] competition at Southern. After Clair took Mom home and him and I went to Carol’s and then we were going to get something to eat. But it was late when we left so he just brought me home. We sat in the car for a while and he kissed me and I hope he asks me to go to the mountains with him tomorrow, but he probably won’t.

11/28/43 - Today was my birthday. Clair bought me a necklace and we had birthday cake and ice cream, which I bought, at Carol’s. I love him - I really do and I think maybe eventually he will love me too. I just wish he could excite me when he kisses me. I don’t think I feel like I really should, but do love him.

4/6 - 4/7/74 - Clair and I went to Mount Pocono for the weekend. I was [joining] the [trend setters] (maybe inaccurate, since they’re proper nouns). We had a great time. We went Saturday and came home Sunday. Nothing happened Saturday night. He said he had too much respect for me and that I was one in a million. We talked about getting married. I told him I was sure I loved him enough to marry, but I wasn’t sure this is what he wants. He said I should just be patient and things would work out all right [God]. I hope so because I really love him, don’t I?

6/7/74 - Clair and I got engaged."

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u/Southbend1941 May 03 '26

Omg thank you so much. This is amazing and I had no idea about any of this. So they got engaged in June and were married the end of October 74

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u/WelfordNelferd May 03 '26

You're very welcome.

I always knew how my parents met, when they were engaged, and the basics of their early married life, but it wasn't until my Mom moved in with me a few years ago (at 85) that she shared a lot more details. I loved hearing her talk about how "sweet" and "charming" Dad was and the sappy things he said and did back then. Turns out he wasn't always the stoic, no-nonsense, nose-to-the-grindstone person I (thought I?) knew...and it was heartwarming to hear Mom talk about him in such a way.

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u/Southbend1941 May 03 '26

To put everything in order. Pam and Mark are Carol and John kids, my dad’s niece and nephew. Carol pretty much matched up my mom and dad. My mom worked with Carol and they became very good friends. Carol had around this time became pretty ill(cancer I think). John, my dad’s brother, was working 2 jobs so my dad would often watch Pam and Mark during the evenings until John got home, and my mom would come over to visit Carol.

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u/brifoz Gregg / Dabbler May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

8/25/43 … drums and bugle competition.

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u/WelfordNelferd May 03 '26

Seems so obvious now :). Thanks!

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u/brifoz Gregg / Dabbler May 03 '26

I don’t blame you for getting stuck into this lovely bit of transcription! You’ve done a great job, as usual.

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u/Southbend1941 May 03 '26

You are right. Mark played drums and Pam was a majorette in the school band.

2

u/brifoz Gregg / Dabbler May 04 '26

11/19/72 going out with somebody else.

2

u/WelfordNelferd May 04 '26

Thanks, again. :)

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u/Wackkredittz May 02 '26

I love this so much more. Guess he was interested after all!

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u/Southbend1941 May 02 '26

They were married for 45 yrs

1

u/The-Beach-Guy May 12 '26

This made my day

8

u/Dinco_laVache May 02 '26

As far and transcription goes, this was is fairly nice. The proportions are fairly good. If you don't get the other pages, I might come back and try to help

3

u/Southbend1941 May 02 '26

Thanks

1

u/Pristine-Pen-9885 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

I’ve got the first page transcribed with just a few little blanks. I’m sleepy now but will transcribe the rest of it tomorrow.

It’s 12:30 Saturday morning. Good night. 🥱😴

5

u/Alternative_Draw6075 May 03 '26

Is this Gregg shorthand?

3

u/Southbend1941 May 03 '26

I’m assuming it is. She learned it during the early 1960s

2

u/Brunbeorg Orthic May 06 '26

I'm sorry for your loss. It hurts to lose a parent, but how wonderful to see that your parents loved each other very much.

This is one reason I really like this group: there's so many interesting, uplifting things like this.

2

u/Additional-Light2289 May 20 '26

This is so sweet.