Housewife’s diary from the 1950s shows ‘times don’t change’ | indy100

A thrift store customer has unearthed a journal from 1957 which gives an insight into the secret musings of its unknown writer – and shows that some things don’t change with time.

TikTok user @otherworlddesign picked up the diary in a second-hand shop in Tennessee and, after going through a year’s worth of entries, believes the author - known as Nellie - was a housewife.

The shopper was both tickled and move by Nellie’s words – some of which feel incredibly relatable – and posted a series of videos on TikTok under the title “Diary of a 1950s housewife” to share some of the entries.

These clips have been watched by millions, many of whom agree with the TikToker’s observation that the author “seems like a mood”.

One entry on 3 February 1957 merely read: “Didn’t do anything but eat all day.”

Summarising how many people feel about social invites, the entry on 10 November of that same year simply said: “Winnie called, Wanted me to come for dinner. I didn’t feel like going.”

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Avoiding Winnie appeared to be theme in Nellie’s life, with another entry saying: “Called Winnie, told her I couldn’t go to Okla T.J.”

Nellie also hints at being a fan of horses, with an entry on October 6 saying: “We went riding. Stopped in the woods, scared Vicki really half to death. She was poking in a fox hole and I barked like a fox. Boy did she jump.” One could safely gather she also a fan of pranks and hijinks.

One video of Nellie’s diary was captioned: “Sadly not every day was a good one for Nellie.” The entry read: “It’s awfully lonesome here. It’s been raining every day. We went to see people, no one home, it was raining so we came back home.”

One viewer responded to the videos: “How times don’t change... ‘All I did was eat all day’. Same struggles.”

Another said: “I’m crying laughing at ‘I didn’t feel like going.’”