Diary From 1957 Found In Thrift Store Shows What A Housewife’s Life Was Like Back Then (Updated)
There is a certain kind of thrill whenever people go to a thrift store. Those who frequent them know that feeling all too well—the anticipation of finding a bargain and the joy of actually finding it.
But it doesn’t have to necessarily be something beautiful or practical that you might be looking for. Perhaps it can also be an oddity, a thing that you would have never expected in a thrift store, but ended up finding it regardless.
Well, this TikToker ran into one such oddity—a 1950s diary of a woman from the south-central US, detailing the things she did every day. And, turns out, their interest in learning what life was like back then was shared with the internet as people there were also keen on knowing.
More Info: TikTok
Thrift stores can surprise you with the things you can find there on sale, like this diary from 1957
Image credits: otherworlddesign
So, TikToker @otherworlddesign recently stumbled upon a vintage diary in a thrift store. In particular, it was a used diary—one that already had been filled up with writings from cover to cover—from 1957.
After reading it, the TikToker deduced that it belonged to a housewife named Nellie from Oklahoma. While personal things like these do often end up in thrift stores due to things like spring cleaning or moving, it’s not known how this particular diary ended up as a deal on the shelves.
The diary quickly spawned an entire TikTok channel dedicated to exploring entries from the diary. Every few days or so, it posts a single entry from a particular day. Since the diary is pocket-sized, the entries were short, ranging from several words to a handful of sentences.
But, it’s no ordinary diary—someone wrote in it for a full year, and this TikToker shared some entries
@otherworlddesignReply to @lindsayosterhoff I found out her name is Nellie! ##thrifted ##thriftshop ##diary ##1950s♬ Heart & Soul – 1940s Music
For the most part, it detailed the things Nellie did or happened to her throughout the days. While some entries are a complete mood affair, like “didn’t do anything but eat all day,” others were more detailed and eventful, like her going to a wedding: “Today is a colored wedding and it’s just as beautiful as the others.”
It seems that the diary used to belong to a housewife named Nellie from Oklahoma
Image credits: otherworlddesign
The diary serves as an insight into what life was like back in 1957. It often refers to very 1950s names like Winnie, Jinks, and Garland. One entry details Nellie’s trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, saying how a coffee and a pie cost 31 cents, and how supper cost 55 cents, which is $2.90 and $5.15 today respectively.
It also refers to retailers of the time—like Safeway and T.G. FYI, Safeway is still around today, it’s a supermarket company, while T.G., or TG&Y in full, was a variety store that went defunct in 2001. Incidentally, it was headquartered in Oklahoma, where our heroine lived.
Heck, there was even one instance where Nellie told a whole story of how she snuck up to her friend Vicky poking at a fox hole and scared her half to death. Sounds like good times!
The diary provides insightful glimpses into the daily life of a housewife in 1957
Image credits: otherworlddesign
PLOT TWIST: some months later since the original posting of this article, the TikToker, with the power of this social medium, got his hands on two other diaries by Nellie, from about 20 years earlier. And the whole channel also inspired a movement of sorts where the internet got engaged in figuring out the particular of Nellie.
It got to such a point that Otherworlddesign posted a 4-video long explanation (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) on what they managed to find out about Nellie. Turns out, she had a husband named Samuel, was a mother of 6, and after her husband was hit by a train, institutionalized, and eventually passed away, she turned to making alcohol to make ends meet.
Because there was a nation-wide prohibition on alcohol between 1920 and 1933, Nellie was busted. This did not stop her from continuing on this path, but the Judge eventually made an example of her and turned the case nation-wide.
In an interesting turn of events, the TikToker got his hands on two more diaries by Nellie, and her story became rather grim
@otherworlddesignThis are 100% Nellies!! Please give @claireclaireh some love for reaching out to me!! Thank you!! ##thriftshop ##diary ##1930s ##1950s♬ Star Dust – 1930s Music
The TikToker never posted entries from the diaries about it, but it turns out Nellie’s husband died tragically in an asylum and she turned to making booze
Some of the latest entries in the channel document the TikToker’s journey to visit Nellie’s grave
Image credits: @otherworlddesign
The channel has been going viral since the start. The videos collectively have tens of millions of views, with almost 4 million likes and nearly 340,000 followers. And the videos keep coming out every few days or so with a new diary entry.
You can check out more on the now-viral TikTok channel, but before you go, tell us your thoughts on this in the comment section below!
No wonder women's lib caught fire in the 70's. This was excruciating and it was a best case scenario.
@Signie: Perhaps Winnie was just boring company or really obnoxious.
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My wife found her grandmother's diary, and it was filled with similar day-to-day comments. Scattered throughout are entries that just say, "Pooped." We disagree on what that meant. My wife thinks it means her grandmother was tired that day. I think her grandmother was commenting on her regularity.
As someone who sometimes has digestion problems, I think you're right, she was keeping track :D
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I'm dying over "("Safeway" was a popular supermarket back then)", I go to Safeway to buy my groceries in 2021 and they're talking about it like its a specimen of the olden days ahaha
My Grandfather kept diaries throughout the Great Depression. He was a farmer in northern Minnesota during that time. He commented on the weather, calves being born, etc. He kept track of every penny when going to the general store and listed an itemized account of his purchases including on occasion...a bottle.
Ah, I’m in Minnesota too, doncha know. Was he in the iron range?
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I have been writing diaries since I was 11 in 1966. Have about 20 of them now, and I am only assuming that they will get dumped in the trash when I shuffle off this mortal coil. In one I wrote, "soon to be a major motion picture"; hopefully someone will read them.
I've kept diaries since I was 12. I recently read from my first diary, dated 1970. Almost every entry was about some boy. Lol
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@lara the lady is most likely dead. It's hardly revealing a deep dark secret or exposing a love affair. It was a pocket diary, "a page a day" it's mundane & that's what makes it charming. The mundane and ordinary we can relate to. I laughed when she wrote "All I did was eat all day" & the line about fobbing her friend Winnie off as I've done both too. Unless she came back as a ghost and visited you Lara in the middle of the night, shook your hand personally for fighting her corner, then i don't understand why you are taking this so personally.
No wonder the women back then had to take so much valium. To endure this kind of boredom, year after year, is just torture.
Being a housewife can be a torture if you don’t like it. I am just because I am too ill to work and it’s a nightmare. Other women are happy with it.
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T.G. was a way of saying "Thank God/" without blaspheming. (1957's version of OMFG!) Sound odd today but can conservative Christians thought saying God in that context was sinful.
This isn't just a diary: it's an historian's dream. You could do a Ph.D. on this.
Seems like this housewife had a more interesting life than i do. (sigh)
Safeway is still alive and kicking in NorCal and Hawaii. Elsewhere it is known as Vons, Tom Thumb, Randalls, or Carrs. You're welcome.
It's possible that 'T.G.' meant 'Thank God' because she was glad she didn't have to go Oklahoma that day.
My mum was born in 1957! And for lara: We found my great-grandmother´s diary where she mentioned how they had to eat dirt (possibly mixed with something else) during the war. How is that for revealing secrets?
After the work most women of this era did in WW2, she must have been bored out of her mind stuck at home with only Winnie as a distraction. No wonder so many of them needed a little drink or two to get through their endless lives.
She must have been a very rich woman. My grandmother in the laste 50s and 60s had to do all house chores, raise three kids alone, take care of her sick husband and work at her parents store. My grandma in law raised six kids while working part time in the telephone company and the other half in their farm.
She was elderly, the account owner said she was in her 70’s in 1957.
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Do check out ''The Great Diary Project'', inaugurated by the British Museum,s curator for Sumerian tablets. I think his name is Erwin Finkel.
Correction for Sunday October 6, 1957: We went riding stop[p]ed in the woods scared Vickie NEARLY half to death she as poking in a fox hole and I BARKED like a fox boy did she jump got some dogwood Bob got a tub full of dirt. Bob and Vickie went in the creek and got some rocks.
I want to use this opportunity to thank Dr Ekpen for what he has done for me and for helping me to get my ex back with his love spell at first I thought it's not going to work until I have faith in it and it tells me that it's guarantee and truly I have seen it thanks again papa I we advice you people who need love spell to contact Dr Ekpen email him drekpenherbalisthome@gmail.com or WhatsApp him +2349062286491
Safeway was popular just not too long ago and I believe some places still has that store I just to shop there all the time too but I'm not old lol
lara, lighten up, you didn't have to click on the story but here you are. Also Safeway? Still around, I have one by my house. And lastly IF y'all find my diaries after I'm gone, go ahead and post away, they're pretty dark and funny so maybe someone will learn something. Just don't lara read it. She wouldn't appreicate it.
All the oppression she faced made me cry, I could barely finish reading.
If I go and steal my neighbors diary, should I post it on the Internet because it's just "innocuous". Is it a beautiful glimpse into her life, or is it a personal invasion of her privacy? Are the rules different after she dies? Then is it OK to post her personal thoughts?
Why the hell are you posting somebody's private diary on the Internet? Like honestly, why am I even having to ask this question? How inconsiderate could you be? Just because her family dumped it at a thrift store when she died doesn't mean that she wanted everybody reading it.
Honestly sounds like a very young woman or even a teen. I grew up on a farm in the 50s, but my mom, in her thirties at the time, dressed and acted like a stylish city woman.
That doesn't sound like a housewife, that sounds like a teenager to me.
I translated my grandfather's diary from 1943-45 when he was stationed in Egypt with the RAF - his handwriting was really tiny; he'd insert two lines of text for each ruled line in the book. He was a sergeant in charge of fixing and servicing planes, getting them back in the sky as soon as possible. Even though he was literally at the tail end of the Second World War, his diary entries weren't too different to this - sending and receiving letters to and from my grandmother and his mother, watching films in the NAAFI buildings, complaining about the weather and practising his clarinet. Slice of life stuff because that's what was directly affecting him at the time. He did have an entry making fun of his fellow sergeants when they all had hangovers on May 11th 1945 - my granddad didn't drink, but his diary noted that there were two days of celebrations following VE day, even if VE day itself was a non-event.
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I beg to differ. This is most likely someone who has passed away, and from what I've read, lead a pretty uneventful, boring life, at least in 1957. It's a look into a life long past. Incidentally, so much of the internet is a diary that you never wanted to read, yet here we are.
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No wonder women's lib caught fire in the 70's. This was excruciating and it was a best case scenario.
@Signie: Perhaps Winnie was just boring company or really obnoxious.
Load More Replies... My wife found her grandmother's diary, and it was filled with similar day-to-day comments. Scattered throughout are entries that just say, "Pooped." We disagree on what that meant. My wife thinks it means her grandmother was tired that day. I think her grandmother was commenting on her regularity.
As someone who sometimes has digestion problems, I think you're right, she was keeping track :D
Load More Replies... I'm dying over "("Safeway" was a popular supermarket back then)", I go to Safeway to buy my groceries in 2021 and they're talking about it like its a specimen of the olden days ahaha
My Grandfather kept diaries throughout the Great Depression. He was a farmer in northern Minnesota during that time. He commented on the weather, calves being born, etc. He kept track of every penny when going to the general store and listed an itemized account of his purchases including on occasion...a bottle.
Ah, I’m in Minnesota too, doncha know. Was he in the iron range?
Load More Replies... I have been writing diaries since I was 11 in 1966. Have about 20 of them now, and I am only assuming that they will get dumped in the trash when I shuffle off this mortal coil. In one I wrote, "soon to be a major motion picture"; hopefully someone will read them.
I've kept diaries since I was 12. I recently read from my first diary, dated 1970. Almost every entry was about some boy. Lol
Load More Replies... @lara the lady is most likely dead. It's hardly revealing a deep dark secret or exposing a love affair. It was a pocket diary, "a page a day" it's mundane & that's what makes it charming. The mundane and ordinary we can relate to. I laughed when she wrote "All I did was eat all day" & the line about fobbing her friend Winnie off as I've done both too. Unless she came back as a ghost and visited you Lara in the middle of the night, shook your hand personally for fighting her corner, then i don't understand why you are taking this so personally.
No wonder the women back then had to take so much valium. To endure this kind of boredom, year after year, is just torture.
Being a housewife can be a torture if you don’t like it. I am just because I am too ill to work and it’s a nightmare. Other women are happy with it.
Load More Replies... T.G. was a way of saying "Thank God/" without blaspheming. (1957's version of OMFG!) Sound odd today but can conservative Christians thought saying God in that context was sinful.
This isn't just a diary: it's an historian's dream. You could do a Ph.D. on this.
Seems like this housewife had a more interesting life than i do. (sigh)
Safeway is still alive and kicking in NorCal and Hawaii. Elsewhere it is known as Vons, Tom Thumb, Randalls, or Carrs. You're welcome.
It's possible that 'T.G.' meant 'Thank God' because she was glad she didn't have to go Oklahoma that day.
My mum was born in 1957! And for lara: We found my great-grandmother´s diary where she mentioned how they had to eat dirt (possibly mixed with something else) during the war. How is that for revealing secrets?
After the work most women of this era did in WW2, she must have been bored out of her mind stuck at home with only Winnie as a distraction. No wonder so many of them needed a little drink or two to get through their endless lives.
She must have been a very rich woman. My grandmother in the laste 50s and 60s had to do all house chores, raise three kids alone, take care of her sick husband and work at her parents store. My grandma in law raised six kids while working part time in the telephone company and the other half in their farm.
She was elderly, the account owner said she was in her 70’s in 1957.
Load More Replies... Do check out ''The Great Diary Project'', inaugurated by the British Museum,s curator for Sumerian tablets. I think his name is Erwin Finkel.
Correction for Sunday October 6, 1957: We went riding stop[p]ed in the woods scared Vickie NEARLY half to death she as poking in a fox hole and I BARKED like a fox boy did she jump got some dogwood Bob got a tub full of dirt. Bob and Vickie went in the creek and got some rocks.
I want to use this opportunity to thank Dr Ekpen for what he has done for me and for helping me to get my ex back with his love spell at first I thought it's not going to work until I have faith in it and it tells me that it's guarantee and truly I have seen it thanks again papa I we advice you people who need love spell to contact Dr Ekpen email him drekpenherbalisthome@gmail.com or WhatsApp him +2349062286491
Safeway was popular just not too long ago and I believe some places still has that store I just to shop there all the time too but I'm not old lol
lara, lighten up, you didn't have to click on the story but here you are. Also Safeway? Still around, I have one by my house. And lastly IF y'all find my diaries after I'm gone, go ahead and post away, they're pretty dark and funny so maybe someone will learn something. Just don't lara read it. She wouldn't appreicate it.
All the oppression she faced made me cry, I could barely finish reading.
If I go and steal my neighbors diary, should I post it on the Internet because it's just "innocuous". Is it a beautiful glimpse into her life, or is it a personal invasion of her privacy? Are the rules different after she dies? Then is it OK to post her personal thoughts?
Why the hell are you posting somebody's private diary on the Internet? Like honestly, why am I even having to ask this question? How inconsiderate could you be? Just because her family dumped it at a thrift store when she died doesn't mean that she wanted everybody reading it.
Honestly sounds like a very young woman or even a teen. I grew up on a farm in the 50s, but my mom, in her thirties at the time, dressed and acted like a stylish city woman.
That doesn't sound like a housewife, that sounds like a teenager to me.
I translated my grandfather's diary from 1943-45 when he was stationed in Egypt with the RAF - his handwriting was really tiny; he'd insert two lines of text for each ruled line in the book. He was a sergeant in charge of fixing and servicing planes, getting them back in the sky as soon as possible. Even though he was literally at the tail end of the Second World War, his diary entries weren't too different to this - sending and receiving letters to and from my grandmother and his mother, watching films in the NAAFI buildings, complaining about the weather and practising his clarinet. Slice of life stuff because that's what was directly affecting him at the time. He did have an entry making fun of his fellow sergeants when they all had hangovers on May 11th 1945 - my granddad didn't drink, but his diary noted that there were two days of celebrations following VE day, even if VE day itself was a non-event.
Load More Replies... I beg to differ. This is most likely someone who has passed away, and from what I've read, lead a pretty uneventful, boring life, at least in 1957. It's a look into a life long past. Incidentally, so much of the internet is a diary that you never wanted to read, yet here we are.
Load More Replies...
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