June 21st: 'I have lost every trace of sex appeal'
Today's journal entry comes from 1943. It's a fun one!
The diary we’re looking at today is one of many written by Margetta Hirsch Doyle, born 1925 in New York City. She went to William & Mary college during World War II, when the campus was mostly populated by women.
Her father was an avid diary writer, and gave Margetta empty diaries for her own use from a young age. Seven of her journals have been preserved and digitised, spanning from 1942 to 1944. When she wrote the below entry, she was seventeen years old.
I rose early this morning and put lipstick on twice before it looked well enough. I tried to keep from getting dirty - all in hopes of Bill’s coming today, but today came and has gone by, without any traces of him. I’m getting really anxious to see him.
Work was unexciting. I started out to “help” Evelyn and ended up by filing most of the day. It was fun and I liked it for a change, but wouldn’t especially like it for a steady portion in life.
At this point I’m in a sizzling mood and feel I have lost every trace of sex appeal. No signs of Bill Boyd - no mail from Bill Brennan since I’ve been home - and no prospect of any. Mom Brennan has called for lengthy conversation - Willy’s busy and all that!
Margetta was working at a company called ‘Bell’s Bakeries, Inc.’ at the time, where most of her tasks appear to have been administrative ones. Evelyn Smith was working at the same company, and that’s how the two met. When she writes this entry, she’s only just started the job and it’s taking her some time to get used to it, although she loves being a ‘working girl’ and the income that it provides her with.
The two Bills mentioned here make frequent appearances in Margetta’s diaries. They are both stationed somewhere away from New York, and promise to come and see Margetta when they’re on furlough. I couldn’t tell if she has any preference for either of them, and both send her letters and occasionally call her.
She writes this the following February:
I’ll complain no more: things are indeed wonderful. This morning the florist dropped by with a dozen red roses for me from Bill Boyd. They’re lovely and I’m so pleased. Then too: Bill Brennan sent a perkish Valentine which restored my faith in him. I’m all for that patron saint of young romance! and I beam accordingly, while sniffing roses.
Spoiler alert - she doesn’t end up marrying either of them (her husband won’t even be called Bill!), but eventually meets a man called Joseph Bernard Doyle at the job she gets after graduating and they get married in 1948
How relatable is this entry - putting lipstick on twice to get it right, your mood relying on whether you see or hear from your crush(es) that day, ah, the joys of being seventeen years old! Reading some bits of these diaries reminds me a bit of the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series (the series that Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging is from) which is a great thing in my books.
I really enjoy Margetta’s writing style, it’s full of wit and humour and shows how much she enjoyed writing.
See here for some scans and transcripts of Margetta’s diaries.
In The Doyle Diary Project, a group of students transcribed Margetta’s 1944 diary and added helpful contextual notes to it - definitely worth a read!
It’s a pity that neither Boyd nor Brennan fit the bill!