ABOUT
Before the Blog: Diarists Speak 365 Days a Year
This website is devoted to the wonderful world of diaries. To elevate them to the status they deserve. To present the best of them to you in audio and written formats on the same day (different year) they were recorded! I have read through literally hundreds of printed diaries and am in the process of selecting those passages universal in appeal.”
Christopher Morley aptly expresses my intentions in the subtitle of his Book of Days for 1931: “Being a Briefcase packed for his [her] own Pleasure & made into a Calendar for sundry Paramours of Print.”
The challenge for me was, and is, choosing one—and only one—excerpt for each day of the year for my 365 Days of Selected Excerpts From A-List Diarists, a work in progress that I will be posting from regularly.
l‘ll also be posting from my edited diaries, Diary of a Born Again Hedonist: 365 Days of Selected Excerpts, which will be available at a future date as an e-book, printed book, and 365-day diary calendar.
And, diarists will be invited to post the best of their own diaries, so you’ll be seeing these posts, too. They will be listed under the category, 365 Days of Submitted Diary Excerpts From beforetheblog.com.
I also invite you to visit my Favorites menu tab, where you’ll find A-List Diarists, Diaristic Quotes, Diary Websites, Trivia (a.k.a., Party Chatter), Know-it Poets & Their Poems, and more.
ABOUT
Patty Martino Alspaugh
I was born in Georgia (Savannah), raised in Virginia (Richmond) and grew up in California (Los Angeles). This is my little joke since I didn’t move to California (the first time) until I was 20 years old.
I am a middle child (as pictured), with an older brother and sister, Marty Martino and Katherine Martino Spencer, and a younger sister and brother, Judy Martino Mason and Robert Martino. My Mother also had another son who was a stillborn baby. His name was Charlie. If it weren’t for Charlie’s early demise, I wouldn’t have been born, which is why I always feel I’m living for two!
I am a seasoned diarist:
I have been a daily diarist for 50+ years.
I wrote my Master’s Thesis on the diary and its use by and influence on journalists.
I am a lucky girl:
Dating Game TV Show Video – Patty Martino (Alspaugh)
I was on The Dating Game in 1978 and was the bachelorette who selected from 3 bachelors. The taping and the prize-winning trip (London, England) will be included in my autobiography: Mrs. Malaprop Goes Shopping in Her Underwear: My Life Revealed One Story at a Time.
I won a Toyota Prius in a raffle at Golden West College while working there as a Construction Project Manager (AECOM). See Spring 2006 issue of Wavelength (pg 9).
I am married with a stepson and 5 grandchildren (all girls).
I married my husband John Alspaugh late in life even by today’s standards, on October 1, four days after my 33rd birthday (September 27). I’ve now been married 30+ years.
I am immortalized on a brick in Richmond, Virginia:
It’s not a Hollywood star, but it is a brick on 12th Street right off Main Street in downtown Richmond, Virginia. The $25 bricks were offered as part of a revitalization project to spruce up downtown in the mid-eighties.
I am a writer:
I’ve been a contributing editor at several newspapers and magazines, where my forte is the how-to anecdotal article. I’ve also written quite a few press releases. See Published Work.
I have a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communications: Journalism. See my master’s thesis also referenced above: Diaries: Their Use by and Influence on American Newspaper Journalists.
- I am retired after close to 30 years in the construction business, moving my way up from administrative assistant to project manager in 6 years. I love being a stay-at-home retiree working on my own projects 24/7.
Prior to construction management—Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Golden West College (GWC), and California State University (CSUN)—I worked in the restaurant business (both as bartender and waitress), as an office temp, and at three advertising, marketing and public relations firms.
I’ve also had numerous sales positions, but none for more than a couple of months and most for only a couple of days. I always felt uncomfortable making a sale, as if people thought the only reason I was nice to them was to sell them something.
The one exception was working for my Father for three years in the family wholesale business selling and distributing non-foods to independent grocery stores along the East Coast. I drove the packed van on the long distance highways and my younger brother Robert drove it the inner city routes.
I shouldn’t forget to mention my summer job as a camp counselor in my early twenties at Stanley Ranch in Castaic, California, or my job as a passenger service agent at Los Angeles International Airport.
I am a street photographer:
I remember offhandedly remarking to a friend one day, “I can’t see without my camera.” He chuckled and said, “I thought you were going to say you couldn’t see without your glasses.” Ever since, this has become my catchphrase, especially relevant as a Street Photographer who is forever on the lookout to capture the “decisive moment.” People almost always figure in my photos and my central motifs are displays of motion, emotion, and local color.
I am an avid cook:
My never-ending cookbook, Grandmom’s, Mom’s and Mine: Three Generations of Cooking, Trimmed of Both Fat and Time to Meet Today’s Busy Lifestyles, is an invaluable resource for me to use as a reference and to revise as I discover not only new recipes, but also new techniques, ingredients, styles, etc. Publication is in my sights, it’s just not 20/20 yet.
I am a bibliophile & cinephile:
I am a voracious reader. I read while I work out, while I wait in line, while sitting on my porch swing on my deck. For years, I had a book holder set up over the sink so I could read while doing dishes. That is, until we bought a home and installed a dishwasher!
My husband declares that he will not buy/construct any more bookshelves for my growing collection. He’s right. I have too many books. Unfortunately, many of the local bookstores don’t buy used books anymore (ever since the pandemic) and only accept donations. I’d rather donate to my beloved Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL). Selling them on Ebay is another option—one day—especially for my first editions. See my ongoing list of favorite non-fiction books and fiction books.
I am a documenter:
I interviewed my famous artist grandfather, Antonio P. Martino, and his wife Mary Martino (my grandmother) in 1984. The videographer, my now-deceased friend Dennis O’Lone, was so enamored of grandpop’s work that he went back a few months later and interviewed grandpop without Grandmom, focusing on Grandpop’s paintings. The watermelon painting I used as my header is one of Grandpop’s rare watercolors.
The documenter in me is my legacy to many future generations to come.
In the early 90’s, I not only interviewed my entire family, but I assembled a Martino Photo Video, too. Included in the photo video are pictures of both my famous grandfathers. This photo of my paternal grandfather, the artist Antonio P. Martino referenced above, has always been a family favorite.
James McClelland wrote a book about Antonio P. Martino and his six artist brothers (and progeny), The Martinos: A Legacy of Art.
The photo above is my maternal grandfather (General Melvin J. Maas) presenting President Kennedy the “President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped” seal with the word “Physically” stricken out per Kennedy’s direction. My grandfather was the chairman of the President’s Committee.
At the annual meeting in 1962 earlier that year, Maas stated to his audience, “Our crusade, thanks to you, has become so successful that hiring the handicapped has become part of the way of life of America. . . During the year, we accomplished the major objective in getting building standards adopted by the American Standards Association. . . We started with the Government, and from now on every new Government building will have to conform to the standards. There will be street level entrances, elevators that can be operated by a person in a wheel chair, toilets so arranged that people with ambulatory handicaps can use them, and many other things.”
Granddaddy, who went blind from diabetes when he was 53 years old, would often begin his speeches joking about his own handicap: “If any of you want to leave, you can go now, I won’t see you.”
This photo is a younger Melvin J. Maas with Charles Lindbergh in mufti and my grandfather in flying gear, ironically enough. My grandfather’s flying antics the day of President Hoover’s 1929 address to the joint session of congress is legendary. Concerned that the Chief Executive, the Cabinet, the two Houses of Congress and the members of the Supreme Court would all be assembled in the Capitol at the same time, he cautioned his colleagues, “If anyone dropped just one bomb from a plane, it would be the end of our national government.”
To prove his point, Mel Maas didn’t attend the joint session in 1929 (well, not in the traditional way), but instead he timed it so that as soon as everyone had taken their seats, and the President was about to speak, he nosed his World War 1 pursuit plane at the House skylight and lightly grazed it. Mel later told reporters, “People said that no plane could get within ten miles of the Capitol. I wanted to show one bomb could wipe out the entire Government.”
Timothy A. Guill wrote his thesis on Granddaddy for his Master of Arts in History, A Leatherneck in Congress: Melvin Maas’s Flght For A Modern Marine Corps Reserve
Gladys Zehnpfennig wrote a Men of Achievement series book on Maas, titled Melvin J. Maas: Gallant Man of Action.
And John Haran, inspired by Zehnpfennig’s book, wrote Melvin J. Maas: The Forgotten Servant Leader, after extensively researching Maas’s life. John spent more than two weeks at the Minnesota Historical Society researching Granddaddy’s public and private papers.
As a favor to me, John Haran copied a few of granddaddy’s diary pages written before and after the birth of my mother (and sadly, the death of my grandmother). At least one entry will be included in my A-list diarists calendar. See obit I wrote about my saintly mother who died in 2021 at age 92.
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