At 9 I began writing in my first diary. It was a little red book.

 My dog Tinkerbell chewed up a corner of it along with my second diary, a green book I started at age 10.

The were small enclosed book diaries with metal latches on them probably about 5 or 6 inches wide and about the same length.  Depth was about 1 to 2". Typical of the 1970s/70s era I suppose.

The diaries disappeared when I was in my first marriage. One of his friends, Joshua Walton, said he took them and kept them because they made "interesting reading material".

I have since attempted to get those diaries from Josh who lives in South Dakota and he seems to have misplaced them. Not remembering exactly what he did with those words I wrote from my heart when I was a child.