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. 

First writing in class at school. Description of How To Wash Dishes.

 Age 12. I was twelve years old in the seventh grade.

Home Economics class.

Teacher said it was a very good description. She liked my writing.

funny how I have been writing and washing dishes for a very, very long time.

I think I was 9 or 10 years old when I actually began washing dishes in the kitchen at home in Belton, Missouri where I lived with my grandparents. Grandma had to do dishes every day and she had me helping in the kitchen cleaning up. She would wash them first then put them in the dishwasher using the hottest water possible. The water heater was set really high. Scalding water would burn my hands so I had to be really careful.

The diary I started when I was 9 or 10. My first diary. A green padded book with blank pages.

The blank pages are the most exciting thing to me from the very beginning.