Local man shares his journal hobby with grade school students
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, November 15, 2009 9:58 PM PST
ONTARIO -- Longtime Cairo Elementary School custodian Benny Quaid knows who won the Ontario-Vale football matchup that took place Friday, Oct. 9, 1998.
Vale did, beating Ontario 26-6, a week before the Tigers’ Homecoming game against Mac-Hi.
He also knows the weather was nice the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Should he ever have to recall that information, it’s easily found in his journals.
Actually, Quaid said his journals come in handy when settling some question of what happened when during family debates, and they were also the topic of his presentation to fourth-grade teacher Linda Erlebach’s class recently.
Erlebach was looking for someone who kept journals as a way to introduce journal writing to her students and was told Quaid did so.
“When I first went in, I wasn’t sure what to say,” Quaid said, adding he later went in to speak to third-grade and fifth-grade classes.
When he asked a few students what their birthdays were and told them what the weather was on those days, however, they were hooked.
“They got a real kick out of it,” he said, adding the idea was to get the children motivated about keeping their own journals.
“It improves their reading skills and their writing skills tremendously, and it’s just good all the way around,” he said.
During his talks, he emphasized the importance of writing in journals every day and being honest in what is written. Quaid said he first got started writing in journals 11 years ago. His interest, however, did not come from writing itself.
“No, I hate it, and I can’t spell,” he said.
Rather, his interest in journaling reflects his interest in history.
“I got it from reading parts of journals from the Oregon Trail, and I thought, ‘Why am I not doing this?’ and I think everybody should keep a journal,” he said.
He said he thought it was fascinating people traveling the Oregon Trail would write about their day-to-day experiences as part of a wagon train, and he saw an interesting parallel between the French trappers who traveled to different spots along the rivers and construction workers, who go from job to job.
“I think you get a better feeling of what happened when you read a journal rather than just hearing it from a history teacher,” he said.
When Quaid first started journaling, he began small, writing mostly about the weather but gradually gaining steam and expanding his topics to day-to-day events. His subject matter runs from the mundane to significant national events, such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, to significant private matters.
“I just made sure that I continued to fill the pages with stuff,” Quaid said.
The journals, he said, will eventually be passed to his three children, all of whom graduated from the Ontario School District.
Quaid said he is the only member of his family who journals, although he wishes his wife and children would keep them as well.
He also wishes he began his journaling experience earlier.
“It’s like a photo album,” Quaid said of his journals. “It’s something to look back and reflect on.”
