All day long real April showers,
Spent a great deal of my time
at home, pasting in some
new pictures in my album,
which contains episodes of my
broken romances, looking them
over a thought comes to my mind
of a happiness that would have
been, but most of my tragic
episodes will probably never
be recorded in pictures.

Spent the remainder at
some Zionist districts in
a most monotonous mood.

Always blues, blues, even the radio
is sending me blues through
the air.

Henriette did not yet answer my letter
She is slowly drifting out of my mind
like many others who dissappointed
me.

—————-

Matt’s Notes

Internet access is spotty for me today, so I’ll post this entry without comments for the moment (though the image of Papa sitting at home, pasting photos in an album and listening to the blues while torrential rain falls outside may speak for itself).

Update 4/7:

Jim, who runs the music department here at Papa’s Diary Project, says that if Papa heard blues on the radio in 1924, there’s a good chance it was something by Bessie Smith. Here’s a sample of one of her big 1923 hits called “Down Hearted Blues” from Last.fm:

And here’s a 1923 recording of “Who’s Sorry Now” from Archive.org: