Galveston 1900 Storm

I am fourteen years of age and my life is going great I spend most of my time helping run my family's hotel. The Tremont hotel is a widely known hotel in the city of Galveston and my father, Mathew Mackie, happened to know the previous owner of the hotel, and it was sold to him. I, Mathew Mackie Jr., am now running the hotel for the next few weeks because my father is in Washington D.C. With my father gone, my mother has gone on edge about pretty much everything. She yells at me when I do the smallest thing wrong. I know she doesn't do it on purpose. However, it does grow on you and gets quite annoying.

September 1st, 1900-Today is Saturday and I had just gotten home when the rain had cleared and everybody had gone outside to play some ball. However, I wasn't able to because of my mother. She needed me to go around the hotel and pick up the linens off of the bed. Even though it only took me an hour or so, she kept finding for me to do. When I was cleaning up the bar, I over heard that there had been a very big storm, a hurricane they called it that was hitting some of the Caribbean islands. I had never heard of such a thing so I thought the old man that was saying this was just telling a story of when he was a kid. After coming from a previous job back to the bar, I noticed that he same old man was passed out and leaned over on the table. I assumed he was drunk. I now knew that the story was fake.

September 2nd, 1900- I always like Sundays. They give me a time to catch up on my studies and just relax. Usually on Sundays, we don't ever get customers or people that come in to have a drink. Since it's the Lords Day, my mother went to church. I was left to watch the hotel. Whenever she leaves, is the only time I have to do what ever I would like to do. Sometimes I sneak off and go play ball with my friends. Other times, I like to actually get a start on my chores. I have to go to the general store every Sunday to collect firewood to fuel the water heater and the hotel heater. Then when my mother gets home, I am required to cook Brunch for her and her friends from church. Then later I have to clean their dishes. As you can see, this is a very boring day for me.

September 3rd, 1900-During school today, Mark talked back to the teacher, and I don't think he will ever do that again. He was beaten so hard, he was crying. After lunch I got invited to my friends house to play some ball and eat some watermelon. I told him I doubt that my mother would let me go because my father is out of town. But when I got home, I asked her, and she said I could go. I was so surprised I forgot to thank her and just ran over to his house. We had a gay old time. We got some of the neighborhood boys and started up a ball game. Our team won 3 to 5. Since we were playing in the street, we were interrupted a couple times. One time, was the well-known meteorologist Isaac Cline. (Larson) He was walking with a friend and explaining some thing to him about some weather that was going on in Cuba. I didn't catch the entire conversation because I had to make a play. Then afterward, we had the best watermelon I've had so far this year. When I got home, I got yelled at because I forgot to shut off the oven with the pot roast in it. It smelled pretty bad when I walked in to the kitchen. My mother said I wouldn't be able to go to any friend's houses any time soon.

September 4th, 1900- School was okay, nothing exciting occurred. The only fun thing was that we had to sing a song during music time. Mark, once again, was cutting us up by singing really high. Then the teacher kicked him out and sent a note home explaining how he was a disturbance. The teacher then explained to us that he was a bad influence. When I got home there was a telegram waiting for me from my father. It explained that he would have to stay in Washington D.C. for another week. This means more time away from my friends and working more at the hotel. My mother explained to me that there had been a drunken sailor in the bar that afternoon talking about a storm off in the Caribbean somewhere. (GCHM) No one believed him because he was drunk. My mother made me go sweep the hallways of the hotel. Apparently the dog had gotten in with muddy paws.

September 5th, 1900-Today I stayed home from school because the hotel