Evelyn organized meals when the town’s textile mill closed.

They had lived in an age of handwritten accounts, and Arthur remembered names long after the debts were settled.

Then Richard grew older.

Arthur wrote about school reports, baseball games he’d missed because the shop needed him, and arguments he could no longer resolve with a joking apology.

He called his son gifted and angry.

Later entries mentioned business loans, disagreements over a proposed expansion, and a sale Arthur believed Richard had pushed through before they were ready.

I stopped reading when an entry described a fight in the shop’s back room.