When Carly was in grade three, she got her first pet, and she wrote about it in her diary.

Dear diary, today is November 2nd, and I got a pet caterpillar. I found him on the floor of our garage.

I put him in a special bug-finding jar, and I put in some sticks and some lettuce. He ate a lot and he went to

sleep early. The thing is, it's 2 p.m. and he's still sleeping. He died. He died and left me

heartbroken. Carly. That's Carly, remembering her first and perhaps shortest-lived pet.

I'm Dan Meisner, and this?

This, right now, is grown-ups read things they wrote as kids.

How are you doing?

This is a show where we go back in time to remember the good, the bad, and the awkward parts of growing up.

This time, recorded live at the York Theater in Vancouver, we have a fictional diary of a tugboat, a letter written to a future husband,

what it's like to be the sixth prettiest girl in your grade, and much more.

This stuff is weird, it is wonderful, and even though most of it was never intended to be read aloud,

there's a lot we can learn by listening to it.

So think about who you were, when you were a kid, and stick around.

Some kids are very intentional about keeping a diary.

They keep a strict schedule, they write consistently without fail.

Other kids aren't so rigorous.

Their diary entries are a little more sporadic, they come in fits and spurts, or they only write when something interesting or noteworthy happens in their lives.

When Marlene was 12, she started writing a diary in her Saskatchewan Wheatpool notebook,

and as you'll hear, the first thing she did was set very clear expectations around just

how much effort she planned to put into her diary.

Okay, first diary, book one, become in grade eight. I have decided to keep a diary in here

...