A Different Emerson, New Jersey

Dear Shane,
The date is June 17 and I have just arrived in our home town of Emerson, New Jersey. It’s a little more complicated than that though. By using the time machine that I have created I have traveled back in time to the year 1876! The view around here is so much different. There is less grass, less big buildings, and less people roaming the streets. It is quite strange compared to our town in the year 2010. Even the people that I scarcely see look different. They are dressed extremely different. Their clothes are a little bit dirty and old looking. Everyone is always wearing long clothing all the time as well no matter how hot it is! It’s quite strange I feel like such an outcast.
June 21, 1876. I have been here a few days and things are pretty weird. I made a new friend already named Lance. He is pretty cool. He’s tall and enjoys sports just as I do. However they don’t have all the sports that we do like basketball and football. The only sports that they have are soccer, with different rules that aren’t as advanced as ours, and running. They love to run and race. I actually met him by beating him in a race that he challenged me too. We are going tonight to the local hang out place to meet some of his friends and have a good time.
June 22, 1876. Wow. Last night was… for lack of a better word interesting. There was drama left and right! One guy got into a fight with his girlfriend. The owner of the restaurant got into an argument with one of the workers. Lance and his best friend almost got into a fight. But most strangely of all, I got into a fight with someone, and I don’t even know him! It’s a long story and I don’t have time tonight it’s getting very late so I will explain tomorrow.
June 23, 1876. Nothing eventful happened today but I still have to tell you about what happened last night. So there was this guy Randy and he did not know who I was, obviously since I’m not from this time period, so he asked me my name. I told him my name was Eli and he asked me where I was from. I was about to say Emerson, New Jersey like usual but I remembered that I was in the past. So I hesitated and made up a city name. I can’t even remember what I said it was something out of the blue but he could tell something was fishy about me. So later in the night I don’t know why but he came up to me and started yelling at me and accusing me of being a criminal! I had no idea what to say so I just denied it. He got mad at me and started pushing me! I didn’t fight back because I did not want to start anything, especially because I’m not from around here so if I got in trouble, I’d be in very bad shape. Lucky for me Lance saved me by saying I was with him. It was very scary and got me extremely worried.
June 26, 1876. It is my birthday today! I am coming home today. I had fun here the past 10 days but it’s time to go back. I wish I could visit again but my time machine is broken. OH WAIT. I just remembered it’s broken and I haven’t fixed it yet… how do I get back???? I’m panicking I don’t know what to do. I need to go look at it to see if I can fix it.
Later that day, I figured it out! However I can’t get home yet… I need to find the last piece needed in order to get my time machine working. I need some pieces of wood so that I can turn my machine on! But I don’t have any so I have to go try and find some wood. Wish me luck… I’m going to need it.