Among the Great Books -- Not!

I have been slogging through a book for a couple weeks now. I do not use the word slogging loosely. Reading this book in like walking through deep mud in loose shoes. You go so far and then must go back to find something you lost.  Whenever you pause to look around you aren't sure where you are. Still you slog on determine to find some solid ground somewhere.

So why am I reading this thing?

Because I promised a friend I would.

No, he didn't write the book. He's a much better writer than the author who did.

I really don't like critiquing other people's work. When I have engaged in doing so I look for the positives as much as possible. After all, I'm no prospect for any literary prizes myself. Still, I do know some basic dos and don'ts about the trade. Unfortunately, this author seems to get the dos and don'ts confused.

One illustration stands out that represents the entire problem with the piece. In this instance, the author has described his panic at finding his young son missing after the boy's school dismissed early because of snow. Finding his child is not at the school, he says this:

"Noting that cell phones didn't exist, we drove to grandma's house..."

This is truly amazing. This person took a moment to reflect on something not yet existing. Now it is always a little difficult to know for certain where in time this person is, but this particular instance appears to be around 1977. The first commercially available cell phone appeared in 1983, but certainly many times in the mid-seventies during a crisis, say a flat tire on a back road, our first thought was noting that cell phones didn't exist.*

Sadly, the author has a plethora of interesting material that could have been woven into a gripping read.  He would have been better served if he had been exposed to some honest critiques before publishing.
Noting that writing classes do exist, he should have driven to one.

*Technically, by the mid-1970s a cell phone did exist. It had been first used on April 3, 1973. It weighted two pounds and cost $3,995.  As stated, the first commercially sold cell phones were made in 1983 by DynaTAc (called mobile phones at the time). The battery would allow for a half-hour conversation before recharging, which took ten hours to accomplish. 

In the Danger Zone

I woke up this morning in the danger zone. I feel better.

I feel a little better, that is.

You know that time when ill that you know the fever broke, the hills crested and wellness is just around the corner.

In other words, the Danger Zone.

I'm still blowing my nose and hacking now and again. My legs are merely trembly rather than wobbly when I stand. I feel much better in comparison to yesterday, which means I am on the cusp of deceiving myself leading to disasters results such as a resurrection of my symptoms.


I felt the forward scouts of this germ invasion last Friday evening. My wife was suffering for what seems most of the month with her own battleground of coughs and sneezes. I arrogantly believed I would escape notice by the enemy, foolish man that I am. But her throes of agony awoke me late Friday evening and I left the bedroom to her, both of us hoping the NiteQuil would soon dope her to snooze land. I retreat to the computer across the hall.

Immediately I detected this slight roughness in my throat. It wasn't sore, just as they say, scratchy. Was something up? Oh, I hoped not. I did not want to be sick. That is a silly statement, I supposed. Who wants to be sick?

Besides it was inconvenient. I had commitments, I had responsibilities and I had expectations. It was only a few days until Christmas. I wanted to enjoy Christmas. I looked forward to the first Christmas Eve Service at my new church (literally new, new to me and new to itself having only begun last August).

When my eyes popped open at 4:00 AM Saturday morning I could feel that threat in my throat, a bit more insistent I thought, but perhaps once up it would fade away. Sometimes it does. I didn't have time to worry or fret about it. My daughter and I were heading out the door at 5 AM to head north to Toms River, New Jersey to aid in hurricane relief. It was to be only a half day this week.

It was cold and windy. We worked until just after 1:00. I forgot about my throat, but I did run out of steam quicker that day. I couldn't sustain much push as I tried to loose stubborn floor tiles that had to come up and off a floor. I kept wanting to stop, to gulp some water, anything but push that scraper bar into those stubborn, resistant squares beneath my feet.

My wife and I went out to dinner Saturday evening. It was a very chill evening, but I wore a light jacket, figuring I would only be running between the car and the restaurant with minimal exposure to the elements. Unfortunately, on the way home my wife asked to stop at a supermarket because she needed some additional ingredients for Christmas dinner. She had originally planned to go on Sunday, but decided as long as we were out...well you know. It was only a few things, she said, she would hurry.

My wife and I live in some kind of parallel universe of time. If I go to the supermarket for a few things in my particular universe it means ten-fifteen minutes in and out. If my wife says she just wants to get one thing, let's say some ice cream, then time becomes a 78 rpm record played on a 331/3 turntable. If it is a half-hour its fast, but count on at least 45 minutes. She says a few things, then watch an hour pass. And so I waited in the car, huddled in the car, for nearly an hour in my too light jacket.

Surprisingly, Sunday morning I didn't feel so bad. I did sleep much longer than usual. I chalked that up to the work up in Seaside Heights.  My throat still had that scratch, but it seemed no worse. I was confident I was going to escape the war - until about noon.

I had agreed to video the sermon and I guess I was so focused on keeping my camera on the pastor's face and not his feet, that I took no notice of my deteriorating body. But after I came home I sure took note. By Sunday night I was miserable.

It did not improve overnight. I was a mess on Monday. I did not feel like moving. I was coughing until my lungs felt more outside my chest than inside. I couldn't swallow, I couldn't breathe.

My wife, meanwhile, was not really over her own bout, but she was busy preparing her dishes for Christmas. By afternoon she was tired and stressed. She certainly didn't want to make dinner. She didn't  even want to pick up something. She wanted to get out of the house and be waited on and relax. So we went out to dinner and not to the Christmas Eve Service.

It snowed fiercely as we drove to our favorite restaurant just over the Pennsylvania border a few miles. Surprise, surprise, when we arrived we discovered they were closing at 6:00 that night, Christmas Eve you know. They gave us menus, but we declined because I didn't want them held up because of us when they were ready to go home for the Holiday. We left and found a Lone Star that was open. But I was on the verge of collapse by the time we ate. I went home, chugged a NiteQuil and went to bed. I would not have been fit company at our Christmas Eve Service.

Thus I was ill over Christmas. I got no succor that day either. I got up and cleaned the whole house top to bottom to spare my wife any additional stress or bother. And now today, Thursday I do believe, two days past, I feel better. It puts me in the danger zone. As stated, I feel better; I don't feel great. But I have to fight my tendency not to wait the disease out. I am always too quick to try and take back my normalcy, to rush into the morning cleaning and scrubbing of the kitchen as is my daily habit, a chore followed by a four or five mile walk in the park.

No, I am forcing myself to do as little physical activity as possible today and let the cure take place. The enemy is on the run, I know. Give it a day or two of retreat and I will once again be fit and firm, that is if I keep my head, and body, down in the danger zone.

I'm NOT Loving It

I'm of two minds about this, which I will explain later.

Don't you just admire the razor sharp minds of the rich businessman, always looking for ways to do good. I mean what could do more good than jack up your profit by taking Thanksgiving and Christmas away from your minimum wage employees. Why should people be giving thanks to God and enjoying the company of their families when they could be out flipping hamburgers and contributing to the coffers of a big business? Why should they waste time watching the wide-eyed small fries opening their gifts from Santa when their are French Fries to fry?

It is my hope that Mr. Corporate Head slipped on a apron today and went down to the local Scottsdale restaurant to lend a hand. Surely when he calls for 18,000 to give up their Christmas we wouldn't find him sitting sipping a nice Bordeaux from his private wine cellar in front of one of his three fireplaces or perhaps watching Dicken's Christmas Carol being screened on his home theater.  Gee, I wonder how long it'd take the cashier at to save enough to buy a $2,175,000 home on a golf course. Maybe if she or he put away the overtime for working the holidays...of wait, a lot are being asked to work without any bonus pay for a holiday.

Now I said I had two minds about these food joints opening on Christmas. Some things are necessary to open all the time. My daughters worked today, Christmas, at an animal shelter because animals need to be cared for everyday. My friend worked at the hotel where he is employed today as well. Of course, in their cases, they volunteered for the duty and they also get paid a bonus for it.

People have to work in hospitals and nursing homes and police stations and other such places. They is no good reason on earth why a Target or a Walmart should be open on days such as this though. People don't die because they can't shop for one day.

Restaurants are a bit more tricky. I remember thinking about this when I was very poor many years ago. Those were the days I use to wander from trolley stop to trolley stop in Philadelphia looking for dropped change so I could buy lunch. I remember walking the deserted city streets on Christmas Day and seeing the restaurants and grocery stores and delis all dark and closed. I wondered where some of the lonely people went to eat on the holiday.

You have a family or friends and a home to go to Christmas is a cozy and bright day. If you are old and alone or down on your luck they may be no such place. It would at least be nice to find a cheap place to get a meal.

But the workers working such places should be volunteering for the duty and getting paid a bonus rate. So my suggestion here, as long as Mr. Corporate Head has assumed the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, is he play it out to the end, when Scrooge saw the light and sent the goose to poor Bob Cratchit. If you open on Christmas, then take the excess profit over a normal day and donate that to some local shelter. And even more, during the day bag up some of those burgers and fries and fish fillets and take them out to the homeless and the joyless and the old couple who can't get out of their apartment anymore.

But that will be difficult to achieve when you keep your heart in your pocketbook.

A Pickup Truck Load of Unmitigated Gall

I come to my Blogger dashboard this fine Christmas Eve day and what do I see?

"1 Comment Waiting Moderation"

It's always nice to get a comment. It tells me someone has read my dibble and even taken the time to say something about it. I quickly open up the comment and read a semi-cryptic message from someone named Frances, with an e, the female form. I have a cousin Francis, but he isn't a she, so I rule him out. I don't have any followers or friends names Frances. Perhaps I am attracting a new audience; perhaps a new recruit to the magical land of Larry.

However, what in the world do they mean with this comment?

"It's fortunate enough that they have their own pickup trucks. Others have to go for a pickup truck rental service just to move their things."

The comment was made on a post I did quite awhile back called  Photographs of Dads and Sons and Pickup Trucks. (You can click on that title if ou wish to read it.) I'll tell you what it was about right here tough. It was about photographs of sons and dads and pickup trucks, duh!

Actually it was a nostalgic piece, perhaps just short of a tribute to my dad. It was a response to a Post by my friend Ronald on his Retired in Delaware Blog.  I was comparing simularities between his relationship with his father and my own to my dad. The only mention of pickup trucks was in the title and this paragraph at the end:


"One other thing, though, in Retired in Delaware's Post is the pickup truck. Funny now, but this is something we saw quite differently.

On the right is my dad's pickup truck (and my teenage shadow taking the photo). My friend, Ron, was humiliated by having to ride in the back of his dad's pickup. I loved riding in the back of this one. That was where I wanted to ride, me and my friend Richard.

We thought it was cool.

There are some stories about that pickup, but for another time."

So why this comment about our dad's being fortunate while others must rent pickups? Did Francis grow up poorer than Ronald and me?  Was Frances jealous of our families enormous bounty of owning a used, battered pickup truck?  I certainly realize there were families worse off than either Ronald or myself.

Or is Frances a sensitive soul concerned about the downtrodden of our world, those underprivileged souls who must put along this world in rented pickup trucks? 

I clicked up Frances' link to find out something about her and this is what I got.

That's right, an ad for Hertz rentals.

My sensitive little Frances turns out to be some pathetic troll toiling for Hertz. What is her profession? Does she sit in a corner of a Hertz back room hunched over a keyboard all day surfing the web for the key word "Pickup Truck"?  This is Hertz idea of a great marketing campaign, sending comments to any blogger who mentions such a vehicle no matter the context of the post? The brilliant mind of the corporate types on display making spam in the quest to make hay.

Shame! Shame! Shame! You know who I rent vehicles from when it is necessary? Enterprise, they come right to your door and pick you up.

But wait, there's more! You see that ad above, well, tell you what I'm goin' do. You read this Post right now and I'll thrown in another Ad absolutely free, you don't pay $19.95 and you don't even have to pay shipping and handling.

I looked on that Hertz ad and saw the usual suspects down at the bottom, the Facebook, Twitter, Google+ boxes. I didn't know what the fourth box was, the blue one with IN on it. I should have known, but I didn't, even though I guess it was obvious. I just had never seen it before, so I clicked it and it opened this in LinkedIn.

Yeah,yeah, another ad from Hertz, but there was something unique and maybe a bit disturbing about it.

Look there on the right in the middle. There is a familiar face. Hertz has the unmitigated gall to put my LinkedIn profile picture on one of their ads as if I am somehow endorsing Hertz?  Who gave Hertz permission to use my image in their placards? was it Sneaky-Surfer Frances?

I don't want to hear any moaning and groaning from Hertz about this post. If they can plaster my face on their ads, then I can plaster their ads on my Post.  If Hertz ever chances upon this diatribe the only thing they need send me is an apology. I don't care about comments from dweebs like Frances, but I do take umbrage at unauthorized use of my image as a marketing tool.

Driving the Devil's Road Redux

A year and three-quarters ago Frank March drove down the Devil's Road. We told of that adventure on these pages. This included a short video that also was shared on YouTube. Just a little diversion was all it amounted to.

One has to know the Urban legend of the road. (I suppose Urban legend is a misnomer; it's pretty rural about there, but no one said "Rural legend, do they?)

The gist of it is that a cult house hides in the woods somewhere along the route. There are tales of Satanism, of KKK meetings and also that this was the dumping ground for a number of monstrous children produced by duPont family inbreeding.

There is also the side story of the skull tree, so named for the appearance of its trunk and roots. Allegedly a mother left her baby at the base of the tree to die and the roots absorbed the child and formed the skull face. Claims are made that if you stop here in the night you will hear a baby crying.

The third aspect of this whole Devil's Road folderol is the mysterious vehicles that will suddenly appear to chase away any intruder. These are usually described as black pickup trucks or SUVs.


Here is my original video.

Now these many months later the video drew a response:

"None of this is true. I live literally a few feet from the road and I have driven up and down it and walked it at all times of day. I also know most of residents that live up and down it. There is no "cult house"... it simply doesn't exist. However there is a farm half way down it with another house and gate just opposite from it. They do have their own security and cameras on the grounds. If they catch you the cops are usually called immediately. Anyone following you is probably someone screwing around. I know Ive scared my fair share of people down there. The supposed "cult house" is a house in the distance on a hill and it isnt even on Cossart rd. At the bottom of the hill where the trees bend and the skull tree is.. where its suppose to be. But at the top of the hill is just a field. Nothing more. Oh and the skull tree was filled with concrete and taken down because of vandalism."

This is how the Skull Tree looked originally .The baby supposedly left in that hole between the roots.

You can see the skull imagery by imagining that hole and the one to its left as eye sockets. The triangular hole at the base forms the nose.















This is how the tree looked after the holes were filled in with cement. 

People coming by at night wrote graffiti around the base (hopefully none of which you can read in this picture).

According to the comment I received the tree has since been taken down. It is kind of a shame actually. Legends should continue.

(Both photos taken from "Weird Pennsylvania".)

Also according to the comment, none of this is true. Yet, there is a house and there is a tree. They exist. Cults and gangs and women who desert babies all exist. I don't believe in ghosts, spooks and disembodied voices, such as the dead baby's cries being heard if you stand near that tree. But other than that there is nothing in the tales that isn't possible, if improbable.

Why did I once drive down the Devil's Road. Like the proverbial cat, to satisfy my curiousity. You don't live in this area long befoire you hear tells of "The Valley", of "Devil's Road" and of the "Cult House". It is a rite of passage for high school kids to visit the road late at night and scare each other. Even my own children did it. So, with my own bizarre taste for spooky things, I also wanted to experience it.

The first trick was even finding it. I had ofter heard Beaver Valley Road mentioned, but these things weren't on Beaver Valley Road. (By the way, that's beaver, not Bieber -- one spooky thing at a time.) I learned they were on Cossart Road, but where in the world was that? It is actually a road running between Centerville and the Chadds Ford area, but don't look for a road sign saying Devil's Road or even Cossart, for they took down all the street signs, which only adds to the intrigue.

But I found it.

I admit, on the dreary, rainy day I transversed it i found it very spooky indeed. There are a lot of spooky roads in this region. I have driven Old Rt. 100 between Chadds Ford and West Chester probably more than a 1,000 times in my life and stretches of it are just as spooky as can be. It is also lined with oddly twisted trees that seem to reach for you as you pass.

I would have given less notice to Cossart Road if it hadn't been for the black pickup. Yes, just as in all the legends a black pickup suddenly appeared behind me as I reached the point of the alledged cult house. It trailed behind the rest of the way to the end of the road.

Coincidence is how I figured it in my mind. Black pickups are hardly a rarity around here. However, when i exited the road I saw the black pickup do a U-turn and go back up Cossart and that gave credence to all the wild tales.
The Commenter on YouTube said: "Anyone following you is probably someone screwing around. I know Ive scared my fair share of people down there."

You mean people living there have nothing better to do. I wasn't some kid snaking through there in the night. I was an old man driving the speed limit through in broad daylight. (Well, perhaps with the rain, slim daylight, but daylight none the less.) I've heard the residents are tired of the invaders of their peaceful road. If so I would advise them to put the street signs back up and stop scaring their fair share of people by following. All those things do is perpetuate the myth.

Besides, I prefer the myth to the reality anyway.

By the way,  M. Night Shyamalan filmed "The Village" in the fields and woods along this road, one of my favorite movies.

Moochie Departs

Little Moochie passed away early Tuesday Morning.

Only last week she was living up to her name, begging for bits of chicken at our kitchen table during dinner. And she was bounding about the house rather well for an old lady. She would leap upon the back of the sofa, climb over my shoulder and settle upon my collar bone, her head or body pressed against my face blocking any view i had of the TV.

My daughter Laurel had nicknamed her , "The Suffocator".

She came to us in one of the earliest litters left in our storage area behind the house by a rather scandalous feral mother. She was born back in 1997 and was the runt of the litter. She remained our smallest cat, except for Asta who also died this year. (We've been hit hard by Death's scythe this year.) She was never much bigger than a kitten.

Her eyes glowed in the dark, more than any other cat I've seen. It was very startling to just see these two green lights peering from a totally dark space.

We noticed she was losing some weight, but she seemed fine until last Friday. She seemed to shed more weight very quickly and was so light you felt no resistance in your hand when you picked her up, as if she was an apparition and not solid at all.

Over the weekend she grew weaker. We pull a pad on our laps and someone almost always held her those last couple of days. When I placed her in the computer room over night on Monday, she raised her head to look at me, then she lay it back down. I told my wife, "I'll be surprised if Moochie's with us in the morning."

I was right. When I got up the next day, and I get up early, I found her basically as I had left her. She was already stiff, so she must have slipped away in her sleep earlier. I believe she died peacefully. She did not show any sighs of struggle or pain.

She is survived by her brother, Canterbury, the last of that litter. She had a good long life here, much longer and better than she would have had as a feral cat, if she had even survived kittenhood outside.

I expect we will see others pass in the not distance future. This is always painful, but a price you pay when you give older cats a home, as we have come to do. With the exception of Kerouac, the starving kitten my son Darryl rescued two years ago, and Flacco, my daughter Laurel's 7-month old kitten, all our cats are well over ten years old. My mother's cat, which we took in when mom died, is 17 pushing 18. Christy Cat was old when my wife adopted her 10 years ago. My daughter says Christy is 20; I say she is 100.

We'll miss you Little Moochie, rest well.

 12/11/12

Changes Over My Life

This may seem an odd and egotistical video. Almost 15 minutes of pictures of myself. I was sort of challenged to put this together by a friend, a looking back at myself over the 70 plus years of my life. It begins with close ups of my face and how my mug has changed over the years from babyhood to old age. It then repeats the time sequence with my parents and I, then schools, friends, girlfriends, jobs, my children, and so on. An experiment done mainly for one friend.

1959 - The First half

Sometimes when you haven't been able to write anything for a while it is necessary to just do something, anything. This is a means of jump starting the old engine again. With what has been happening in my life, that is, the recent deaths of my parents, I needed a simple task. One thing I have been doing is reading the diaries. My mother kept diaries all her life, right up until she had her stroke on April First.

My grandmother had also kept diaries. The year 1959 is a big one in my life because that is the year I graduated high school and entered the real world. Their diaries painted a picture of that year for me. Here is a day by day account of the first six months of 1959 as lived by yours truly.

January

1.     Went to see Ronald Tipton last night (New Year’s Eve.)

2.     Went to Downingtown Farmer’s Market for evening (Friday)

3.     Went with Richard Wilson to Downingtown

4.     Not feeling well, but went to Bethel Methodist Church for Communion

5.     Home from School (Owen J. Roberts) not feeling well

6.     Mother took me to school, but had to walk home; had earache

7.     Doctor visited home (yes they did that in those days), had gathered ear (means full of fluid) and strep throat

8.     Feeling better

9.     Feeling better

10.  Mother took me to Dr. Mann’s office

11.  Stayed home from church

12.  Returned back to school. Went to Downingtown after school to get haircut (at Clarence Miller’s)

13.  Grandaunt Mary Jane Brown Seeds picked me up at school. Went to Downingtown High School in evening to a basketball game.

14.  Went shopping in West Chester with mother and grandmother.

15.  At school in Owen J. Roberts (Senior)

16.  Mother took me to school and picked me up after

17.  Went to Richard Wilson’s surprise birthday party

18.  Went to Downingtown with Richard Wilson (pictured right)

19.  In school

20.  Sick in the night, missed school

21.  Doctor came to examine me, missed school again

22.  Back in school

23.  In school

24.  No record

25.  Went to MYF Meeting Sunday evening (Methodist Youth fellowship)

26.  Went to MYF Splash party at the Pottstown YMCA

27.  In school

28.  In school

29.  In school

30.  Went to Ronald Tipton’s in Downingtown and then bowling with him

31.  No record

February

1.     Went to Sunday School and Church in morning; MYF in evening

2.     In School (OJR)

3.     In School

4.     In School

5.     In School. After supper went to visit Cousin Emily Margaret Downing Wilson McCauley. Grand Aunt Lizzie (Wilson) was at her house, too.

6.     In School

7.     Went to Downingtown to pick up cothes at cleaners for my grandmother. Went bowling in evening.

8.     Went to Sunday School. Riding around with Richard Wilson in afternoon. Went out in the evening with Richard Wilson

9.     In School

10.  Mother took me to school (raining)

11.  In School

12.  In School

13.  Went to Ronald Tipton’s (pictured right) in Downingtown during evening (Friday)

14.  Went to MYF Social in evening

15.  Went to Sunday School in morning; out riding around with Richard Wilson in afternoon. Went to MYF in evening

16.  In School

17.  In School

18.  In School

19.  In School

20.  Went with Tommy Wilson to Downingtown to Ronald Tipton’s in evening (Friday)

21.  Went to Downingtown for Haircut in afternoon (Clarence Miller’s). Richard Wilson and I went to a school dance in the evening (probably at Warwick)

22.  Went to Sunday School. In afternoon out riding around with Ray Ayres and Richard ray Miller. Went to MYF in evening

23.  In School (Monday)

24.  Did a stand up comedy routine at OJR School Play in evening (“Frantic Frank on Musick”)

25.  Did my stand up for second night of school play )Me as Frantic Frank on right)

26.  In School

27.  Went to Downingtown and bowling with Ronald Tipton (Friday)

28.  Babysitting Ray & Mae Miller’s kids in evening

MARCH

1.     Went to Sunday School and Church in morning; MYF in evening. Took my train display down in afternoon

2.     Went to Pottstown after school to pay the telephone bill

3.     In School

4.     In school

5.     In School

6.     Drove the Ford to school. Ray Ayres and I were the DJs for the school dance in evening (Gravely & Hearse)

7.     Went bowling in the evening

8.     Went to Sunday School. Out riding with Richard Wilson all afternoon and evening.

9.     In School

10.  In School

11.  Took dad to garage to pick up his truck.

12.  In School

13.  Went bowling with Ronald Tipton in evening. Picked up my dad at garage at 1:30 AM.

14.  Went to MYF Social in evening

15.  Went to Sunday School in morning and MYF in evening. Was out with Ray Ayres all afternoon

16.  Went to Dr. Mann to get exam required for High School Track Team

17.  In School

18.  Picked up dad in Pottstown while his truck is in garage

19.  Went to Temple University in Philadelphia with my senior class

20.  Went bowling with Richard Ray Miller

21.  Went to Dawn Ayres’ (pictured right) party

22.  Went to Sunday School in Morning  and MYF in evening

23.  Went with Ray Ayres to Pottstown YMCA (Working out in weight room, swim)

24.  Went to Gym Show at OJR in evening

25.  Got out of school at 2:00 PM

26.  Went to Downingtown after school for haircut (Clarence Miller’s) Went to church in evening for Communion

27.  Went to Ronald Tipton’s in Downingtown despite bad snow storm and slippery roads

28.  Went to Downingtown in evening, got Ronald Tipton and another boy and went to Bob Lilly’s

29.  Easter Sunday, went to Sunday School, Grand Uncle Bus and Grand Aunt Mary here for Turkey Dinner

30.  In School

31.  In School

APRIL

1.     In school

2.     In school

3.     Went to Ronald Tipton’s and bowling (Friday)

4.     Mother took me to Pottstown to get shoes. Had to go to the school at 3:00 PM to help show people to seats for the school supper

5.     Went to Sunday School in morning and MYF in evening; over to OJR in afternoon with boys

6.     In school

7.     Picked up mother and grandmother at school PTA meeting because their car wouldn’t start. Went to Pottstown YMCA in evening with Ray Ayres (Pictured right) and joined.

8.     In track meet against DXowningtown High. Mother and Grandmother’s car broke down in Lionsville, had to go pick them up

9.     Went to YMCA with Ray Ayres

10.  Took Ford to school, went to Downingtown

11.  Went to YMCA with Ray Ayres in afternoon. Double dated with Suzy Cannell and another couple in the evening.

12.  Went flying with Suzy Cannell (she was a pilot), then went with her to her Uncles.

13.  In school

14.  Went to YMCA with Ray Ayres

15.  Took the Ford to a garage for oil change

16.  Went to Downingtown for relay races with other schools

17.  Raked yard; didn’t go to Downingtown since it was Ronald’s prom night

18.  Went to West Chester for glasses, then to Pottstown to rent tux for prom. Took Ronald Tipton along. Ronald and I went bowling afterwards.

19.  Went to Sunday School in morning and MYF in evening. Over at school playing ball with other boys in afternoon

20.  Monday, no school, but had track practice in afternoon

21.  Went to YMCA

22.  Track meet against Boyertown, Boyertown won

23.  Went to YMCA after supper

24.  Took Pam Wilson (Pictured Right) to school dance

25.  Went to West Chester with mother to get shoes. Took Suzy Cannell bowling in afternoon. Went out with Ronald Tipton in evening

26.  Went to Sunday School in morning and MYF in evening

27.  In school

28.  Took Ford into town to have seat covers put on. Took Suzy Cannel to a play

29.  In School

30.  In school, mother went to Pottstown to order tux for Ronald Tipton for the Senior Prom

MAY

1.     Picked up Suzy Cannell, who was going to be Ronald’s date for OJR Senior prom, then to Downingtown to pick Ronald up after his band concert. Then picked up Pam Wilson, my date for the Prom

2.     Got home at 6:30 AM from post-Prom party, slept until 2”30 PM. Did stand up comedy routine at church social in evening

3.     Sunday School in morning. Went to Downingtown for Loyalty Day parade. Brought Ronald Tipton and George Bird home.

4.     In school

5.     In school

6.     Track meet with Phoenixville. OJR won. I fowled out on discus.

7.     Went to the movie “The Shaggy Dog” in Pottstown with mother and grandmother

8.     Went to Downingtown to get Ronald Tipton and George Bird, all went to the movies.

9.     Picked up Ronald Tipton in Downingtown, then Suzy Cannell (pictured right). We went for a ½ hour plane ride, then bowling in afternoon. We went to Exton Skating Rink in the evening

10.  Went to Sunday School in morning. Went over to the school with Ray Ayres in afternoon

11.  Went to the Miss Chester County Pagent in Coatesville with Ronald Tipton

12.  In school

13.  In School

14.  Went for another plane ride with Suzy Cannell

15.  Went to Philadelphia with Richard Ray Miller to see about job with telephone company – no luck. Went to the market in evening with Cannells.

16.  No record

17.  Went to Sunday School in the morning and MYF in evening

18.  Went to Downingtown after school for haircut. Went to airport with Suzy Cannell in evening

19.  In school

20.  In school

21.  Took Ford to Lionville Garage for front wheel alignment

22.  Took Pam Wilson to a school party

23.  Went to market in afternoon. Went to Track party in evening, took Suzy Cannell

24.  Went to Sunday School in morning and MYF in evening. Was elected President of MYF

25.  Went to MYF District meeting in Cedarville

26.  Took Ronald Tipton a copy of Yearbook

27.  In school

28.  In school

29.  Took Suzy Cannell to Senior Party at school

30.  Took Ronald Tipton and George Bird to Rocy Springs Amusement Park in afternoon. In evening went with parents to stock car races in Hatfield; took Suzy Cannell along.

31.  Went to Sunday School in morning. At Suzy Cannell’s all afternoon. Attended Baccalaureate Services at OJR in evening

JUNE

1.     Didn’t have to be at school until 9:00, just for Commencement Practice. Then took Iva Darlington’s  (Pictured Right)commencement gift to her in Downingtown

2.     OwenJ. Roberts’ Commencement in evening. Went to a Graduation Party at Dorothea Lederman’s, met Sonja Kebbe.

3.     Went toRonald Tipton’s in Downingtown in afternoon. In evening went riding with Tommy Wilson and ran out of gas.

4.     Went with mother and grandmother to the Downingtown High School Commencement held in their football stadium outdoors. Stopped at Iva Darlington’s house afterward.

5.     Went to Downingtown Farmers’ Market

6.     No record

7.     Went to Sunday School in morning. In afternoon went to Sonja Kebbe’s to swim and stayed for supper. Fell in love.

8.     No record

9.     Went to Philadelphia with mother and grandmother to inquire about Florence Utt School for IBM Training. In evening the three of us went to the Warner Theater in West Chester and saw, “Some Like It Hot”.

10.  Took mother and grandmother to Downingtown, picked up Ronald Tipton and visited Grove cemetery. Dropped mother and grandmother at Uncle Paul and Aunt Margaret brown’s on Boot Road and then Ronald and I went bowling.

11.  Took my grandmother into Pottstown to exchange some paint she bought.

12.  Went to Downingtown for a haircut. Picked up Ronald Tipton and brought him home for supper. Ronald and I went to movies after dinner.

13.  No record

14.  Went to Sunday School in the morning and MYF in evening. Worked with dad on his truck all afternoon

15.  Took Sonja Kebbe (pictured right) to the movies

16.  Went to the YMCA with Ronald Tipton and then he and I went to West Chester

17.  Hung around home

18.  Took Sonja Kebbe bowling

19.  Went to Ronald Tipton’s

20.  Took mother and grandmother to store in the Ford to get groceries. Mom’s car broken down.

21.  Mother’s birthday and parent’s anniversary. Went to Sunday School in morning. Went to Sonja Kebbe’s in afternoon and stayed for supper.  Ronald Tipton went into Chester County Hospital today

22.  Went to Philadelphia with Sonja Kebbe. I signed up for Florence Utt IBM School

23.  Took mother and grandmother to Pottstown, mom’s car still not running. Mother bought a shirt to give to Ronald Tipton. Went to the hospital to see Ronald Tipton, he was operated on yesterday.

24.  Went with Sonja Kebbe to Chester County Hospital to visit Ronald Tipton

25.  Went to Chester County Hospital to visit Ronald Tipton

26.  Took mother and grandmother to Pottstown to get groceries. In evening took Sonja Kebbe to Philadelphia to see Cinerama, got home at !2:30 AM

27.  My 18^th birthday. In afternoon took Sonja Kebbe to hospital to visit Ronald, then she and I went out to dinner.

28.  Went to Sunday School in morning and MYF in evening. In afternoon I went to hospital to visit Ronald Tipton

29.  Went to Philadelphia and started classes at IBM School. Went to see Ronald Tipton in hospital after I got home.

30.  Went to Philadelphia for IBM School.