KC's entries for July 1967 begin ...

JULY 5 WEDNESDAY  (A little body often harbors a great soul) 

   Listen to this (I’m even embarrassed to write it.)

   * Three nails, 

     Two pieces of wood, 

     One bridge to be built, 

     From heaven to earth. 

     Who could do it? 

     One Man … 

    I never knew I was so poetic. 

   Watched “I Spy”.  Very Good.  Judy Quigley’s going to Fontbonne.  No comment… 

   * As far as the 3 nails go, I think that’s the number. 

JULY 6 THURSDAY  (All human power is but comparative) 

   We went in town today, all of us.  I bought myself a box of square crayons at Hammet's.  Then I got some mints at Brighams which melted and stuck together but taste just as good.  Then Mom bought me some fish cakes at the Union Oyster House which were quite good.  We went to the East India Shop, too. 

JULY 7 FRIDAY  (Too much disputing puts the truth to flight — Italian) 

   Nuts. 

JULY 8 SATURDAY  (Moderate measures succeed best) 

   Big day !

   1.  Grandpa and Helena came up.  Grandpa brought pictures of various radios he could get cheap but none of them were any good. 

   The other day we saw a nice Grundig, better than the $100.00 one, but it cost $160.00 which is a bit much. 

   I got $74.00 for graduation; Daddy gave $25.00 and the rest was friends and relatives.  The other $26.00 and tax, etc. are from the scholarship. 

   Anyway we finally decided on the $100.00 radio and we are getting it Monday, most likely. 

   2.  Daddy and I went to a movie, “The Wrong Box”, which is about a tontine.  It was very funny.  Michael Caine and Peter Sellers were in it. 

JULY 9 SUNDAY  (A favorite theory is a possession for life — Hazlitt) 

   Mom and Eily are going to that movie.  Dad is driving them over.  It was really a minor classic, as Dad said. 

JULY 10 MONDAY  (A good wife makes a good husband) 

   I GOT THE RADIO !!! 

   Oh what a livin’ doll!

   We went in town, Daddy, Mommy, and me, and got the radio, went home tried it out and it worked beautifully, until all of a sudden, after daddy turned the dial, it conked.  So, we went back and got a new one which seems to be fine.  

JULY 11 TUESDAY  (True nobility is exempt from fear — Shakespeare) 

    Daddy bought me a radio book so I can tell which countries I get. 

JULY 12 WEDNESDAY  (Penny and penny laid up will be many) 

    Yes, No, Yes. 

JULY 13 THURSDAY  (Pride often borrows the cloak of humility) 

↑  Yeah, I gotta be careful. 

JULY 14 FRIDAY (Money in purse will always be in fashion) 

JULY 15 SATURDAY  (A fine cage won’t feed the bird) 

    Helena took us down the Cape to Dennis.  We are staying for a week. 

    We walked along the beach toward night one time and I watched the waves and walked from one small island of sand to another.  God walks with you then. 

JULY 16 SUNDAY  (Truth is the highest thing a man may keep — Chaucer) 

                   ↗ ↗︎  ↑

              Yes Yes Yes 

JULY 17 MONDAY  (Be not righteous over much — Bible) 

Here comes baloney 

Riding on a pony!

Herman Wouk, City Boy

JULY 21 FRIDAY (He who endures with patience is a conqueror — Latin) 

   Nothing new. 

JULY 23 SUNDAY  (Two Sir Positives can scarce meet without a skirmish) 

    I have got Mecca and, I think, Damascus, Syria on the radio. 

JULY 24 MONDAY  (He that looks for a star puts out his candle) 

    No. 

JULY 25 TUESDAY  (When you know not what to do—wait) 

    Nothing. 

JULY 26 WEDNESDAY  (The more understanding, the fewer words — German) 

                                     An Adventure Story

                                            (True)

    For some reason early this morning I woke up and thank heavens I did because this thing was fluttering over my head.  Funny thing is, I never saw it, but I could hear it flutter, flutter, flutter.  I hopped out of bed without even going for my glasses and went upstairs, so I could sleep on Grandpa’s bed.  Poor Mom, I didn’t know she was up there on the bed, because she was sick and she thought I was a burglar or something. 

    She told me it was probably a moth, thinking that it had gone I spent a lot of the day in the bedroom.  That night Mom was on the couch, I in the chair when this black shadow flew by.  I scrammed upstairs coward that I am. 

    At this time it was generally believed to be a …

JULY 27 THURSDAY  (No sunshine but hath some shadow) 

    … bird.  I slept upstairs again and on this day, Thursday, Helena came up and said it was (horrors) probably a bat!  Still we weren’t eager to believe this, but their was credibility to her story.  She took Eily, Bob, and me down [to] her house; she had planned to anyway for some fairs down there.  I was scared stiff to go in my bedroom but I had to to get my clothes but it didn’t come out.  In fact, it never came out at daytime and Mom and Dad never could find it in my bedroom.

                                     Continued  .  .  . 

JULY 28 FRIDAY (How beautiful is victory, but how dead! — Boufflers) 

    Down [in] Marshfield we went to St. Colette’s fair and went on a hay wagon ride, Eily, Bob, and I.  Didn’t win anything and didn’t buy much.  Tomorrow we’ll go to Duxbury. 

    It may have been today, don’t remember, but Dad called up and told Helena what had happened batwise. 

    Although my bedroom door was shut most of the time the thing managed to fly upstairs in Mom and Dad’s room and somehow got in behind the fan, which was on full, in the window.  They saw it lying there and thought it was dead.  Mom sprayed it with ether (we used it to start our car in the winter) and the thing started to flap.  She   

JULY 29 SATURDAY  (Better three hours too soon than a minute too late — Shakespeare) 

    ... sprayed some more and it just shriveled up, Dad said.  They put it in a paper bag and Mom put it in the fireplace outside and burned it. 

                                     The End

    I won a snake throwing darts at Duxbury and so did Eily.  I mean a stuffed animal, furry type. 

JULY 30 SUNDAY  (There is no index of character so sure as the voice — Disraeli) 

    Nothing, in other words naught. 

AUGUST 15 TUESDAY  (Set thy house in order— Bible) 

Feast of the Assumption of the Bl. Vi.Ma. [aka B.V.M.]

    Today we went to Quincy and got my uniform.  It’s not quite as I remembered but it is good.  I like the skirt which is straight A-line but I don’t know about the jacket.  Both are bright blue herring-bone tweed. 

    Today is the Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady.  We all went to Mass. 

    Perhaps I am growing up.  I don’t want to write about it.  It is dull. 

AUGUST 16 WEDNESDAY  (Money was made for the free-hearted and generous — Gay) 

    The 22 is Grandpa’s birthday. 

AUGUST 17 THURSDAY  (Write injuries in sand, but benefits in marble — French) 

    I think the city is beautiful.  I love going in town.  The Market is marvelous, the people, the faces, the color, the difference, the clutteredness, the everything!  You walk along the sidewalks in the Market.  On one side are the stalls piled high with every edible growth, on the other are the buildings and the steps, dangerous-looking, and at the bottom you can see the men with their bloody aprons on, with the meat.  People talking in Italian, old ladies chattering away at each other, it all adds up to a beautiful sensation. 

    Boston must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, or so it is to me.  So many people so many lives being lived, each different, each very important.  It’s beautiful, really beautiful.  Just stop and think .  .  . 

AUGUST 18 FRIDAY  (To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light — Franklin) 

    School . . . school at Kennedy was funny, it was never really enjoyable, but then, that was my fault.  So confusing …  all those years trying to grow up, trying to be somethings like the others (the kids) only they weren’t.  That was part of the trouble.  So suspicious I was, and confused.  A ball of string, or, even worse, a small chain all tangled up and knotted.  It took me those years, neurotic, crazy years, to untangle my chains. 

    I tried to do it myself; I always try to do things myself, and then finally I broke down and looked for help.  From a person first, and once she broke the dam, I guess God came flowing in.  I haven’t become a perfect person, but it’s coming, God’s grace is working.  All the small, tight knots have been undone.  Now, I work on the larger, loose ones. 

AUGUST 19 SATURDAY  (A little fact is worth a whole limbo of dreams — Emerson) 

    We went to the South Shore Plaza so that Mommy could get a birthday present for Grandpa.  We also looked for birthday cards, but I didn’t see any I liked, so I decided to make one.  I did and it came out o.k. 

AUGUST 20 SUNDAY  (The fool is happy that he knows no more — Pope) 

Aug. 20 - evening.   It is a warm night and the crickets screech on.  I can see the Hurley’s kitchen from where I am lying on the bed.  One of the girls just opened the refrigerator. Their kitchen is brownish color, beige maybe. Their doors are arched. There is a white lamp fixture on the ceiling that looks like a gelatin mold.  Someone else is in the freezer now; Mr. Hurley.  The light went off.  Now all I can see is their doorbell which lights up and a faint strip of light in the room beyond.  The crickets screech if you listen to them. 

AUGUST 21 MONDAY  (I fear explanations explanatory of things explained — Lincoln) 

    It was a rather unimaginative day.  Mom and Dad went into town to get his tape recorder.  I had a pleasant surprise, they bought me two turtleneck jerseys, one br. orange and one br. blue.  I tried the orange one on and I looked ready to karate-chop anyone. 

    Most of the day I spent picking at that tooth of mine that won’t come out, doing exercises, and listening to the radio.  The “Ode to Billy Joe” is very good.  Done by Bobbie Gentry. 

    I got Kiev, Holland, and it would seem, the Dutch Antilles on the shortwave. 

    Mom and Dad are having a bad time of it as far as Canada goes. 

AUGUST 22 TUESDAY  (Discretion in speech is more than eloquence) 

                                    Grandpa’s Birthday

    It is a little after 2 in the morning.  Daddy and I have just seen a skunk run across the back yard.  Daddy saw him first; I was still in bed.  He thought it was a rabbit, but when I got up to take a look, I saw that it was a skunk.  He headed over to the garbage can, probably smelled food, and then we saw a black streak race over to the fireplace.  He probably came up from the swamp.  It was a very interesting and beautiful thing to see. 

    Now sometimes I hear the clanking of metal or the roar of a truck from the Stop & Shop Warehouse, or the sounds of the freight trains.  The light in the Domohouskis finally went off. 

    It is very dark. 

AUGUST 24 THURSDAY  (Order is Heaven’s first law — Pope) 

    We left for Canada after much toil.  We went by a different route so it was shorter and easier.  We got to Montreal much earlier this time.  We brought Eily, which we have never done before. 

AUGUST 25 FRIDAY  (A beaten path is a safe one— Latin) 

    We went to the shopping center up there. 

AUGUST 26 SATURDAY  (The best prophet of the future is the past — Byron) 

    We went to Montreal and I got this most beautiful book for my birthday.  It is about the arts of Nanking and has beautiful illustrations on every other page. 

    Mommy bought some pretty plaid to make a jumper for me. 

AUGUST 27 SUNDAY  (Knowledge, but wisdom lingers — Tennyson) 

    We went to Expo [i.e. Expo 67, formally the “1967 International and Universal Exposition”, essentially a World’s Fair].  Lately, I have been looking for an Australian hat and they didn’t have any!   Preposterous! 

    We headed homeward and stopped in a cabin overnight.  Very nice. 

AUGUST 28 MONDAY  (A long tongue shortens life — Persian) 

    We made it home today.  Everything A O.K. 

AUGUST 29 TUESDAY  (He who talks much is sometimes right — Spanish) 

    I would like to get a pair of chukka boots for my birthday. 

AUGUST 30 WEDNESDAY  (He who loses his temper is in the wrong — French) 

    I don’t lose my temper very often, but when I do it’s usually pretty bad. 

    The worst of it is that I lose my temper over something little but not big. 

AUGUST 31 THURSDAY  (A wise traveler never despises his own country — Goldoni) 

    School will start too soon enough.  I haven’t the faintest idea what it will be like, but I hope it’s an improvement. 

Note:  Generally speaking I’m writing all this on Dec. 23, 1967 because I haven’t been keeping it up very well.  Anything in red is from the future.  I will record events as I remember them and probably not on the right date.    K.C.

SEPTEMBER 20 WEDNESDAY   (Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food — Hazlitt) 

This is a story of my espionage; I will reconstruct it on these next few pages. 

                                    "The Hunt”

    Sometime in the summer I heard about Christine Hoffman.  Mom told me about her, mentioning that she was quite a nice girl and very intelligent.  I decided then and there that I would conquer her.  You see, supposedly she was quite shy and didn’t talk to anyone and therefore my desire to make friends with her.  That’s how it began… 

                                    Start next page⤑

SEPTEMBER 21 THURSDAY  (Words without thoughts never to heaven go — Shakespeare) 

    She got off the bus.  I followed her for a few minutes, then walked casually ahead.  I walked along, always a few steps ahead, trying to radiate an atmosphere of good will to man.  I even went so far as to pat a dog and say some utter nonsense to it.  She did the same.  My heart leaped.  She must have seen me, been watching me.  I had considered doing an about face and saying hello but you don’t walk halfway home in front of a person and then suddenly turn around and say hello.  Well anyway that day I radiated and gave (I hoped) a good appearance. 

    Several days passed and I saw her again.  Lovely!  When she got off the bus, I would walk beside her and say hello.  We rode along, she in her seat, I in mine, when we came to Cleary Square.  Gracie and Maryann!  Oh, no!  It was too bad to be true.  They saw …

SEPTEMBER 22 FRIDAY   (Anger is brief lunacy — Horace) 

     … me and I had to walk home with them.  Arggghh! 

    Next day, same as before only it was just Maryann.  I was walking along hoping she wouldn’t see me but she did.  Why do I have to be 5’6” ?  I was mad then and I trotted along, little Maryann scampering after me, and I hoping to shake her.  Boy, she stuck as tight as Elmer’s glue. 

    Next day it was Gracie.  Horrors!  I was doomed.  I hid behind a pole after I got off the bus hoping she (Gracie) wouldn’t see me, or maybe she’d walk on, but she just stood there waiting.  I couldn’t stand there forever.  Well, I thought, maybe if we walk fast enough …  Gracie’s pamphlets on some politician flew out all over the street.  Well, I had to help her pick them up, didn’t I ?  Arggghh, arggghh ! ! !   And by then it was too late to chase Christine.  Sigh! 

SEPTEMBER 23 SATURDAY   (A wise man knows everything; a shrewd one, everybody) 

    The next day (actually, it was the 26th of Sept.) a miracle happened.  No Gracie!  No Maryann!  Nobody! 

    Christine Hoffman did have her friends with her though, so I slowly walked home behind them.  One by one the girls dropped off.  Several times I was walking too close to them so I stopped and looked at a few plants. 

    Then they (the girls) were gone.  There she was all by herself.  All mine!  I walked behind her.  Drew closer.  Closer.  I was breathing quickly.  My heart was a soggy mass that didn’t work right . . .   And then I said it.  “Hi, is your name Christine Hoffman?” 

                                    Not Quite the End 

                              But you don’t want it to be anti-climatic. 

SEPTEMBER 24 SUNDAY   (The fool rages and is confident — Bible) 

    Tomorrow I find out about Art Club. 

    I also want to find out about Keyhole, the school’s newspaper. 

SEPTEMBER 25 MONDAY   (Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune — Juvenal) 

    In order to get into the Art Club you have to illustrate a line from poetry, so I am doing “The highwayman” by Alfred Noyes, I believe. 

SEPTEMBER 26 TUESDAY   (The fool is happy that he knows no more — Pope) 

    It’s about 6:45 in the morning.  I got up early and went into the parlor.  The streets are beautiful now.  Everything is quiet and empty.  The sky is all white, with only the faintest  hint of blue.  A few pigeons zoom across the street and arc upwards. 

    I wonder what Janet Langmire is doing now? 

    Better yet, Christine Hoffman?  I’ll bet she’s dressed.  She’ll be leaving to get the bus in a few minutes.  Maybe she’s talking to her mother.  I wonder if she ever once thought about me yesterday? 

    God did a lovely job on the morning today, I wonder what he’ll do the rest of today? 

                  I wonder a lot, don’t I?

SEPTEMBER 27 WEDNESDAY   (A journey of 1,000 miles begins with one pace — Lao-Tze) 

    Today’s Daddy’s birthday, his 39th to be exact.

    School is beautiful and I walk home every day with Christine Hoepfner (that’s her name, not Hoffman).  She is very, very nice and smart (one very for each).  Christine is someone different for me.  It may take a long while yet to make real friends though. 

    My relationship with God has weakened somewhat, so I asked Him, unworthy though I am (I didn’t do anything special for His birthday), if it could be prevented from ever happening again. 

    Life continues even if I don’t. 

SEPTEMBER 28 THURSDAY  (Time is the best adviser — Pericles) 

    I still love God, although lately I haven’t been as good as I should be. 

SEPTEMBER 29 FRIDAY   (Three may keep counsel, if two be away — Heywood) 

    Today was dark and it rained heavily.  I met Christine Hoepfner at the bus stop.  I have to read Anne Frank’s Diary by two weeks.  I already read it some time ago, but I don’t remember it very well.  I do know it was a pretty good book. 

    I was going to go down Helena’s, but because of my picture I have to do, I’m not.  But I think it’s fun to stay home alone anyway.  No sour grapes. 

SEPTEMBER 30 SATURDAY   (Thoughts are winged — Shakespeare) 

    It’s funny how with God I go in jerks.  First I’m very close to him then I’m in the dumps again.