Friday, February 28, 1975
2:00
I have been watching all day, pretty boring.

3:00
I have been watching tv since 2:00 there are an awful lot of good shows on during the day that you would usually never get to watch because of school.
yesterday I went to the basketball tournament. I bought a nice, big, green beanbag frog at the boutique. I am going back today. they have a book sale, and all kinds of baked goods on sale. the whole reason this is, is for the 19th annual st. stephen's invitational basketball tournament. the games are pretty boring. maybe the things there would be cheaper because no one buys them.

6:30 at the tournament
I have been at the tournament for a few hours. I have been going around with robert bodner. we have been rummaging around in some boxes of old books.
I didn't buy a ticket to get into the basketball games. in the boxes, robert found an old budget book, dated 1914 we found out a lot about the owner. I got a 1918 Physics and chemistry handbook. I also bought a clam, and a hand carved pin.

12:30
not much has happened since I got home, I watched tv and am about to go to bed.
this evening my mom and me decided on name for my frog: Oglethorp Frederic Frog, "Oggie" for short.

Thursday, February 27, 1975
Math
today I had a hard time getting out of bed. I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open. I was 15 minutes late for school today.

in the gym
today I have to write a story about the basketball tournament. I am going to write it now.
It was the first time I had ever been to the tournament. as the people milled around me, I thought how good the refreshments would taste.
It was a bright, breezy day, with just a hint or two of winter in the air.
I almost didn't come to the tournament but one of my friends convinced me to come with him. I moved through the crowd toward the ticket office. I hadn't gotten any passes of tickets ahead of time and I planned to buy them on the spot, even though they cost more. I always seem to be misinformed on these things, I never know when or where these things take place. for this reason I have missed quite a few of them.
I found myself a comfortable seat in the bleachers, and watched the game. It was a tough battle between st. stephen's and the other team, whoever they were, in green uniforms. I told you I'm never told anything until it's too late.
I left the game and went to the cafeteria, ate a hot dog, and went home.

Most of this story is true, all except the parts telling what I did at the tournament.

Wednesday, February 26, 1975
Geo. Class
when I came to school I remembered what today was.
it's no dress day. I wore a coat and tie, but I'm not the oddball because there are quite a few other people who aren't going to pay 50¢ for some still strict dress code for one day.

in the gym
I am getting hungry, I didn't have any breakfast today. just a little while ago. I saw some people flying paper airplanes. that's pretty risky because you could get a lot of demerits that way.
Of all my teachers, mr. lichfuss is the meanest. most everybody doesn't like him as much as out other teachers.
Mr. thompson our science teacher is nice and can take a joke now and then, but the kids don't fool with him as much as the other teachers.

English
today english class seems it is going to turn out interesting. when we started, the first thing mr. stone did was ask the question, " Do you like coming to school?" we got the usual boring responses. today is no dress day, so we are having a free english period to do whatever we want.
I have decided that I am going to go to the basketball tournament. not to see basketball, because I think it is boring. I can see a picture in my mind now the sounds of summer all around, a lawn mower the sweet smell in the warm air with a slight cooling breeze. I love summer, walking in the woods, long 4th of july parties, stretching into the night till ten or eleven o'clock when he finally

10:30
today for the first time in weeks robert came over to play. he called on the phone and asked if I would like to play. I asked him how his flu was and he said he was better, but he was saving just enough germs to give me back the flu.
we played a game of ping-pong but we never finished. we saw my sister trying to fly my kite with timmy wallace, who had another kite. timmy gave his kite to John Robertson who was on his bike. the kite got tangled up in the power lines. we tried everything for half an hour from our bare hands to a rake. we finally gave up and threw rocks at it. I threw a stick at it and robert was reaching for it with a pole. my thing seemed more effective to robert and he wanted to trade I traded with him and had immediate sucess. I whalloped the kite and splintered it tin two.
Today my mom brought me the chalk she had promised. she bought me a stick of every color they had. I drew a good bowl of fruit. she also brought me two paper egg shapes. the kids at Springfield Estates school are going to draw designs on them they are going to be put up in the mall. I went to the library and found a very good book full of pennsylvania dutch designs. I am making my eggs in that style because the designs are beautifully simple. while I was there I also renewed my library card.

Tuesday, February 25, 1975
4:00 a.m.
just now I woke up from what sounded like a hurricane at my window. the wind was really whipping around the trees. I hope no tree blows over.

Geo.
I wish I didn't have to do my geo. report

Science
today I tried my panda on a string everything thinks it's neat, everyone in the panda brigade that is. us panda brigaders are going to get our own buttons made for us. we will have a panda's head in the middle and under the bottom we would write The Panda Brigade and over the top in big letters it would say PANDA POWER! we would put them on. science class is pretty interesting, we are talking about the digestive system.

Study Hall with mr. marlin
today in english I decided I would enter the science fair. I don't know what my project is going to be, and I may not enter because I already have a report to do. I think I may try to show my theory on light and how it works.
first of all I would need a very thin beam of light, I might want to rent a dychroscope from someplace. I have pictures of a beautiful display cabinet, a few buttons and a window opening into a dark chamber lined with black velvet, suddenly as you pressed the button a beam of light shoots across and hits different colored targets. you press more buttons then a miniature laser ray comes along and while all of this is happening you are reading the explanation of all the phases in a thick research notebook which is lying there. I would win first prize and get a science scholarship.

today mr. stone made an error in one of his tests. he put "persons" instead of people on one of the sentences. he tryed to hide it and finally told us to correct it.

10:30
today when I came home my mom took me and my sister shopping at drug fair, where the semi-annual 1¢ sale was going on. I bought a crazy pad, a jar of epsom salts, posterboard, and a set of magic marker liquid crayons. I used the epsom salts this evening for a science experiment. if you dissolve some in water, and then rub a piece of glass with a wet rag full of the water with dissolved epsom salts and in a few hours, or really about half an hour the glass will be frosted with beautiful, needlelike, fibrous crystals.

11:00
on the news I just heard of a new sport some people invented. you take a snowmobile and get a good running start and skim over the surface of the nearby potomac river.
I am about to go to bed.
this evening I helped my sister make a poster for school. it is for her skit on the life of Steven Foster, the composer.
she didn't like a few of the colors I chose but I finally convinced her the colors I chose were all for the best.
I finally finished it. and she and my mom were very pleased and liked it a lot.
I made two more panda brigade buttons for our club.

Monday, February 24, 1975
Geo. Class
today I had a hard time getting up for school. It was still dark outside. I just barely got in on time. I haven't had any breakfast. I know I did awful on my geo. notebook and test I may flunk out of geo., all because I missed a week of school.

Math
just now I got my math test back. the one I did on friday. I did pretty well, I got an 86%, at least it is an improvement from my last test grade. From now on I have decided to let what I write end whenever it happens to.
today in geo. class Jon Horton gave me a small panda made of plastic. he probably got it at the washington zoo. I thanked him.

English
today I showed mr. stone this book and all I've written in it. I think he is really proud of me. Mr. Stone likes it. he says he may grade it later. today we got to switch desks and I got a desk near the wall. right near Jon Horton.

10:00
today when I got home from school I did my homework in math.

10:15
I am still thinking about mr. stone's reaction to my journal. I don't know whether to let him look over it or not. one thing is for sure, he can't have it overnight, because I will miss a day. so far I have not missed a day since I started.

this evening I took the panda Jon Horton gave me and put it on a gold string around my neck and a small loop of string on the panda. when I want a necklace, I hitch the two loops together with the ring, otherwise I clip the ring onto the panda's loop and onto my belt loop and put away the neck string. here is an illustration:

I forgot to mention that me, George Hesse, Jon Horton, and Billy Bavin have formed a club called the panda brigade. we are the only four members. george is the only one who doesn't have a panda, but Jon Horton is going to bring him one tomorrow. Jon is maybe also going to bring some panda buttons for us.
I think I am getting used to the new time schedule. I am a little right now. I am about to go to bed.
this evening I watched some tv. and in general fitted everything I had to do and wanted to do pretty well.

Sunday, February 23, 1975
At roller rink
Today I woke up at 9:00, according to our new time. we went onto daylight savings time at 2:00 a.m. this morning.
I am now at the roller rink, which is a big, low building, there is a difference this place and the ice rink. the ice rink seems cavernous. I am having a hard time finding a place to write. Today there are a lot of skaters, probably because it is raining.

2:30
I have just decided I want spaghettios for lunch. I am going to rife my bike to springfield to get it.

At Safeway
right now I am standing beside the safeway store. There are some seagulls flying around the parking lot. we get a lot of seagulls around here. I have always wondered why. we hardly have any bats. I got four cans of spaghettios and four jars of baby food. I am about to leave for home.

5:00
on the way home I noticed how wildly the wind blows on top of the bridge. from there you can really see how fast cars go on the highway.

In the Car
me and my dad are going to ride the "bug", our second car, around. we call it the "bug" because when we lived on backlick road, we owned an old Corvair which we called "the bug", so really we should call it bug II. I can't wait to watch the six million dollar man on tv. tonight.

6:00
we just came back. we stopped at basking robbin's ice cream. I got a butter pecan and we got jenny a chocolate fudge.

10:30
This evening I watched the six million dollar man, then I decided not to watch Kojak, and then watched mannix. I think there are tv. cycles. I remember last year it was doctor shows, medical center, general hospital, the bold ones etc. now it is police and detective shows, Kojak, mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones etc. next year it will be something.
my theory on light is:
light is made up of all colors, you see the light that an object reflects so in the dark there is no light to reflect so you can't see. right? You see a beam of light that isn't really all together, you see the light that reaches your eye. right?
so if a beam of light wasn't diffused at all, it would be invisible. right?
so a laser beam isn't really perfectly condensed. people were pretty dumb in the old days: they weren't stupid, just senseless. they believed crazy things and in my opinion they were never considered smart enough to be told anything, they were misinformed.

Saturday, February 22, 1975
2:00 this morning I got out of bed at 10:30. I had two pieces of peanut butter toast for breakfast and I called robert to see if he would like to go to the roller rink. he said he had the flu.
It looks like one of those nothing-to-do days. I hope something interesting happens.

2:30
I just played my dad two games of ping-pong. I beat him 16-21 and 13-21. he says my game is improving tremendously.

4:00
me and my dad just came home from the mall. while we were there I went to the collector's cabinet and found a beautiful piece of iron pyrite, selling for $125.00. we also saw some new green scarab paperweights and a big south american leaf bug six inches long. I told my dad that the collector's cabinet was a non-profit shop where former drug addicts could find work. my dad and I have been seriously considering joining the explorer guides.

7:00
me and my dad played a game of chess and he beat me. I was upset and then we played ping-pong. he said he was playing as hard as he could and I accused him of lying.

8:15
just now suddenly my parents have gotten the idea we could go to farrell's, we are about to leave.
I have really gotten good at playing jacks. I can now pick up two jacks, three feet apart, at the same time.

At Farrell's
Farrell's ice cream parlor restaurant is modeled after something out of the 1920's. They beat a bass drum and blow a siren whenever some big sundae is served. They have a thing they call the pig's trough, made of six scoops of ice cream they give a prize if you can eat it all. we saw three teenagers who were getting it. Farrell's celebrates more birthdays every evening than probably all the other local restaurants combined. I remember once I got a zoo, which was a big mistake. It all melts together and gets sickening.
Our waiter's name is Jeff and he is wearing a whole bunch of buttons on his vest. I have just seen an example of how fast this place runs. A family finished and left, the table was cleared and wiped, more customers were seated and given glasses of ice water, all in less than 30 seconds.

10:00
the hot fudge nutty-nutty was good, and very delicious. I have noticed that sometimes you can eat one with no trouble at all, and sometimes to never end, I wonder why.

*Explain theory of beam of light tomorrow

Friday, February 21, 1975
Science
today in geo. we had a test. I did better than I expected, but I still didn't do very well.

English
Mr. Stone is in a bad mood. He gave us a lecture on how he didn't like people writing writing on the board.
I love it when people ask me to draw something for him. most people don't like me but there is no question as to who draws best in this class. this morning John Metcalf came to me and asked me to copy a picture of a basketball player for him.
I have just enlarged my pictures for my story.
I just read my story and I couldn't stop laughing.

Study hall
I just found out that next wednesday is no-dress day. if you pay 50¢ you can come dressed in anything you want. the money is going for the lab and the library. It reminds me of when I was in public school we had a thing called hobo day, where you dressed the worst you possibly could, for free. they changed it to storybook day the next year and I dressed as alexander graham bell, my mom who is a teacher dressed as wee willie winkie, in a pair of flannel snowflake pajamas. one of my friends dressed as dracula, eyebrow pencil, slicked down hair, a specially made, cardboard collared cape. and plastic fangs. on that day we have lunch outside, and then all sorts of events, all put together to make the best day of the school year.

6:30
well this evening I didn't go to fun night. I wanted to watch all of the tv. shows that were on. My mom must be very tired on friday evenings she half slept through the jacques Cousteau special and all through a whole half hour show. Tonight Debbie is spending the night at our house. we have been watching superman on tv.
We also played a few rounds of jacks. I am better than either one of them and I may practice some tonight.
This evening I took apart one of my walkie-talkies and got the aerial out of it. I have been playing with it all evening.
I have done a bunch of other things this evening, I took one of my model spaceships off the science room ceiling and have been playing with it, I have made a food color picture of the setting sun on the ocean this afternoon.
I found out I have more money in the bank than jenny does. mostly from the money I put in since I opened it.

Thursday, February 20, 1975
Geo.
today I just barely got in on time. I can't really be blamed because I had to stay up late doing my math.
well, I hope we don't get much homework because I have to do a poster and finish my composition. if I get math I may just forget it and do my special assignments.

in chapel
today after chapel some person, probably a teacher, is talking to us about how seven boys have been expelled for selling some drugs and for stealing some money from the locker room. my dad will want to hear about this.

in the gym
the gym is a big airy place. noises echo well so our school often uses it for presentations and assemblys. I am sitting on top of the closed bleachers. you get a nice view from up here. I have leisure time to write because our team isn't playing today.

Science
today we took our second test and I got a 95% on it. I am lucky I got that because I knew most of it. I guessed on one or two of them.

4:00
here are my two latest and best woody stamps. One is the new second edition arctic woody commemorative for 1975. the other is a portrait of the desert woody.

11:00
this evening I just finished my second good copy of my english essay. I finished my poster for reading first and I think it is beautiful. I did it on the silent world by J.Y. Cousteau and Frederic Dumas. I made it very colorful and made all the words fit right in just right. I also made up this fantastic summary:

Explore the wonders
of the undersea world
as captain Cousteau and
his men dive into exiting
adventure

I put it on a rock being carried like a sign by a shark cruising in the picture.
my mom just came home and I can't wait to show her my poster.
this evening I made two more special stamps, or if you look at it a different way five stamps because one as a four stamp thing that goes together to form a whole picture it is about the Bicentennial Era and the other one is of the eastern cardinal.
I think I am getting writer's cramp.
not much else has happened this evening.
I am glad I have those two burdens off my shoulders. now all I have to do is my geo. report on minerals. I am not sure how I am going to organize it.

Wednesday, February 19, 1975
Math
this morning I got up and wouldn't get out of bed until almost 8:30 I think school is hopeless.
they aren't very fair. giving us seven pages of math, seven pages of english, five science questions, a two page composition, a book report that I haven't even read the book for, and I am behind a week in work. I just found out I didn't get the right assignment we only had two pages to do. I guess I sort of misjudged them.

Science
today before the teacher came I very quickly did my homework. I finished it just before we started checking. we are talking about vaccines and immunity. I think I have some natural immunity against childhood diseases, I have never had mumps, chicken pox, measles, or any others.

Reading
today in english mr stone had a cap gun he had confiscated from some kid. we had a quiz and he shot a few people. after the quiz he asked us if we would like a chance to raise our grade I wanted to so we took another quiz, I got a perfect score on both of them.

*Bring B paper to school tomorrow, find pen for john H., and ruler too, and copy antarctic stamps.

on the following page are copys of the five stamps I drew for john horton. how do you like them? John Horton seems to like them.

#1 The sunday skier. skier trapped in a snowball. 20¢
#2 Arctic stork. stork carrying baby Air Mail 20¢
#3 The eskimo family. family outside igloo 20¢
#4 The great camoflage whale swimming, 20¢
#5 The Arctic Woody Commemorative, 10¢

12:00
I am writing my essay on the same picture of the arctic woody. I will put it in this journal later, when I finish. after four hours of work I finally finished all my math. It was a great relief to be finished. I am very tired and I want to finish up quick so I can go to bed.

I wish some fantasies would come true I wish I were like the six million dollar man, or there was such a thing as strength formula like in the movie "the strongest man in the world" I have always wished for some special power-

Tuesday, February 18, 1975
Geo.
when I came to school today everyone was glad to see me. I am now taking notes on all the dynasties of China.

English
today at athletics we played a little basketball because today is our last day of practice. I am not very good at shooting, but I am pretty good at catching the ball before the others can get it because I am taller than most people. today I found out that george hesse thinks the same thing I do about some people in our class. I had a good lunch and I sat with john horton and john leiner said he missed me at the end of the table. today in math we got something like seven pages of homework to do and now in english we have seven pages-except it is due thursday, and a two page composition on top of a geo. report and a poster book report.

4:30
just now I have made a descion to start to use other notebooks besides this one, because I can't carry this one everywhere I go. I am going to walk around with a smaller one and report back to this one from it. I forgot much of what I see during the day. I will still bring this to school and places where I know what I will do. I will take it to school and use it at home but I will bring the small one shopping on field trips, playing, etc. . today my mom brought home the valentine robot box I made for the second graders. here is a drawing of it. I had to paint the egg cartons with my acrylic paints because we didn't know how to paper them. one difference is that on the real one the sign is correctly balanced and all the words fit on right.

7:00 at mc donalds
I am in our car at mc Donalds. first we went over to drug fair, then we went to the grocery store for the party snacks and ice. we also got lemonade and one was as hard as a rock because it had gotten wet. we went to mc Donalds for dinner and me and jenny got captain crook hats.

8:30 all the ladys are here now. it is amazing how silly they can be. they also make a lot of noise and laugh falsely, which I hate. I enjoy having guests over.

10:30
this evening my dad and I have been yelling. he hurt my arms by grabbing me and I threw a shoe at him. I don't have any other defense against him.

Monday, February 17, 1975
3:30 p.m.
today started out the same as yesterday, except at least I knew I would have something to do. I have just come back from the movie theater, where I saw " the strongest man in the world" the latest walt disney film. robert came with me and jenny. when we got to our seats we found some older kids there behind to harass us. luckily they quieted down.

10:30
this evening I watched candid camera, and a special two-hour edition of "the rookies". earlier I went with my mom, dad, and sister to the mall. we were looking for some polyester cloth for jenny's outfit. we went to three different places before we came to the sew and sew forth shop in the mall. we also went to the Wintex fabric shop on franconia road, where I fell in love with a remnant of jersey cloth in a magenta color.
I am glad we got today off from school. but it will be good to get back after missing a week.
one of my favorite pastimes is window shopping I love to just wander around the mall and go into any interesting store and browse around. I have noticed almost all of the bazaars, and import shops usually sell only cheap incense and no real imports or chinese handcrafts, or whatever.

Sunday, February 16, 1975
1:00
today I have been watching tv. sunday is the day when there isn't anything to do. I may call robert out of desperation.

10:30
I have been watching tv. all day. this afternoon I watched a war movie about D day called "the longest day. it was a lot better than "oliver" which I saw tonight. I have both of them already but the war picture was more interesting.
I have been bored all day. I wish I had something to do. there has been a lot of yelling for the past few days because of my dad's pressing descion. he always manages to disrupt our family. my sister isn't really helping very much either, causing trouble right and left and whining and crying all over the place my sister usually complicates all our arguments my sister really bugs me sometimes.
one nice thing happened tonight, my sister and my dad brought me some candy, probably my dad's idea.
I just found out my sister is really going out and getting her skating suit made. tomorrow my mother and her are going to go and buy material because tomorrow is washington's birthday with all it's sales.
I wish my dad would either close his office or keep it open so that all the turmoil in the family would cool down.

Saturday, February 15, 1975
11:30
I am pretty sure I now have strap throat. I have had a stuffed up nose today.

5:00
Most of today I stayed in bed watching TV. Just recently I have gotten dressed. I don't know why, but it may be because some company may come later after the party. I have finished all my homework. now my worries have turned to my book and geography reports for school. while I have been thinking of my geo. report, since it is on minerals and their uses, I remember the time I brought some of my rocks to school and I learned something, you can't impress any of the st. stephens school kids with basics, you have to really go all out.
my mom and dad are getting ready to go to the party. my dad is sometimes a party pooper; he says he doesn't really want to go. my dad was complaining about how he didn't have any friends around here. I told him if he wanted local friends, he would have to go out and make them, they wouldn't just come to him.
I have always wanted to travel and see the world. I am envious of some of the kids who have been to paris and london and they are younger than me, the only place I ever go, or ever can remember going is massachusetts.

6:30
right now I am at robert's house. we have been playing with paper airplanes, trying to float them on his air hockey's cusion of air.
before it got dark, me and robert went over to my house and decided to play a little practical joke. we decided to make it look like someone had come and ransacked the house. later we went and unransacked the house because my mm and dad might bring guests over. we decided we would do it some time when we are sure they won't have anyone with them. we went in our front yard, and whenever a car came by we would pretend we were breaking in.

11:30
me and robert were playing a game of chess when my dad knocked on the door. I was winning, but not by much. we had been playing hide and seek in the backyard. I like playing in the dark because you can hide in the shadows. once I got the bright Idea of just lying in the dry bed of one of the two false rivers in his back. they are able to turn them on or off by turning on or off the pump. it was a good place to hide because it put my whole body in a shadow robert spotted me and decided on a way to get me out. he went and turned on the river from a concealed switch. I had plenty of warning but it startled me all the same.
I think I am getting a cold, not strep throat.
I am glad because strep throat gives you a sore throat.

Friday, February 14, 1975 valentine's day
10:30 am
I am glad I didn't have to go to school today. I almost slept until 10:15 but I got up because I wanted to watch one of my favorite tv. shows.

2:00
I have done a substantial amount of homework since one o'clock. I have done my math, finished my spelling, and best of all I have finished one of those troublesome english storys. my dad will be very proud if I finish both my storys. I am now going to watch the flying nun now because it is one of my favorite shows.

4:30
When my sister came home she brought Debbie with her. Debbie is going to springfield estates school. she lives with her mother, her sister, and a brother whose name is stephen and used to be todd but he didn't like that name. Her mother is married, or used to be married and is divorced, I don't know which. Debbie has blond hair normal sized and has a pair of wire rimmed, granny shaped glasses she sometimes wears. her family cans a lot of food bakes their own bread, and in general lives as if they were in the country. I like their life style. their house is smaller than most and is separated from burwell street. they live on a small dirt road named georgia street that only has about four or five residents, it is a very potholy, lumpy, unpaved road it opens onto the main road, franconia. The smallwoods live on a small plot of land, which has a very big backyard, or it seems that way because of the small house. it was given to them, or that were told to live there by the mormon church who the land belongs to. the mormon church sold the land to developers to build on the smallwoods are moving away soon.

Going to dinner
tonight my sister is going to spend the night at debbie's house. and at my request we are going out to dinner.

10:30pm.
at the ponderosa steak house I had a chopped steak sandwich and a salad. as I said before my sister is spending the night at debbies house. right now my mom and dad are in a big fight. my dad doesn't know whether or not to keep his office open. whenever he is under pressure to make a descion he gets mean and irritable.

12:00
I spent some time today rearranging my prized posessions in my box. tomorrow my mom and dad are going to a big party being given by the principle of the school my mom teaches at. I am going to roberts during that time
the spatters all over this page are because my dad just came in and said very snottily, ok. bill youre going to bed" and it makes me think he is pretty stupid not to know I'm not going to bed when I finish right now my blood is boiling, I'm so mad.
he made me ruin this page and get it all spotty.

Thursday, February 13, 1975
10:30
today I almost went to school but my parents changed their minds at the last minute. my sister is staying home too.

3:30
jenny has been a real pest all day.

5:00
I have been thinking of writing a book about what some reactions of people to children in public situations called the children's handbook. I would solve some problems that kids have like what to do if you wait at a counter for ten minutes while some grownups get served first. It would be fun making it. I am going to start now.
I am going to ask if we can eat out tonight. now that I am well I feel like going somewhere.
I have always been interested in tools and making things in colonial usa. I just thought I might take a course in it in college.

10:30
this evening I made a beautiful little house decorated with hearts and cutouts for mrs. smallwood because jenny is supposed to go to a big thing at the smallwoods for valentines day and she is bringing two decorations.
I am wondering if I will miss any valentine party or anything at school tomorrow because I am staying home. for some reason I can't get started on my homework storys for english. I wish he had never assigned them. I wish I had never gotten the flu.

Wednesday, February 12, 1975
10:00
I got up late today and found it wet and rainy outside. oh well, I can't go outside anyway so it doesn't affect me at all.

8:30
this evening I feel very pressured to do all of my homework. I wish I didn't have to.
today our maid came. I tried not to get in her way. when she cleaned my room I went out to the kitchen.

11:30
I have to write quick because my dad is putting me to bed in a few minutes. he is convinced I can go to school tomorrow, which is a fact I am not happy about. he wrote me a note of absence excuse and added that I am not supposed to have athletics all week because the gym is cold and I still am susceptible to disease. wouldn't it be awful if I had just gotten over the flu and went out and caught it all over again? thats what might happen.
today I have been occupying my time making valentines for my classmates. I made quite a few. I started giving everybody one, but then I decided it was too much work for some of the rotten people and only did people who were anything but rotten. of course the ones with names that reminded me of something were easier to do, but on the ones with hard names that I liked I would really try. I did one for billy bavin that had a bug saying: from one pest to another good luck on valentines day, inside it read: with a face like yours you'll need it. I enclosed a candy saying: "good luck."

Tuesday, February 11, 1975
8:30 p.m.
this morning I watched tv.

9:00, watching tv.
I watched tv. until twelve o'clock. then I fixed myself a bowl of tomato soup. It seems that there is a lot more soup when there is only one person to eat it.
I am getting lonely and tired of staying home from school all day with no one to keep me company. this evening when my mom came home, she asked me to make one more valentine's box for one first grade class. she told me that all the kids in her second grade class knew who was making the boxes but the other classes are talking about "the mystery box maker". it really makes me feel good to know that somebody appreciates what I do. I made this one to resemble an alphabet block and if you put the letter in the right order it spelled: "BMINE" or be (B) mine. I wrote this note to go with it: Dear Mrs. Schwartz (the teacher) and first graders: read the letters on the box and you will see, a message to you from me. signed: the mystery box maker.

11:00 p.m., before bed
I may wait until my mom comes home. I am going to ask her to ask the two teachers that I made valentine's boxes for to give me donation so I can buy a new battery for my big flashlight.

Monday, February 10, 1975
9:30
last night I slept very well. I didn't wake up once all night. I

11:30
I think the new after school schedule on tv. is perfectly awful. it used to be pretty good. I think there ought to be more game shows for kids. if I got on one I'd probably clean them out. when I play along with the tv. I almost always beat them.
I think maybe the thing I got isn't the flu, just a 48 hour thing because I haven't had a fever all day. I am feeling much better than I did yesterday. I wonder if my mom will be mad when she finds out I didn't take my tylenol pills today.

8:00
when my sister gets sick she acts a lot different than I do when she gets sick. she plays the part of the poor, bored, jenny who needs coloring books, comic books, magazines, and whatever else she wants. she usually gets them too.
tonight I was very hungry. I got salad and cream of hamburger. I thought it was deliscious.
this evening on the new candid camera show they said that they accepted many Ideas for shows they do are sent in by people who watch. I think they should do a show on people who actually recognized allen funt when he was trying to film them.

9:00
this afternoon I helped my mom make a valentine box for another teacher's class. I made it like a robot all covered with aluminum foil.

Sunday, February 9, 1975
2:30
today I woke up at about 7:00. I felt better this morning. my fever was down. I have realized that there isn't much tv to watch tv on sundays. I have been watching tv. most of the day. right now I am watching a show called "superstars" where champion athletes are required to enter seven events. most of them have never done them before. (ex. a golfer would enter rowing, weight lifting etc. earlier today I had to take an aspirin, which I couldn't very well. my mom got real mad at me and I wasted almost ten pills before I got one down. now that it is down I feel much better than I did an hour ago.

9:30
now I am watching mannix on tv. I have been sitting in bed all day. this afternoon I helped my mother make a valentine's box for her classroom. not much has happened today. I hope I can get well before our field trip on wednesday.

11:00
I am going to bed now. I wish there could be someone home with me tomorrow. I have to do my homework tomorrow but I don't want to. someday they ought to make a video-tape recorder. you would turn it on to "record" and aim the movie camera. then you rewind and push the "play" button and listen and watch to a small television screen on the recorder. I would have one if they were made.

Saturday, February 8, 1975
12:00
I got up at 8:00 and robert said he woke up at 7:30. I am watching star trek on tv.
when we got up we went to the kitchen and ate some of the popcorn jenny and debbie made. I got dressed. then robert got dressed. after that we went out in back and played a game or two of ping-pong.

5:00
I have been reading since robert left. about half an hour later, after robert left, he came back. we played around awhile and went to kiddie colledge. after he left I started feeling depressed. I get like that sometimes when there isn't anything to do. It may just be hunger, but I feel a little nauseus. I am miserable.
today my dad decided to close his office. I wish he could keep it open but its just too big a debt to pay. he is paying out more than he is making.

5:00 a.m.
at five o'clock I told you I was a little nauseus. well, as it turned out I didn't eat any supper. then I really got nauseus. I layed in my bed and watched tv. I vomited twice and I have a fever. I have the flu. a lot of it is going around. I have been restlessly sleeping and now I have gotten to the point where I can drink water without vomiting. I think the hardest part about vomiting is to start because instinct tells you to fight it back.

Friday, February 7, 1975
Geo.
my sister isn't going to school today because the st. Agnes people are having an antique show. before I got up I was dreaming that I was making things out of snow. our teachers have lately taken to giving us homework on the weekends.

Science
today we are going to have a quiz Me and Horton

English
in science John horton passed me a paper that said: and now the national gallery of art presents: bugs. Horton had draw some bugs on it. I drew a ladybug, a slug, and ant, a bee, and a spider. today in english we were grading our papers and on one exercise everyone in out class got a perfect score.

9:30
today robert came over and we played around and lit some smoke bombs. we put one smoke bomb deep inside a hole we drilled in the snow fort.

10:00
me and robert played awhile and we got the idea that robert could spend the night. we found out we could. we planned to go out on the roof and spy on them. I just thought that we could throw some snowballs at jenny's window and watch her yell.

10:30
I have been watching tv. with robbie. this evening Timmy Wallace and Steven Smallwood came over and wanted to buy some smoke bombs. I sold him 8, Steven that is, and they went over to wallace's house to light them off. it turned out I had to buy them back from todd or steven. me and robert went with my dad to my dad's office. we found out that they were illegal so as soon as we got home we got rid of all our smoke bombs.

Thursday, February 6, 1975
Geo.
today we are going on a field trip. or maybe not. no one knows whether or not.
Mr. Bedell just came in and said we aren't going. I am very disappointed and frustrated.
we are going to Chapel today.

Math
I am glad I did my homework last night. some people are using the yard stick and the pointer to have a sort of swordfight up in the front of the room.
I am going to go down to wrestling either today or tomorrow.
yesterday jenny was looking at my sun calendar and said she never saw me change it. from now on I will be sure to never let her see me change it.
I have just been thinking, every second of every minute, of every hour of every day is unique, It will never happen again. I am doing rotten on my homework. I am sure I am going to fail.

Science
I have noticed the people in our class are very active in between classes. I did good on my blue book.

English
we have been reading our basketball storys, the one I didn't do. peter katson was going to do a funny act but he wasn't really ready.

Reading
when I get to reading I feel good because we are doing SRA things and so far I have a perfect score.

this afternoon after I got home from school robert was hiding in our snow fort. he invited me over to eat dinner with him. we walked through the woods as we considered the hints to his birthday. one, his mother fixed what he wanted for dinner. second, she said they wouldn't have his birthday until his older sister came home from college on the 14th. we were pretty sure. when we got there we ate right away, it was delicious. me and robert went to take out the trash and when we tried to get back in the door was locked. evedentally, since they needed time to light the candles on the cake. when we got back in we found a very good-tasting cake on the table along with his presents. one of his presents was an electronic calculator. along with it came a joke:

40,000,000 Israilis fought 31,077,00 Arabs fought for 340 barrels of oil for 5 days.

the answer is 71077345 and the way the calculator writes it 71077345 if you turn it upside down it reads: SHELL OIL, a big company.
we played a few games of air hockey we each won a game. I have a lot of homework and very little time to do it in.

12:15
I have just finished my math homework. I may go to bed now. I am very tired.

Wednesday, February 5, 1975
12:00
this morning I woke up at nearly eleven o'clock. I had breakfast and have been reading since then. robert came over and I am glad because otherwise it would be a boring day.

4:00
well, we have spent four hours building our snow fort. I am going to take a picture of it. It isn't really a fort, it's a fortress. we have enough snowballs stored up so we could keep fighting for a few hours.
when robert came over we immediately started work. it was amazing how that snow stuck together. you could start with a small snowball and it would be three feet across after you had rolled it fifteen feet. we worked on and on and we decided to try to make some maple syrup on snow. It felt very good to be inside and warm without a heavy coat on. the sugar on snow didn't work, the snow melted when you put the syrup on it. I had a couple of spoons of peanut butter. we went back outside and worked until out toes practically fell off. I think it is very good. it is quite an accomplishment. robert has gone home. I am glad to be inside.
me and robert were going to absolutely blast jenny and Debbie when they came by. but we got very cold and had to come in.

7:15
I can't wait for tomorrow so I can tell robbie about jenny and debbie are building a snow fort right across from ours, right within throwing distance. they giggle so much they never get anything done. they never would have gotten anything done if I hadn't helped them. It will be so much fun to cream them in snowball fights. this evening I finished filling all the shelves in our fort and filled all the underground storage holes to the brim. then I came in.

8:00
my sister never does what she is told. that causes a lot of trouble. my dad says it's my fault whenever she causes trouble.

10:00
this evening my dad is in a very bad mood. he has tried to punish us twice the second time he was going to punish us I didn't do anything. you notice I always say he punishes us. he never only punishes one or the other. he always avoids the desicion. I think I had better do my homework.

12:30
this evening I did my math homework a little late. I was sitting there doing it, sort of half-listening to jenny studying. I learned a lot about turkey and how things in a small turkish village work. I remember that I learned a whole lot about balboa, and other early explorers in 4th grade from listening to the 5th graders studying them. I can't wait to go on the field trip tomorrow. It will be so much fun.
I am thinking of bringing my tape recorder. should I?
I think it may fit in one of my jacket pockets.

Thursday, February 4, 1975
8:00 Before School
this morning I feel pretty good. It feels like time is waiting for me to get dressed. I have a general sense of well-being.

Geo Class
tomorrow we are going to go to the national gallery of art to see the chinese relics. I have been worried that all it will be is a bunch of artifacts in little glass cases with small white cards telling what they are. I just found out that the art will be here and in one more place in the U.S. before going back to China.

Science
I am refreshed because I just came back from recess. at lunch I developed a new theory: a small cup of soup acts like a compass. no matter which way you turn your tray, the vegetables in the soup stay the same. It seems to me that Mr. Thompson always wears the same red suitcoat. today we are talking about cell division. I am starting to get bored. Mr. Thompson is asking us to read a note out of our notebook. here is a poem on our wall:

I play it cool
and dig all jive
That's the reason
I stay alive.
My motto, as I live and learn,
is;
Did and be dug,
in return.

Reading
I am pretty sure that I will be moved to a higher color in the S.R.A. reading laborotory. so far I have gotten a perfect score on all the ones I have done.

3:00 waiting for ride
today in study hall it started snowing, hard. in fifteen minutes it covered the ground lightly. about then someone came into our room and said we could go home. I am sitting in the hall on the office bench. my dad should be here any minute. for a while there John Horton was going to go home with me and then have his mother pick him up there. one bad thing about the snow, I have one more day to wait for our field trip most of the school has cleared out now. one good thing is I have an extra day to do my homework.

10:00
when my dad got me home my mom had to go out and buy milk because we were running low. she decided not to go to the comisarry because it is too far away. I expected it to be a boring excursion when who come sup? robert! he had his mother along. me and him found out it was really pretty light outside. we started to make small snowmen. we were going to make ranks of them and pretend we were commanding an army of snowmen. we actually only made three but then we wrecked them. we went over to kiddie college and wrote our names in all the snow all over the parking lot. we went over the the playground. It was fun sliding down the slide, all the snow coming off when you go to the bottom. after robert left scott baker came and played with jenny. he had two friends with him and they were all throwing snowballs at jenny. I got a slush ball and threw it at one of them. when you get hit with slush, it hurts! not much has happened since then.

11:45
this evening I have been reading my book I got from the tab book club at school. It's called still more two minute mysteries. It is by the same person that writes the Encyclopedia Brown books. I have read all the Encyclopedia Brown books, so I know he uses a lot of the clues in both books.
this evening I found out that I don't go to school tomorrow.
I will be glad to get to bed tonight. all my joints ache when you walk in snow you always have to use more force to plow through all the snow. In general, snow is very good exercise. It is getting near midnight.
me and robert are going to make a terrarium out of my old fish bowl. It will be really neat. I may also make one out of some of our old apple cider jugs.
I will probably raise the price on my smoke bombs because I don't know whether I paid thirteen dollars or fifteen dollars for my smoke bombs. Debbie smallwood says that kids in public school would pay 25¢ for one so I will try to sell some to her. I am pretty sure I can convince her to buy from me.

Monday, February 3, 1975
Geo. Class
this morning I had a pretty tough time getting out of bed because I stayed up until one o'clock reading my book. we are starting to study china in geo. I wish we would have a few days when we don't do anything. I am one of the few people that have completely finished their geo. workbook.
right now I am working on some notes we're supposed to take. I am ahead of many people.

Math Class
today my dad had a conference with my math teacher. I hate it when, after a conference, the teacher pays special attention to you, It's embarrassing. I wonder if the conference had any effect on him.
today is the day when I change sports, from wrestling to basketball. I hope basketball is more fun than wrestling because wrestling is boring. last year it used to be a lot of fun wrestling. mr. Bedell is wrecking it.
I feel guilty about my grade. I am going to make a real attempt to improve it. right now I'm lost. we are doing one of the things I don't understand. I wish that if you miss one thing you are behind all the time. like right now, the thing we did that I didn't understand about a month ago. mr. lichfuss won't explain it.

Science
at recess we played some cops and robbers. basketball is very crowded because wrestling is no fun. we are going to have eight teams instead of the usual six. I am in the eighth group so our group is split up around with others. paul Borthwick looks very funny where he is sitting, at the front of the room in a folding chair with a small table in front of him. today mr. Thompson has to go to a meeting so we are working in our blue workbook.

English Class
today we got our book order. or we will get it in reading class.
I guess I am going to get an "F" on the writing assignment we are supposed to do tonight because it is about basketball and I don't even know how to play. I just can't do it. I am going to tell mr. stone that tomorrow when I am supposed to have it graded.
I had a very good lunch today, soup, peanut butter sandwich, lipton iced tea, milk, fritos corn chips, and chocolate pudding. I am going to transfer back to wrestling.

6:00
I feel like going out to dinner tonight. we are having fish sticks for dinner. I feel strangely cold this evening. all the tv. channels are going crazy. there isn't anything on tv. after school, absolutely nothing any good.

8:45
this evening I have been playing with my coins. I put them all in my bag and felt how heavy it was. this evening I am depressed. I don't have anything to do. I feel frustrated. I am helpless against boredom. I do have my field trip to look forward to.

10:30
I am making my calendar I got in the Dynamite magazine. It is very pretty. I also got a 3-D poster with some glasses to go with it.

11:00
I have just finished my calendar. It is very cute and my mom wanted to take it to her second graders at the school she works at. It turned out to be a picture of the sun with two eyes and the mouth cut out. one eye shows the month, the other eye shows the day of the week, and the mouth shows the day of the month. I am going to hang it somewhere in my room. my 3-D poster is really neat it uses the same principle as some of the movies when 3-D glasses were a big fad.
I have just stuck my calendar to my door, which is almost always open. I like the location very much.

11:30
I am about to go to bed. I think school is entirely too early in the morning. now I'm sure no one would mind if you went to school at ten o'clock and came home at four. I would get a lot more sleep. I am pretty hungry.
this afternoon robert came over and we played some ping-pong. we tied, each of us had won two games. we threw rocks at the thin layers of ice on the fish pond.
this evening I took the plastic covers off three of my flash cubes. I found out they work just as well without them and the covers can be used as handy little boxes to put hundreds of small things in.

Sunday, February 2, 1975
4:30
this morning when I got up I looked out my window and saw snow all over everything. unfortunately only a few inches deep. my breakfast was two pieces of peanut butter toast. after that me and jenny went out into the woods and I took six pictures. my sister is scared to death of yoyo, the dog that lives near there. I told her that he wouldn't be out on a day like this, but it turned out he was out. I think jenny is slowly overcoming her fear.
I called robbie and we went to the roller skating rink at one o'clock. we had fun and at about three o'clock, the session ends at four, we went outside and walked to the mcdonalds's right down the street. we came back as the session was coming to a close and met my sister. while we were at mc Donald's we had a big mack and a small coke each. I feel very independent when I go somewhere without my parents.

5:30
I have mostly been doing homework since we came home from the roller skating rink. my mom is watching the wide world of sports. I watched the arm wrestling championship matches. I am looking forward to the six million dollar man this evening.
today is the kind of day that makes your house seem very cozy. cold and wintry outside, nice and warm inside, you have had some fun. that's how I feel right now.

6:15
my sister is really acting strangely this evening. while I am doing my homework jenny has been continually trying to stick little pieces of tape saying kick me! I have put two examples on the preceeding page. I think this is our week for breaking dishes and glasses. first, I broke one when I used it to plug up the sink's drain, too much pressure I guess. then the next day my sister dropped one and later that evening my dad dropped one too. just this evening my dad dropped a dinner plate. we are having a delicious dinner-pot roast.

7:00
while I ate my very delicious dinner, we were watching a golf tournament on tv. it has been pouring at the place where the tournament is and they are using squeegees on the very wet greens. they are literally pushing the water off the greens. the golf tournament is in honolulu and my mom said she would love to go there before she got too old to swim. we got into a discussion of how much fun the beach is.

8:30
the six million dollar man was good tonight.
I wish I didn't have to go to school tomorrow. I do have my field trip on wednesday, but I'm worried about monday and tuesday.
my dad is going to have a conference with mr. lichfuss; my math teacher, about my bad grade. even though my sister is eleven years old, she still carries around a security blanket. she is very childish. she is selfish also.

10:30
I just finished watching mannix, a detective show, on tv. I wonder why the crime is always murder on detective shows.

Saturday, February 1, 1975
10:00 am.
I am about to watch star trek on tv. I was prepared for it this time. oh, well, almost prepared, because it's on at eleven o'clock. oops! another mistake. right now I am watching scooby doo until star trek comes on. this morning I have been playing with my tape recorder. last night when me and my mom were at drug fair we found out that you couldn't find any ring notebook around the store because the ring notebook people stopped producing.

11:00
well finally I am watching star trek. I haven't had any breakfast yet. I don't know exactly what to eat. I may have one of my creations made of fried eggs, bacon etc. . . on toast.

1:15
robert just came over

2:00
robert came over about 1:15 he said he had something to show me. he said that it was broken into pieces, when he came over we played twenty questions about it. It turned out to be some iron pyrite that he had dropped by accident. the amazing thing about it is that when he dropped it it just disintegrated. he was very nice and he was giving the bottle of pyrite to me. I used to have a beautiful thing of pyrite crystals that I got in either second or third grade from paul martin for a little plastic monster on a bouncy string. me and robert played a game of ping-pong and he beat me by three points. we are now going outside to get away from my stupid sister that is reading at the top of her voice.

4:30
robert just got a telephone call from his mother to leave for home. we had been swordfighting out in the backyard when the call came. we both had sticks and were picking up a whiz-ring on them and would swordfight to got it off each other's sticks. I am looking forward to watching the tv. shows that are on tonight. before me and robert were swordfighting we were in the family room eating the unpopped popcorn that wasn't hard. we played played around and spilled all the kernels on the floor. we were throwing them at ach other in an out and out friendly war. we finally finished and pushed all the kernels under the couch.
I still have a lot to do on my geo. workbook. I only have this evening and tomorrow to do it. I don't think I describe things too well in this journal, mainly, since it is a ring notebook I can't take it with me as many places because I have to have something to write on. with my old journal book I had a hard cardboard cover to write on.
soon robert is going to have his confirmation, and when he has the party he will be sure to invite me. I may sound greedy but I'm not. it's just that I'm excited.
It has been snowing a little all day. I wish it would stick.
while robert was here we were outside and decided to try some of the ice that has formed on the tree branches. It was very good we ate some off every tree in out yard. when we got back in we told everybody we had been eating the bark because if you were looking out the window at us they might have thought that. while I was down there eating with robbie I felt like a contented beaver nibbling bark of a tasty tree.

8:00
this evening my mom and dad went over to howard johnson's to talk to bill crocket who works there. while they were gone they left me and jenny home alone. jenny was playing with me, trying to knock me off the couch. right now my mom and dad are at a bible meeting down the street.

1:00 am.
this evening we have been watching tv. after the Carol Burnett show I came into the living room and read some of my book. me and jenny had a space war on paper. she quit, accusing me of cheating, but she is only a sore loser.