Monday, 14 September 1970

Up after 9:00. Had breakfast, wrote my article for the Eagle, and wrote a letter to Mac White re: his visit to Cape Ann coming up on the 27^th. I then went to the P.O. and to the Eagle office. Then I went to Hatfield’s Color Shop—to buy a frame. When we got home last night from the play reading, a beautiful print of Pope John (20X16) was on the hall table—which told us Don McGaw had been here—he’d told me about the print on the  phone. I got an oak frame, came home, stained it. After we had lunch, Bonnie went to work, Debbie went down for a nap—and I put the picture up in the living room. It looks quite good. I then turned to reading in Eissfeldt. After being away from concentrated reading for 3 days, it was hard to get back into the groove—so with the distraction of the painting, and falling asleep, I didn’t get to reading in earnest until about 3:30. I put the roast in the oven, so it was all ready when Bonnie got home. We had an early supper; I watched CBS news in the living room. For the evening Bonnie went over to see the Lewises—from 8:00 to 11:00—she took our old mattress  (½ of it) with her—they cut out a section for a crib mattress. I made progress reading while she was gone—Eissfeldt goes faster than I had anticipated; bathed about 11:30 together; read briefly; OBLO 12:25.

Tuesday, 15 September 1970

Up before 9:00; shaved (two days worth), had breakfast. Without much delay I got to my reading. About 10:30 I decided to go vote—it has been a miserable day—cold, rainy—so I had to walk through the rain, with umbrella—so I was not very happy to arrive at the polling place and discover that the voting didn’t start until noon. I came on home, read further until we had lunch—i.e., about noon I went down, voted, and we had lunch when I got back. When Bonnie left for work, Debbie went down for a nap, and I got to reading. Mail was very late—didn’t get here til about 2:00—I looked through it. I didn’t make as much progress in the afternoon as I had wanted. I just wasn’t feeling much like reading, for a while I dozed. About 5:00 I gave up altogether to work on supper. Bonnie voted on her way home, we ate not too long after she arrived. Then I relaxed in the living room, watched CBS news. Bonnie took the car over to Lee’s—Roy will take it for servicing tomorrow—Sue came back (with Diane). I studied while Bonnie + Sue conferred re: Sunday School. My reading petered out in the evening—I was just too pooped. Called Don McGaw to thank him for the picture of Pope John. Relaxed, listened to music, listened to election returns; bathed about midnight; OBLO, 12:35.

Wednesday, 16 September 1970

[Top panel:  Photos of Debbie]

Up at 9:15 after Θ+. Virginia Bate called about 9:30 to chat about the election—the best news was Fr. Drinan’s victory.[1] We had breakfast, then I turned to reading. Eissfeldt is certainly tedious. I’m really having to force myself to keep at it. We had lunch about 1:00—I devoted the afternoon as much as I could to reading. Toward the end of the afternoon—after observing the twins next door having some grapes off our vines—I decided I’d better do some picking while there were still grapes. Bonnie joined me and we picked quite a few. We have never paid much attention before to these grapes—and this is the third summer we’ve been here. But we got a big batch, so will make grape juice tomorrow. We didn’t have supper until late—about 5:30. I watched TV—CBS news—and did some grape sorting. Then read. About 8:30 Roy Lee arrived with the car—it had been in for service. Bonnie took him home, and then dropped in to see the Lewises—had some items to give them. So she was gone until about 10:00. Just as she was leaving earlier it occurred to us that this was the 16^th i.e., the day to take a photo of Debbie, so I did. After 10:00 I didn’t have the determination to stay with the reading, so we watched TV, sorted grapes—three big bowlfuls. Watched Johnny Carson, bathed together, OBLO, 12:10.

Thursday, 17 September 1970

Up before 9:00. Had breakfast—a beautiful sunny morning—so I went out and picked more grapes. We’d taken one batch yesterday—but I knew that there were plenty more. Did I really have time for such diversions? No! But Bonnie was itching to make the grape juice, so I knew I didn’t have much choice about when to pick grapes. I got quite a few, and got to reading about 10:00—just shortly after Bonnie + Debbie had left in the car. They picked up Carol Lewis (+ Chris) and went shopping in Gloucester. About 10:30 I worked on sorting the grapes—and this took quite a while. Bonnie arrived home about 12:30. I made a quick trip down to St. Mary’s to pick up Sunday School materials. When I got home we had lunch; then I shaved, and returned to reading until Carol Lewis + Chris arrived about 2:45. Then we all got to work making the grape juice. We were at this well more than an hour. I then got back to reading after Carol left—we had supper about 5:30. I read from 6:00–6:30, then watched CBS news + . Then more reading 7:30 – 8:30. We began watching Ironsides, and the Stoners arrived; they watched it with us. Then we visited, had a snack; they retired; read, bathed together; read; OBLO 11:35.

[1] Robert Drinan was a Jesuit priest who opposed the Vietnam war. He served in Congress, 1971-1981.

David’s Diary, September 17, 1970

©2017 copyright owned and transcribed by David Madison and Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2017/10/10/davids-dairy-september-14-1970/