Tuesday, 20 October 1970

[Top panel: 2 photos]

Up about 8:30. After breakfast tried to get going on desk work. My main involvement for the morning was putting together an order for Sunday bulletins. Late in the morning, after the mail arrived, I got out the lawn mower. I hadn’t mowed the lawn in months—and it’s on my list of things to get done—I mowed for about 45 min—up til exactly noon. Stopped for lunch. I had hoped to mow more in the afternoon. But I didn’t want to go outside until Debbie had settled down for a nap—which she didn’t do until about 4 o’clock. Before that I worked at my desk, put up the long bulletin board above my desk, trimmed it with blue paint. I’m slowly making progress getting some order to my desk + study. I napped about ½ hour before 4:00. Then about 4:15 I went out to mow—which I continued until about 5:20. At that time I came in, relaxed briefly, Bonnie came home, we worked on supper. Right after supper I got to work cutting out the rest of the doors for the kitchen + bathroom doors. I spent most of the evening on this; about 9:00 we discovered Debbie in her room. She had emptied a can of talcum powder all over the room—what a mess! Took two photos. I finished sawing about 10:30—10:00–11:00 watched CBS news special on TV on campaigns. Watched news, J. Carson, bathed; OBLO, midnight.

Wednesday, 21 October 1970

[Top panel: 2 photos]

Θ before arising shortly after 9:00. I shaved, then had breakfast. One of the first things to do was to put Debbie’s new deacon’s bench toy box into her room—I took a couple of photos. Homer Orne stopped by with a check I requested to be sent to Whittemores for bulletins. When the mail came I looked through Newsweek—I made some further progress in putting my study in order. We ate about 12:00—then we prepared to set out on our afternoon’s project: we went shopping at Mals, the[n] drove down to Beverly; we visited two pet shops, got more accessories for our fish tank—plus got another tank! –because it was on sale, for 5 or 6 dollars. Also got 9 more fish. We came home shortly before 5:00. There was a book on tropical fish just inside the door. I called Carol Lewis later and she confirmed that she had left it—it’s from the library. I spent a while tending to the fish tank, and helped with supper. We ate about 6:30. The evening was busy. The TV was on, but I worked on getting the doors ready for the kitchen cabinets. The offset grooves had to be made, plus the edges rounded off—I did both jobs with the router. Bonnie put more varnish on the frame over the radiator. After finishing with the doors, I relaxed, had snack, watched Johnny Carson a while; read briefly in bed after bathing; OBLO 1:30.

Thursday, 22 October 1970

Not up til about 9:30. This was one of those days I need very few of. It started off very well—I was making progress at my desk—then the mail came—about 11 o’clock—a letter from Dr. Beck: I did not pass the qualifying exam. He indicated that he thought it was a pass, but Dr. Richardson didn’t. I was quite stunned, shaken really. About 11:20 I tried to reach Dr. Beck on the phone—he was in conference. I tried again at 12:00—we had a brief chat—and agreed to meet tomorrow morning at 10:00. I also tried to reach Richardson no luck. I then told Bonnie—I wanted to try to get my mind off of it, so I went out to do the mowing. I did this for a while, came in about 1:45 for lunch. Kept trying to reach Richardson. Bonnie went off on errands, Debbie was asleep, so I did more mowing. I interrupted this to place a call again to Richardson—this time I got him—he’ll see me next Thurs. at 1:00. (He’s to be in NY earlier in the week). I finished the mowing, then went over to the hospital to see John Wicky, stopped at the pet shop on the way home to get some more aquarium supplies, went to see Bertha Wicky, then came home about 5:30. We ate about 6:00, watched CBS news; evening was spent watching TV (e.g., Ironsides), sanding cabinet doors, messing around with the fish and aquarium; bathed; OBLO, 11:52 Θ

Friday, 23 October 1970

[Top panel: Drue’s baby delivered last night at 11:41: Jennifer]

Got up at about 7:30. Shaved, had a hearty breakfast. Left for Boston about 8:30—driving rain. The Mystic River Bridge was backed up, so I didn’t get to Beck’s office until just about 10:00. We conferred about my failure on the qualifying exam: it was quite obvious that he was distressed that Richardson did not want to give the exam a passing grade—he didn’t feel that the exam was great, but he did consider it passing. So my next move is to see Richardson next week (my appointment with him is for Thurs.)—and Beck suggested also that I begin reviewing Eissfeldt again. I left his office shortly before 11:00, did a few errands, then headed home—got back to Rockport about 12:30. Had lunch, relaxed—rather weary. About 2:45 Margaret Reilly arrived; she had called last night that she was coming over. We had a nice long visit—til about 4:15—we had tea and cake together, talked about Alan, politics—especially Canadian—she thinks she witnessed the fleeing getaway car in the LaPorte kidnap.[1] After she left I did some work on supper, but tired to nap before Bonnie got home. When she arrived we had supper, after I went to Richdales on foot. Watched CBS news; went to hospital, saw Drue, Sully, John Wicky; came home, talked to Don McGaw on phone; tended to fish; sanded; bathed; watched some of Johnny Carson. OBLO c 12:41.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Laporte

David’s Diary, October 23, 1970

©2017 copyright owned and transcribed by David Madison and Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2017/10/24/davids-diary-october-20-1970/