Monday, 7 December 1970

[Top panel: call to Bishop Mathew —536-7764   call to Paul Deats [?] sec. 353-3660]

Up about 9:30. Had breakfast after typing out my Eagle article. I met Ed Nutting at the Granite Bank, went from there to his office, where I had one page xeroxed—a page from an old issue of I.F. Stone to send to Mr + Mrs Hardy, whose son is in Canada—having fled the army. Ed and I had a brief chat—he told me about his “professional blunder” as he put it: Sat. evening he forgot a wedding! Went to the Eagle office with my article—came home; shortly thereafter the mail man arrived; a letter from BU—my transcript hadn’t been sent from one office to another—although I specifically requested this, in person, on Oct 23! How infuriating. I called them immediately; also called Bishop Mathew’s office—and he answered the phone; he’s coming for lunch on the 14^th of March following the COCU service. Also in the mail came a package from mother—UNICEF Xmas cards, and a Look [1] article on Walter Cronkite; before and after lunch I read this. In the afternoon Bonnie was at work, Debbie was sleeping and I finally made some headway at studying. About 4:45 began work on supper—we ate when Bonnie got home. After supper, CBS news. Bonnie went to Community Chorus rehearsal, Debbie went to bed, I got back to my reading; had a snack when Bonnie got home; more reading; bathed, watched 11 o’clock news; OBLO 11:48.

Tuesday, 8 December 1970

Up about 9:00. Had breakfast, shaved (2 days worth); I went to the post office, then to the church to change the wayside pulpit—home, desk work before and after the mailman arrived. Had lunch around noon; Bonnie left for work, Debbie played in her room. I got to my studying, although for a while in the middle of the afternoon I dozed in my chair. Late in the afternoon I put supper in the oven. Bonnie got home early, just after 5:00. So we ate very shortly thereafter. During supper Les Patriquin called asking if I had Florence and Rip Hannibal’s phone number—he wanted to reach them because he’d seen in the paper that Florence’s brother had died in New York. I gave him the number of course. After supper I did some more reading before CBS news came on. At about 7:30 I drove up to see the Hannibals; it was quite a blow to Florence; her brother’s death was very sudden—she had felt quite close to him. I stayed with them until almost 10:00. They asked me to lead them in prayer and I did. This was just as I was leaving. But our conversation ranged over a wide range of subjects—as usual; Rip is happy to have just gotten his driver license after several years; since 1965 they’ve spent $2,000.00 on medicine alone! Had a snack when I got home, relaxed, read; OBLO c 11:50  Θ

Wednesday, 9 December 1970

Up about 9:00; shaved after breakfast; Bonnie’s concern for the morning was to go with Carol Lewis to get this month’s batch of surplus food. I worked on studying—reading in Cassuto’s The Documentary Hypothesis; I was interrupted by the mail man—he brought a Christmas package from Bob, Lea and John. Right after breakfast, I should add, I began another batch of bread—all day long my bowl of mixture did its thing on the radiator. When Bonnie got home from getting the surplus food, we had lunch. Then while Bonnie relaxed I read further in Cassuto; about 2 o’clock we went out to get the Christmas tree. We went to L. E. Smith’s—picked out a tall, full tree. Debbie went along, but selected to stay in the car. When we got home we put it up in the living room. But we had to let it stand because it was wet—had been snowing off and on this morning. I spent the latter part of the afternoon reading. About 5:00 I began fixing supper—Carol Lewis came by while we were eating to get sourdough starter. After supper I worked on final stages of bread making. During the evening we watched TV (CBS + other); I read more, decorated tree. The bread loaves rose—then I put them in the oven about 10:00; we open[ed] the package from Malaysia—put its basket with contents under the tree; bathed; OBLO  11:45.

Thursday, 10 December 1970

[Top panel: called Whittemore]

Up about 9:00 after Θ; had breakfast, shaved. Turned my attention to Cassuto’s book—until the mail came—about 11:30. I then went on errands—to the dump, then back to the Granite Savings Bank for cash. From there I went to Mals and bought two diptychs for pictures to send to Mrs. Myers and Bonnie’s grandmother. From Mals I went on into Gloucester. Parked near Brown’s. Took 3 slides into camera shop to have prints made—Mail-A-Way wouldn’t get them done as quickly as I want. Then I went shopping around for 1971 diary; after I’d found it I went into Browns—browsed among the books. Then headed home—at 5 corners I saw Peter Haskell and a friend; I turned around, picked them up, took them to Gloucester, then came home; had lunch. Relaxed—got back to my reading, finished Cassuto. Napped; read more. I looked at the paper when it arrived; there was a letter to the editor smearing the peace symbol. So I spent most of my free moments the rest of the day writing a reply. Helped with supper. We ate by candlelight.—Watched CBS news, then Nixon’s press conference—what a farce. I worked on my letter—watched TV—as usual on Thursday night Ironside and Odd Couple. Then worked on letter; had snack. no bath  OBLO 12:15.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_(American_magazine)

David’s diary, December 10, 1970

©2017 copyright owned and transcribed by David Madison and Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2017/11/14/davids-diary-december-7-1970/