Monday, 5 April 1971

Up about 8:15. Had breakfast—left the house about 9:00, went to the post office with the Easter letter to the congregation. Stopped at the church to change the wayside pulpit. Then headed to St. Mary’s—as usual there was no one there on a Monday morning. I studied there until about 11:30—with some unexpected interruptions by the puttering janitor. I hadn’t planned to come home so soon, but the heat wasn’t very high—and I was getting very cold. When I got home I found that Debbie was down for a nap. So there was quiet, and I did get more reading done. We had lunch about noon. Margaret Reilly arrived about 12:40 for a ride to the hospital with Bonnie—she also agreed to our suggestion that she come home with Bonnie, stay for supper, then sit with Debbie while we go to the community concert. After Bonnie + Margaret left Debbie was finishing her lunch—I shaved. Then Debbie + I went upstairs, I got her occupied with building blocks—then came downstairs, read until about 3:00. Then I began preparing supper. After getting this underway, I wrote my weekly letter to Mrs. Myers/copy to folks. Then turned my attention again to supper. Bonnie + Margaret got home by 5:30—we had supper. Relaxed after supper. Watched CBS news. 7:00–7:15 wrote a letter to Larry Burton asking him to buy me some records in Boston—Bonnie left early for the concert with Homer. I left about 7:30. Took the letter to Larry to Ruth Robinson, who will take it to BU. 8:00–9:15 at the concert, at Lady of Good Voyage. Took Margaret home; came back, snacked, read. Bathed c. 11:15  OBLO 11:50.

Tuesday, 6 April 1971

[Top panel: Igor Stravinsky died last night]

Up at 7:45. While shaving, heard on the 8 o’clock news that Igor Stravinsky had died last night. Had breakfast, got to St. Mary’s in time for morning prayer at 8:45. Dick Bamforth had also heard about Stravinsky’s death—included prayer of thanks for Stravinsky’s life and talent. 9:10–12:15 spent reading, with a coffee break spent chatting with Dick. He told me of his embarrassing moment many years ago when reading from Luke 2. Instead of babe “leaped in her womb,” he said “wooped on the leem”—and then corrected it to “weeped in loom.” Turned on the heat in our church on the way home. When I got here I found a package of records waiting: 4 records, mainly 4 hand piano, also one brass. Bonnie and Debbie were already eating when I got home. Debbie went down for a nap even before Bonnie left for work. I spent my afternoon reading—first read I.F. Stone, which had come in the mail, then got back to reading in Noth—this I pursued for most of the afternoon with time out for a nap. Fixed supper about 4:45. We ate about 5:30. About 6–6:30 I read in Noth. Then watched CBS news. Prepared to leave for meeting. 7:30 went to our church, turned off the heat, went then to St. Mary’s for the Joint Church committee—about a dozen or so people there. The main outcome of the meeting: try to get Baptists included, pursue publication of join calendar of events, pursue collective buying. Got home about 10:00. Snacked, did some outlining of my Easter sermon. Also listened to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring—what a powerful piece it is. Bathed OBLO  c. 12:05.

Wednesday, 7 April 1971

Up at 7:45. Shaved, had breakfast. Made it to St. Mary’s in time for morning prayer. Read then in Noth until about 10:15—when I went over to the congregational church to get their movie screen for tonight’s program; took it to our church, set it up. Went back to St. Mary’s. Before noon I got a call from Bonnie. She and Debbie were over with Carol Lewis—were staying for lunch. So when I stopped studying, and got home about 12:30, they weren’t here. I fixed a simple soup lunch, read articles in Newsweek. Just about 1:30 when I was going to start reading in Noth again, they got home. But they both wanted to nap—so I read—until about 3:00. Bonnie went grocery shopping. I then set Noth aside and took up the challenge of assembling the swing set that we purchased for Debbie at Ann + Hope last week. Of course, the whole thing can’t be assembled until it can be put up outside and today is too cold and wet for that. So I put together as much as could be done in the house, which was considerable: slide, skyride, part of the lawn swing. Then relaxed with the paper for a few minutes before fixing supper. 6–6:15 read in Noth, then rested until CBS news. 7 o’clock prepared to go to the church—for Mrs. Marr’s Oberammergau program—rather mediocre—home by 9:00 in time for Nixon’s Vietnam speech—he lived up to his tricky Dick reputation. Then I turned to working on my Easter sermon. Made good progress. Got more than 1/3 written before bathing. OBLO c. midnight  Θ

David’s diary, 7 April 1971

©2017 copyright owned and transcribed by David Madison and Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/02/davids-diary-5-april-1971/