Saturday, 17 April 1971

Up about 8:00, after Θ. Shaved—2 days worth. Had breakfast. As I was about to leave for St. Mary’s to study, got a call from Mrs. Bamforth asking if Bonnie and I could be witnesses to the signing of their wills this afternoon (Dick witnessed ours)—at 3:00, at Starretts—I said “yes.” Then I went to St. Mary’s—had to come back home, because I forgot my book!—i.e., it didn’t get into my briefcase. But once I got to work I made progress—reading in Meek’s Hebrew Origins. Came home about 12:30. Relaxed and read after lunch. About 1:45 I went to see the Hannibals. I took the tape of Bishop Mathews’ sermon. This was over just at 3:00—I then left, picked up Bonnie and Debbie and went to Starretts. We witnessed all the signings—also stayed to watch a play worked up by Starrett and Bamforth children. We got home about 4:00. I walked down to Richdale to get milk, but lay down for a nap when I got home—and got some helpful rest. About 5:30 I got a call from the funeral home—Mrs. Thomas Hendrickson died suddenly this morning, funeral to be on Tuesday. We had supper, then I returned to reading—About 7:45 I went over to see Thom Hendrickson—many of his family were there—I stayed til about 8:30. When I got home Bonnie went down to Patriquins—Kay just returned home from California. I worked on tomorrows service, practiced the sermon, but then returned to reading in Meek for a while, bathed. OBLO  c. midnight.

Sunday, 18 April 1971

Up shortly before 8:40. Went downstairs, read in Meek til shortly after 9:00. Dressed, shaved, had breakfast, practiced my sermon. Got to the church about 10:30. The “post Easter slump” was definitely in evidence—about 25 in church, including the choir! I preached on “God’s Reputation”—home before 12:30. Ate, relaxed—but had to be at St. Mary’s by 1:30 for a Joint Youth Fellowship meeting. Ernie Bailey didn’t get there til 2:00 (he had to be called, he thought the meeting was at 3:00)—we didn’t break up til sometime after 3:00. The main thing discussed was the apparent favorable response from the Universalists and RC’s on being asked to join. After the meeting I stayed on at St. Mary’s to study. Finished Meek, made a very small beginning on Jones, The Herods of Judea—but came home about 4:30 because I was so weary—I napped until about 6:00—at which time we had supper—at 7 o’clock I had to be at the Congregational church for the final C.O.C.U. sum-up session. The attendance was pretty slim—and we broke up about 8:30—a committee will draft a final report for the Rockport effort as a whole—and of course individual evaluations will be sent in. I got home about nine. Bonnie had made some bread pudding and cookies—so we had a nice snack. Then I read in Jones—about 10:30 I stopped this—wrote an article for the Eagle, then wrote letter to Mrs. Myers/copy to folks/ no bath/ OBLO 12:10.

Monday, 19 April 1971

Up about 9:00—seems hard to get going on Monday morning—shaved, had breakfast. Didn’t get to St. Mary’s until about 10:15 or so. Read for about an hour. Then drove over to the Eagle office with my article—from there went over Stop + Shop to get chicken livers. Carol was invited to supper tonight, since Jerry was out of town—and I was planning our new dish with chicken livers and coconut milk. Today being the holiday, [1] many of the stores were closed—so I had to buy the livers at two small shops in Gloucester. Got home shortly after noon. Relaxed after lunch, tried to find a suitable poem for tomorrow’s funeral. About 2:00 I got back to St. Mary’s. Read for the afternoon—in Jones, Herods of Judea. I came home about 4:45—Carol was here. She and Bonnie chatted and supervised Chris + Debbie while I worked on supper—and I think it can be judged a success. I varied the recipe somewhat from last time: more curry—no peanuts—except those sprinkled on top. Relaxed after supper, then watched CBS news, etc. As I was preparing to go to the funeral home, Carol was gathering up Chris to go home. I stayed at the funeral home about 1½ hours. That is not very usual practice—but after seeing the family, I got into conversation with the new owner of the funeral home, Mr. Greeley III—35 years old—quite a change from Mr. Mackey. After I got home I went to work searching for suitable poetry again. This took quite a while—didn’t get back to reading as I had hoped. Bathed. OBLO c. 12:20 Θ+

[1] Patriots Day, in Maine and Massachusetts

David’s diary, 19 April 1971

©2018 copyright owned and transcribed by David Madison and Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/09/davids-diary-17-april-1971/