Friday, 21 July 1989 1:20 A

I heard the most wonderful thing today! I had got home from babysitting a little before midnight, but what I’m talking about happened just before I went babysitting. It was just a few minutes to six P.M. and I was sitting in the living room talking with Barbara and Sarah. Then Barbara said something terrific; she said I was going to be an aunt again. I’m very happy about it! For some reason I had been thinking about that the last couple of days, too. Just a day or 2 before I was thinking how this would be the time to have a 2nd kid & I was wondering if they would soon. So I was a little bit expecting it. Even more amazing was I remembered a dream I had had when Sarah was a tiny baby. I dreamed that Barbara & Bob had 2 kids; a little girl about 2 or 3 and a baby boy. Much more recently – just the other night – I’d dreamed I was babysitting just next door and I had to go home for something. I took the older child – a girl of about 3 – and left the baby just learning to walk there, thinking I’d be right back. Now, in real life, I wouldn’t dream of leaving a child in the house by itself. Back to the dream; when I got back to the house, there was smoke coming out of the bottom of the door. An immediate & terrifying fear shot threw me. In the few seconds it took me to get to the door & into the house, I imagined several terrible things that could’ve happened. As it turns out, the baby was fine; the smoke was caused by something in the oven which was rapidly becoming well-done. Realizing the potential danger of leaving a toddler and a hot oven together alone made for more terrifying thoughts. Anyway, it was just a dream so no harm done.

1:46 A

Now I’m going to sleep so maybe I can catch Ed Grimley’s Completely Mental Misadventures “I must say.” Good Night! (Talk about sloppy writing!)

 

Monday, 26 June 1989 10:58 A

I’ve got some interesting things to tell you. One of them is that about 11:00 last night the family left for home, after they debated whether to spend the night at Dolly & Patti’s and leave early in the morning. But, since none of us are such early risers as to wake up at 5:30 A.M. they decided to go home last night & arrive home at about 2:00 in the morning. Only when they left, they left me behind. At the last minute, with everyone in the car except me, Patti & I decided that it’d be fun to have me stay with them, but just for the week. Next weekend they were planning on going to see us in Springfield, anyway.

Another exciting thing that happened for me was my mom let me drive all the way from Gladys’s house in Franklin to Dolly’s in Clayton, which is about a 45-60 minute drive. I drove yesterday afternoon, with Mom next to me & the kids behind me. I was terrified (well, not quite) that I’d screw something up & get us all in an accident. Mom kept complaining that I drove too close to the side of the road, but I don’t like to drive right next to the yellow line with cars going 60 mph in the opposite direction doing the same thing.

11:25 A

At the same time I was driving, Joey (whom we picked up at Dale & Nancy’s), Susie, & Angie were fighting over the radio very loudly. First, “Like a Prayer” by Madonna was playing and Joey & Susie were singing along. So Angie started arguing with Joey, saying he shouldn’t sing that song because it was evil.

 

Saturday, 24 June 1989 11:37 A

Right now I’m in our station wagon, which is why my writing is sloppy. I’m in the front seat with Mom driving; Angie & Susie are in the back. We’re heading for Clayton. Susie’s just finishing a story I wrote, a children’s story. Now she handed it back, saying it’s “nice.” There goes that story. The sky has that strange look to it, like the clouds are much closer than they are. Then there’re the clouds in the distance that have distinct outlines, that look almost as though they’re cartoons. And farther up in the sky, above the cottonball clouds, are those thin, wispy clouds that look like someone took a rubber spatula and smeared them around. I love 50’s music, like “Love is Strange” by Silvia & Mickey. And I love the Monkees. They were a little before my music-loving years for me to have gone to concerts & things, but I love to watch their show on TV. I also love houses. I like to see unique architectural features. It’s getting harder to write.

4:22 P

We’re at Dolly’s now, but in about an hour we’ll be leaving for Franklin. There we’ll visit Gladys & go to some fair. When we got here, Patti’s friend Dawn answered the door. Patti & Dolly had gone shopping. Now Angie & Susie are playing Pac-Man on Atari. I’m not very good. Their house is air-conditioned, which I love.

 

Thursday, 9 March 1989

It all started exactly one week ago. We knew the day before that our grandma was very ill. We also knew several relatives were coming down to see her. For that reason, we were told to clean the house as soon as we got home. At 3:30 Joey, Angie, and I bounded off the bus happily, excited about seeing our cousins. We ate chocolate pudding as our after-school lunch, watched “OPRAH” on T.V., danced around to Footloose, and did basic cleaning.

I remember the phone kept ringing, interrupting me as I made supper. My mom called a couple times for messages and info about the relatives. One time my cousins called and we all talked to Katie. Katie is now 12, but we haven’t seen her since she was about 9 years old. There was a big dispute between Katie’s mom and the rest of the family that kept us apart. It’s hard to tell exactly when it started. It could’ve started when Grandma was driving at night with Katie in the car when Katie was about 6 or 7. My grandma accidentally went off the edge of the road and into the ditch. Katie wasn’t hurt in the least; in fact, she was sleeping in the back seat at the time, and when the car was stopped she rolled onto the floor and continued to sleep. But for some reason Martha was very upset. She wrote a cruel letter to my Grandma that is believed to have caused her to have a minor heart attack, which began a series of medical problems.

I think Lou had a lot to do with the bitterness between Martha and the rest of the family which developed later on. Lou is Martha 2nd husband. She remarried about 4 or 5 years ago, after having written to him several times. That is how they met. I think it was Martha who put the ad in the paper about wanting a pen pal. They began to write to each other, then talked on the phone. After a while, Lou came to visit and soon they were married. Ever since then, things became heated. Lou is a quiet, fat, and bald man. He barely talks to the adults and never smiles. One of the first things he did were to make Katie give all her toys away. Many were given to us. Soon Katie was calling him “Daddy,” whether by force or choice, I’m not sure.

It is also believed by some that it started a couple summers ago, when we all got together to clean Grandma’s house. Apparently George made a small comment to Martha that some of us already knew what we were getting. George doesn’t remember saying that, but Martha said he did & ever since Martha’s been writing extremely wicked letters to Grandma, saying we were stealing her [Grandma's] money, we were not letting Martha have any of Grandma’s things, and that she was going to take us to court when Grandma dies. Then she tells Grandma that she [Martha] & Jesus love her, & we’ll be punished by God.

Wednesday, 22 February 1989 10:53 P

Patti was on time today. Micky got a ride home with Jesse & his mom, so he got there before I did. We played way too much Super Mario Bros. We were still playing when Patti got home a little before 6:00. I felt guilty because Micky wanted to finish the game, so I killed myself (actually, Luigi). Miss Casey had us watch Tartuffe today. We saw a scene where they showed his bottom. He was trying to seduce a guy’s wife. Miss Casey is always trying to corrupt us. I bet she plays Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a terrible game; don’t ever play it. Do you take tests on Scan-Tron? Or is that too old-fashioned? Is Jenny still a popular name? Or Missy?

Monday, 20 February 1989 10:40 P

Only 1 more week of babysitting for the Second Petersons. Their regular babysitter will be fully recovered by next Monday. Again, I’ll miss them. Susie’s still sleeping in my room. I let her in one night, and ever since she just climbed right in. The Petersons got Nintendo Friday. They ordered it Christmastime. Now me & Micky play Super Mario Bros. all the time. Is Super Mario too old-fashioned for you, Future Whoever? If so, you’re missing out. I’m really competitive. I get almost jealous if someone else does better than me. In math class, everyone calls Lynn the Brain. I get A+s, but I don’t let anyone know. So it’s really my fault. That’s the worst part.

 

Sunday, 12 February 1989 11:48 P

I just finished writing the 11th. We had a great day today! I could tell it would be warm today because the sun woke me up at 8:00 A.M. But I was so tired from being up late last night that I went back to sleep. I got up a couple hours later to go to the 11:00 mass. After church Mom was in a bad mood (swearing & complaining) so I went upstairs & had Angie teach me cross-stitching (which is easy & fun). After dinner, Susie went to a friend’s & Mom took a nap. I decided to go out & play in the snow, but no one would go out with me. So I fell asleep on Angie’s bed w/my coat on & everything for 2 hours. When I woke up, Angie had made s’mores & brownies. We watched T.V. until supper, then watched some more T.V. (Perry Mason) until 10:00 P.M. Tomorrow I babysit for the second Petersons until 8:00 P.M.

Saturday (actually Sunday), 11 February 1989 11:35 P

I didn’t write on the 11th because I got home from babysitting at nearly 2:00 A.M. & barely was able to crawl into bed. I didn’t read the Bible, either. We went to the dentist’s at 8:30 in the morning & didn’t get out until 2:00 p.m. That’s 5 1/2 hours in 1 small waiting room! The dentists were Christian & were doing people’s teeth free for those who could not afford it. Our income is improving, though. We always got free lunch, until this year. Now we pay reduced (40¢ per meal). Full is $1.oo. I went w/Barbara & Joey after the dentist. We dropped Joey off at Tom’s birthday party, then went to the grocery store. We left about an hour later w/$70.00 worth of groceries! There must’ve been 8 bags. I babysat for the Barbers at 8:00. The kids were easy to take care of.

Sunday, 5 February 1989 8:41 P!!

We barely made it to mass. I grabbed around 20 kleenexes before I left, plus a package in my purse. By the time the mass ended, I’d used up all but 1. We went straight to the nursing home, where Grandma was watching Little House on the Prairie. We watched that for 45 minutes until the relatives finally showed up. While the grown-ups talked, us kids went to the basement. Joey & George went one way and us girls went to the vending machines. Jenny lost 50¢ in the pop machine, then my peanut butter cups got stuck in the other machine. I put 50¢ more in, so I got 2 packages. Jenny filled out a form so they could mail her the money. Later, her p.b. cups got stuck. She tried my trick, but when the first came out, the second got stuck.

2 February 1989

Always write. Keep writing. Don’t stop ’til the bell rings. What do you say? Not important. Anything. Just keep writing. If you stop you are lost. And you really must stop falling. It’s embarrassing and doesn’t help your grades. And you want to keep all those A’s don’t you? B’s won’t do. No, not anymore. Jack said first quarter is always easiest. It’s harder 2nd, 3rd, & 4th. Chemistry is almost as bad as Spanish III. I’m getting better, though. What makes a heavy metal song? Tight jeans & a screeching guitar. That’s not music; that’s a headache. I hope to hear Deacon John’s music some day. The music he heard while he was drowning. Nothing like it on earth. Am I on the National Honor Society? How do you get on, if not with straight A’s? Ignorance is a funny thing. The more ignorant you are, the smarter you seem, or think you are. What else? Life is sweet. Happy all the time. Depressed occasionally. Best when simple. Problems make panic. Simplicity is special. Lectures are boring. Assonance? Is that the word I’m thinking of? Writing jargon is fun. Jargon. I like that word. DT 52 52. DT 51 53. Closure. Autism. Funny, isn’t it? I think so. Future, bright and dark. Chocolate chunks. Sexagesima: 2nd Sunday before Easter (60 days before Easter). Sexagesimal: of, relating to, or based on the # 60.