Friday, August 18, 1972 - Page 231
LOCATION: Rapid City
12:30 PM
God bless the flood -- it has provided me with a temporary haven to organize my chaotic duffle bag, and to arrange my thoughts. I am now lodging in a house made vacant by the recent flood. It is raised up a few feet, resting on bricks. It is relatively clean inside, with only a thin layer of mud on the floor. It is a small house with two rooms and a bathroom (there is a hole where the toilet used to be -- I used it for its intended purpose -- very sanitary). The whole place is stripped, of course, but it is a nice place to rest -- it has a for sale sign on the front, so apparently, it is fit for human occupation. I'm human, and I'm occupying it. --
You may have noticed, my handwriting is jerky. I've noticed too, and I can't figure out why. I'll quit writing for a while -- maybe sanity will return to my hand. Maybe it's guilty, thinking I'm trespassing. Calm down hand, you'll be okay. -- Back in one hour or so. ----------
LOCATION: Rapid City
12:30 PM
God bless the flood -- it has provided me with a temporary haven to organize my chaotic duffle bag, and to arrange my thoughts. I am now lodging in a house made vacant by the recent flood. It is raised up a few feet, resting on bricks. It is relatively clean inside, with only a thin layer of mud on the floor. It is a small house with two rooms and a bathroom (there is a hole where the toilet used to be -- I used it for its intended purpose -- very sanitary). The whole place is stripped, of course, but it is a nice place to rest -- it has a for sale sign on the front, so apparently, it is fit for human occupation. I'm human, and I'm occupying it. --
You may have noticed, my handwriting is jerky. I've noticed too, and I can't figure out why. I'll quit writing for a while -- maybe sanity will return to my hand. Maybe it's guilty, thinking I'm trespassing. Calm down hand, you'll be okay. -- Back in one hour or so. ----------
5:30 PM
An hour or so, huh? Oh well, my hand has calmed down so once again it looks like I'm writing on stationary stationery. I got the stuff in my bag organized, and I added some contributions to this journal, one of which is below. It is a section cut from a larger notice (the rest of it had advertisements) that was neatly thumb tacked to the wall [at bottom of this entry]. It struck me a bit funny, considering the accommodations it represented. I'm not complaining tho. I put in the new battery I bought in Chicago, so I won't have to worry about my watch for another year. The packet the battery came in is on the next page [see below] -- I've preserved it as a period piece. Antique memorabilia in a century or so.
Anyway, back to the chronologue:
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20th Century Timex battery packet
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The night began to get cool -- I used my CPO jacket as a pillow, and had the corduroy as a blanket. I woke up at seven, and figured it was pretty late for some one to be sleeping in a vacant lot lying down, so I moved myself to an adjacent parking lot and slept sitting down till 8:00. The area was fairly secluded, but people were beginning to get more frequent, so I ceased my slumber. Just in time too -- a car came to the parking lot a moment after I got up.
I wandered over to the Alex Johnson, put my duffle bag in the lobby, and went to eat breakfast at a newly completed restaurant in the A.J. -- last time I was there was a month ago, and you had to eat in a dumpy coffee-shop restaurant on the North side of the lobby. I had eggs, toast, hash browns, and coffee for $1.25. I now have $4.95.
I went back to the lobby and rearranged the stuff in my duffle bag to make it easier to carry -- it had been murder carrying it to the hotel. I read a story in the anthology and left at 11:30 A.M., walking to Interstate 90 business loop (79), along which I found the house I am now in.
TOMORROW: Creepy Eerie Vampirella
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