Sep 22 - TIME REVIEW: The past 100 days***

Friday, September 22, 1972 - Page 266
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

I REALLY DON'T FEEL LIKE WRITING ON THIS PAGE NOW -- I'LL GET TO IT LATER WHEN I'M AT LEAST PARTLY INSPIRED -- 5:53:53 A.M., SAT, SEPT 23, 72

[TIME-BUMP Note in left-side margin] Now the year is two hundred sixty six days old -- Once again I ventured into the future from March 6, 1972, 8:12 P.M. What would I find? Would I be happy or sad? (Note to me from Aug. 18, 72 -- Read Pg 166 [June 14] B4 writing. Keep same theme)

(11:29:45 PM 10/1/1972)
The last 100 days were about the most eventful days that are likely to be found in this book. Dullsville. I'm drafting this on a sheet of notebook paper at 4:47:23 P.M., October 1st, 1972 (and am currently re-writing the just finished rough draft on another sheet of notebook paper, 6:08:08 P.M., Oct 1 [But right now, as you see it here, I am righting the final draft, and it's now 11:35:35 P.M. I'll have it finished sometime in the A.M., 10-2-72.] )

The last hundred-day mark was Wed., Jun 14, & it was delayed, not by procrastination but because I was working in Oxnard at the time, and it took me till Jun 20 to completely realign the past with the present from the future. We shall see if the next 100 mark is similarly out of synch. Since it'll be Dec 31, my guess is it'll be pretty late. [FROM THE FUTURE: Yes, the next 100-day review will be pretty late -- more than 40 years, actually. I, OldGrady, will need to update the December 31, 1972, page because YoungGrady never did it.]

In the immediate preceeding five-score pages, I read the following books of fiction: "The Probability Man," "The Little Prince," "The Exorcist," and about 1/2 of Michener's "The Drifters." I also read at least a half dozen magazine articles & two complete anthologies -- "World's Best SF, 1971" & "The Best S.F. of the Year" -- & read completely (more or less) the following books of non-fiction: "I'm OK, You're OK," "The Descent of Woman," & "Dinosaurs," still haven't finished (or even looked into in the past 100 days) "A Guide to Earth History," or "Man's Rise to Civilization as Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State" yet, but I'm planning to eventually.

Saw a play, "Follies," and some movies: "Box Car Bertha"/"1,000 Convicts and a Woman," "The New Centurions"/"Play Misty for Me," & "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes." That's a surprisingly small number (five) of films for me in a 100-day period. I was too busy. In the aforementioned temporal period, this journal has been in the following towns for at least 2 or 3 hours: Newport Beach, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Rapid City, Bethlehem, Sioux City, Omaha, and Chicago, not necessarily in that order. It really got around, didn't it?

A few world wide events that occurred were: a flood season unprecedented in U.S. history; the Democratic Convention nominated George; the Republican Convention nominated Dick; Bobby won the World Championship Chess Tournament, beating Boris; the Russians got away with more Gold Medals than the United States in the freakiest Olympics ever.

Some birthdays that happened were mine (July 17), Mrs. Latka (July 18), McGovern (July 19), Chunk, Laramée, Mom, Mike Sarason, and least but not last, Gilbert Stack (Aug. 28), Grandpa Bill and Jim Weidner (both on Sept. 10) and Roger Barkley (Sept. 11). The last haircut I got was Thursday June 22, the last time I drove a car was June 24, last time I shaved was September 15. I got new old glasses and learned to play poker on the same day, June 23, and learned to drive a clutch on June 24.

In the last hundred pages I stuffed hundreds of scrap-book type scraps into this book that increased its width considerably. I got photos that now are in this journal from Geri Langer (pages 112, 113, 120, 121), Tom Scheuring (116, 117), Peg Latka (114, 220), Mrs. Latka (199, 200, 212, 218, 219), I swiped one shot from Ken (214), and various shots from Mike Mill's Polaroid (194 to 197, 213, 221, 226, 227), and personally snapped some pictures from loaned cameras (211, 222, 228).

Some choice events that transpired involving yours truly are as follows: Got "layed off" from my landscaping job; got the NHH Annual [this is the Newport Harbor High 1972 Yearbook -- See photos June 22], and though I was only a part-time student my Senior photo was in it, and I was the only one without a jacket and tie (nonconformist); Gramma Brazzel (94 year old semi great grandmother) had an operation Sunday, June 25, I saw her alive for the last time in the hospital, June 28, she died Wed. Sept. 13, and Chunk and I were pallbearers on Sept. 15; got to Bethlehem South Dakota June 30; on July 4 (15th Anniversary of Bethlehem and 196th of the United States), Bruce, Brad, Greg, Clint, Jeff, & I went to stock car races in Rapid; rode bare back with Darlene Sheckle and learned I was allergic to horses on July 7; me, Brad, Bruce, and Gordy with his '49 Mercury went to Deadwood for the Flood Damage Meeting along with Gil and the Mayor of Sturgis; I went spelunking on two memorable occasions in July.

On my birthday, me, Bruce, Greg, Brad, Mike, and Tom went to the airport to see George come in, and gave a Secret Service man paranoia, met the Latkas at Mt. Rushmore [See "Pranking McGovern's Secret Service," July 17]; rode to Chicago with my adopted family, arriving July 20; went to Marist High School dance 7-21-72 [See "STYX performs at High School dance," July 21]; me, Sue, Peg and Ken Britski went to Old Town, 7-22; me, Larry, Ken, Kathy, Mark, Sue, Mary Ann and her pal, Tom Styx went to Playland, 7-23; Ken and I went to Old Town and Ripley's Museum, then me and Peg drove around Beverly Hills, 7-24; went to the Field Museum, and Sue got a bowling ball dropped on her toe, 7-25; Peg dropped me off at the Beverly Art Center, which was closed so I got to walk a few miles to her office in the rain, 7-26; me, Ken, Larry, Mark and Sue went to U.S. 30 Drag Strip, 7-30; went to the Art Institute, the Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry, the John Hancock Building, and Bob Kelly's Studio (the latter during a tornado); drew the Phredee Phrogg Poster, Sue & Peg's portrait, painted Ken's helmet, and left on a bus finally on August 16, got to Vapid City on the 17th, stayed in an abandoned house on the 18th, and hitched to Beth on the 19th. Gil told me to depart the premises, saw the "Guess Who" concert [See August 25], then flew away on Sunday, August 27.

Stayed in the Disneyland Hotel Sunday (Damn. Ran out of ink. There goes my fine point pen -- Now, to continue) night, next day went to the Ivanhoe -- which Mike was preparing to manage -- then went to Disneyland, then home for the first time in sixty days [See "Disneyland for $4.95," August 28]. Helped Mike move his home August 30 (his birthday), played chess with Chunk & Co. alot over a few weeks, started regular 5 days-a-week exercizing September 5, got my Experifragments accepted by a defunct publication, got a multitude of rejections, kidnapped Tim Hourigan's chess set Sept. 9, went dirt bike riding with Chunk September 10, dived headlong into writing the first episode in Tempus Fugit September 11, started an odd schedule of getting to sleep in the afternoon and waking up later in the night to work on my notes on Sept. 18, caught up on my National Geographic index, added a prurient drawing to page 260 [Sep 16] to make up for the one I gave to Tom Scheuring, and finally wrote this entry 9 or 10 days late.

The last hundred days were good. I expect the next hundred to be better though less active. The next hundred days will mark the end of this year, and the end of this book -- Probably the only diary I'll write, preserving memories from a time when I was formulating ideas that would set me off into my adult life. I've still got a few more things to accomplish before it's through.

This entry is through finally, and the time is now 1:27:37. I wrote non-stop from 11:30 (with about a minute off to write a couple of ideas for "Eternity, B.C.") -- My eyes are about to fall out, my fingers are cramped and my mind is muddled -- In other words, I'm  T H R O U G H  for now. ---

TOMORROW: My nocturnal writing schedule