Aug 31 - Ghostly Sole Survivors**

Thursday, August 31, 1972 - 244
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

(2:00 AM 9/1/1972)
Goddup at around 11:00. Got all my dirty clothes (which are all my clothes) bagged to get washed. Got slightly more organized and am getting into filing af all my mags. They'll take a while. Chunk called, then came to pick me up. We played ice hockey until the Olympics on T.V., then played chess. We finished the game we started the other day -- I won. I beat him soundly at hockey, and we tied at chess.

Chunk has to get up at 4:00 in the A.M. so he went to bed at 11:00. Murray came over at 8:00 when the Olympics came on and he took lots of double exposures with his camera stationed in front of the set with a tripod. When Chunk went to bed he and I played a couple games of chess. He won them both (humiliating). -- Connie came in. She thought I was Chunk -- and she hit me under that assumption. Winnie came in shortly after her, but she didn't mistake me. She & Connie talked, and Murray & I left after the (3rd?) game.

He drove me home, and he and I watched T.V. A few minutes of D. Cavett, a few mins of J. Carson (with J. Bishop), and watched a couple hours of "Sole Survivor," a strange movie Murray & Chunk had seen the beginning of (the day B4 our Catalina trip [June 4 and 5]) and wanted to see the ending of. It ended at 1:30. He left. We have ants. It is now about 2:10. G'night. --

"Sole Survivor" (wikipedia info) originally aired as a 90-minute "ABC Movie of the Week" on January 9, 1970. As noted here, it was rerun twice in 1972. This was a compelling Twilight Zonish ghostly tale starring Vince Edwards, Richard Basehart, and William Shatner, loosely based on a true story involving a World War II bomber named "Lady Be Good" that crashed in the Libyan desert in 1943. The mysteriously well-preserved wreckage was discovered in 1958. This incident also inspired an episode of The Twilight Zone TV series entitled "King Nine Will Not Return."

[Side note] Got a letter from Sue.

TOMORROW: Ant wars

May 30 - Chess & turmoil at Chuck's place***

Tuesday, May 30, 1972 - Page 151
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

(1:11:11 AM 5/31/1972)
Got up today when Chunk came in at 12:30 [PM], putting his boat back, along with another one belonging to some one else who will pick it up some time. I beat him one game of chess, and he left at 12:45. I wrote a letter to Fr. Gil, and mailed it with Sooz' letter. Tried to figure out the quickest way to check mate somebody and only was able to get it down to 16 moves.

I read some more in "Thother" (pg. 96) and I'm on 126 in "mansrisetocivilizationasshownbytheindiansofnorthamericafromprimevaltimestothecomingoftheindustrialstate" (Cross your own t's and dot your own i's). Chunk called 'bout six 30, and I drove over there to play chess. Chunk won six, I won three (boo!) and 3 were stale (alas). He made a meat loaf (he was going to use grass instead of parsley but he couldn't get any -- radical freak! Shame, shame), so I ate there. Connie needed help starting her car, and later she gave us some banana cream pies she got free from Contucky Fried Chick'n. Saw about ten minutes of the McGov/Humph debate whilst playing.

I left at 12:30 [AM], taking the big plastic plant and Wilimovsky painting as mom instructed.

"Balcony, New Orleans" Oil Painting by Charles A. Wilimovsky, my Mom's father

This was a festering to the familial turmoil writhing beneath the surface of Winnie & Mom. It's an interesting case where neither can see the other's viewpoint, and neither is wrong nor right. A true-life stalemate, and resultantly Winnie is becoming a stale mate for Chunk. She came home as I was about to leave -- when she saw what I'd taken she called at me to come back up, and take everything else (she now has a hole in the wall with nothing to cover it with, and a vacant spot on the floor).

To gain breathing time I called Dad (waking him up) because it would have been convenient for me to drop stuff off at his place that I had in the car. He thought not. By this time Winnie's displeasure had graduated to frustrated crying, and Chunk suggested I leave. Prudently, I left. He and me are pretty similar, and we both are beginning to recognize that he's always impressed when I do well with football, sports, girls or practical knowledge -- he doesn't expect it of me.

As youths he and me were in constant conflict, but now that we've grown out of it we can see each other with due respect. When Wendy was blowing up, I caught Chunk looking at me to gauge my reaction -- That's the kind of thing I do: Though you're involved in something, you can still be detached enough to check out other factors and people in unusual situations. Character analysis. Chunk's got as many facets as I have, and vice versa. But some are more obvious than others. 1:42:14 FINIS

Wendy Carpenter and Chuck Lyda