May 14 - Mother's Day 1972

Sunday, May 14, 1972 - Page 135
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

Mom's Day

(12:22:22 AM 5/15/1972)
Goddup at about noon after getting to sleep at 6:00 A.M. I addressed letters to Eternity, and New Orleans Review, sending out M.Q. and T.T. again. They'll come back, of course, lousy as they are. I was asleep when L&M came over to give Mom some African Violets, I think they are. I was up when Chunk & Winnie came over with three different plants that I helped put in flower pots. In a little while we'll have a real jungle out there.

They left, and Chunk came back later on his bicycle, and he and me went out paddling again (ugh -- the race is next week, phew! groan) and I think I'm getting the hang of it. We ran there, and we ran back -- I'm in training, it seems.

Returned at 5:30, and he & me played chess. We both lost both games. The first game, I cleaned off the board, leaving two kings staring stupidly at each other (draw) and the second, I wiped out all his pieces, and accidentally trapped him in the stalest mate I've ever done (I still had five or six pieces left). He departed at about 8:00 and I got mom to play me, and I beat her at both games. So much for my modesty.

The Emmy Awards were on tonight, and they went from 10:00 to 12:17, about 45 minutes over time. Blah! That just about sums up yesterday (Sunday, that is) so I'll quit. I'm trying to stall, though, so I can close out with a harmonious time thing. Getting closer, closer, closer... my digital now reads... ... ... there! 12:34:56 (give or take 20 seconds, or so)

May 13 - A day of shopping and movies

Saturday, May 13, 1972 - Page 134
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

(1:23:45 AM 5/14/1972)
I goddup at 2:30 P.M., and took a bath. Today started out lazily -- Mom stayed in her pajamas and slept alot. She was awake by the time I finished my bath, so I borrowed some money from her and she wrote a shopping list. I drove to the store to buy tennis shoes, and then to Sav-on to buy suntan lotion, a Mother's Day Card, paper, double stick tape, ink cartridges (with which I now am writing), & paper clips. Then I went to Alpha Beta to buy groceries, and May Fair for ketchup (I couldn't find it at A.B.).

Got back home and Chunk had told mom he was taking her to a movie, so I came along too. We drove the Imperial to the Lido where we saw The Carey Treatment, and The French Connection (1st time Chunk saw it, 2nd time for Mom, and 3rd for me). That was at 7:00, got out at 10:30. Got home, played chess with Chunk, won first two games, lost last. He left at 1:00 A.M. (Winnie gets off work at 1:30) --- So... today, also, I got "The Typewriter" back from F&SF after just 11 days or so. That's it for today, essentially. Other stuff happened but nothing worth telling. 1:33:03 A.M.

May 01 - SoCal Socializing**

Monday, May 1, 1972 - Page 122
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

MAY DAY!

11:25 PM
Took a bit of a (an?) hiatus. During which every darned day was sunny, so I, of course had to go out. I've been kayaking with Mike Sarason [brother-in-law] several times, and a kid adopted me (Jordan Sutton -- I was walking to mail a letter to Soozwol, and he noted the Star Trek Sciences emblem on my red Harbor High shorts. "Star Trek sign!" he shouted, and, as a fellow fan, I had to show him my souvenirs). He's sticking to me like fly paper, and that provides added incentive for me to be out and away in private Back Bay. Jord's mom, Tish, is a science fiction connoisseur too. She's a fairly nice person. GAD! My social life is growing.

The Wonder-Witch next door with the noisy parrots, wind chimes, and kids talked at me as I was re-patching Patch, so now I have to say "Hi" every time I see her. She's a fairly nice person too. Then there's the old robust gray haired good looking amiable character who I ran into on the Eye Sore raft a month ago or so, so we chat occasionally, mostly about Back Bay fish. Yesterday Mike and Me went spear fishing. We didn't spear one lousy fish, but as I was leaving after seven fruitless hours, one little grunion jumped into my boat. An obvious suicide. I'm using Chunk's Musky Mongoose now, Mike uses Glenn's.

Friday (or was it Saturday?) NO, it was Friday [April 28, 1972] -- Mom & I went to see "Puppet on a Chain" and "Straw Dogs," during which trip the transmission killed itself. Returning noisily to Eye Sore Park, it was learned the Reverse din't work, and eventually the car became wedged in the road, and we got Chunk to come over and at length managed to get it repositioned parallel to our trailer.

Earlier that day I had had the car to go to school in (no connection with the busted transmission). I went to school because of a call I got Wednesday from Timothy Hourigan who said Mary (Lyons) wanted to contact me. So I had to write a story to go to school with, so I wrote "The Typewriter" in a couple of hours. It is the best story I have yet written, and it has no plot. I typed it Thursday [April 27, 1972] whilst watching the Apollo 16 landing (on Sunday [April 23, 1972] Mike & I returned from kayaking in time to see the LEM [Lunar Excursion Module] lift off from Luna -- "Live from the Moon").

Apollo 16 LM Orion on the lunar surface

Sunday, April 23, 1972: LM launches "Live from the Moon." To see a NASA documentary about this mission, go to April 20 - Apollo 16 moon landing.

Went to school Friday [April 28, 1972] to see Mary, and gave her the 1949 Fantastic Mag I had -- the one with the quaint little article about "Raymond Douglas Bradbury, the Fair Haired Boy of S.F." On her wall, among other stuff, are my Martian Chronicles and 2001 drawings. I also let her read "The Typewriter," and she said it was imitative of Bradbury, which is what I was attempting (dumb premise carried to pointless conclusion). He gets paid for writing that stuff. Why shouldn't I? Mary told me about the LA Con for the World Science Fiction Convention in September. I saw the gang, but mostly ignored the females.

My room is a mess. So is this page. I finished Bradbury's "I Sing the Body Electric!" (YUCK), and Zelazney's "Dream Master" (Intelligentsia master Hugo grabber. Fair.) Am now on page 133 of "Slaughterhouse-Five" (hmm). I'll havta see the movie.

A YEAR AGO: Trip to Europe ended.

My tan is progressing. After I get my room reorganized I must begin the "Morrison Epic." I'll get "The Typewriter" sent tomorrow. There is publicity about some guy having discovered the tenth planet in our Solar System. Maybe so. Remember folks, you heard it first here! Tis now 120205 AM.