Top 20 Entries from 1972 - Part 1***

These are my choices for the Top 20 most interesting posts of 1972. Here are the first 5.

LOCATION: Corona, California -- Jan 07, 2014

Mom & Dad: Charmian Marie Lyda (Born 1927) & Grady Luther Lyda, Jr. (1927 - 1974)

01) Jan 01, 1972 - Happy Friggin' New Year

LOCATION: Newport Beach, California 

This introduces the Diary which is the first & last time Grady kept a daily journal. He describes events of New Year's Eve 1971 and New Year's Day 1972, mentioning girl troubles, cop problems, and an overall dissatisfaction with life. Normal adolescent angst.

In the following entry for January 02, Grady explains the circumstances of his unnecessary arrest on the morning of New Year's Day. This is a typical 17-year-old moaning about the world's frustrating unfairness. Same as it ever was.

02) Jan 10, 1972 - Shopping in Rapid City

LOCATION: Bethlehem & Rapid City, South Dakota

After "borrowing" my family's car (we owned two), I became a runaway with my equally disgruntled high school friend, Matt Gold. We were aiming for New York but we ended up in Bethlehem, South Dakota, where I had been invited to come for a visit by Father Gilbert Stack who ran the place. This was a popular tourist destination called The Shrine of the Nativity that had been installed in a famous cave. To see more text & photos regarding this historic location, please go to the July 18 entry.

Anyway, we soon learned that the police were hunting for us due to an All Points Bulletin (APB) on the "stolen" car (one of our parents snitched on me), so we were temporarily trapped there until the legal problems could be resolved.

That's me at age 17 shoveling snow in South Dakota

03) Jan 18, 1972 - Letter of explanation to Grandma Dot

LOCATION: Bethlehem, South Dakota

Here is the letter I wrote to my grandmother telling her why I had escaped from Newport Beach. Later I heard that she cried when she read this. She was well-known to the staff at The Shrine of the Nativity and was a long-time friend of Father Gilbert (born as Garrett Michael Stack in 1913): They both grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.

   

04) Mar 06, 1972 - As close as I'll get to time travel

LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

Grady, an aspiring science-fiction writer, speculates about the future and ponders the mysteries of TIME. "Where will I be on December 31, 1972... [Answer: San Francisco & Soda Springs, California], will everyone I know still be alive? [NO. There will be a death in the family on September 13] ...Where will I be on January 1, 2000?" [At an apartment in Corona, California, with my wife, Celia, and daughter, Elora]

March72Grady makes a series of completely inaccurate predictions, then sets up an impromptu Temporal Experiment designed to visit the near future with April72Grady: "What unimagined events will have transpired between now (Apr. 2), and when I wrote this (March 6)? We shall see." What could we learn from a trip thru time that takes us just one month ahead? Surprisingly, quite a bit... Find out in the entry for April 02 (Easter Sunday) - Tinkering with Time.

This bold experiment in virtual time travel extends even further as we discover in the entry for Sep 22, where we see this note: "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?" That page provides the answers. 

You might say this is all just tricks with words on paper. There's no authentic scientific experiment here, it's just semantics. Let's consider the facts: At 7:51pm on Monday, March 6, 1972, a 17-year-old projects his thoughts forward in time to find out where he's going to be at the end of the year, and even at the end of the century. Now he knows. Mission accomplished. Then he invokes his nearby future-self to learn what will happen in less than a month -- and on April 2 he reports back to himself.

Today we have gone beyond any boundaries he'd imagined... 42 years later, he/I is/am connecting with memories of that teenager and filling in the gaps between him/me at 17 and him/me at 59. PLUS, amazingly, in the constantly shifting Present Moment, the entire world has instant access to the results of this exercise. It is a globally shared temporal-spanning experience among all parties concerned, including him, me, you, us, them, and even all the unborn folks who are reading this 42 years from now in the year 2056. We have literally gone Back to the Future, the Past & All Points in between.

Yes, of course it's all in your head: Where else would you perceive the effects of TIME? Okay, let's travel back to the past again... 

05) Apr 14, 1972 - Epic exploration of Newport Bay

LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

This is when I risked life-and-limb to explore the great wilderness that existed beyond my humble mobile home park. It took awhile. I got home late and learned that mom had already called the Newport Beach Harbor Patrol to search for my pathetic missing body. This extensive entry spills over into April 15.

NEXT WEEK: Top 20 Entries from 1972 - Part 2 (6 to 10)

Aug 04 - Improvements to this journal

Friday, August 4, 1972 - Page 217
LOCATION: Chicago

(11:00 AM 8/5/1972)
Got up about noon -- Ken left for work at around 7:00. I did a little organizing. A few features that weren't in this book are now here (such as, Field exhibits of Upper Newport Bay [April 9], and the combination of the cave [July 6], and Peg's picture of us at the catacombs [April 23], and more). I wrote a couple pages of Panshin's "How Can We Sink When We Can Fly" into my notebook to remember it. Did various other writing and put down the words of Brandy by Looking Glass (my favorite song, tentatively).

Today was Sue's second anniversary -- she's been going with Mark for two months (too long). When Ken got home I had to get to work on his drawing (after I took a bath, ate dinner, and washed the dishes with Sue) -- I worked on it from 7:00 to 12:30. It's finished now, and it looks pretty good. Now all I have left is Mark & Freddy the Phrogg.

The light switch in the upstairs bathroom malfunctioned and Mr. tried to fix it but he kept blowing fuses. He got his brother over (Mike Latka) and they replaced the switch. Mike's a real nice guy -- He & Ted complimented my artwork extensively.

Ken & Larry went to a Three Dog Night concert. Peggy went out on a date and got back at 2:30 A.M. Sue went out with Mark for a few hours. And I finished drawing Ken.

Three Dog Night (wikipedia)

TOMORROW: Phredee Phrogg band practice

Apr 15 - Back Bay expedition, continued**

Saturday, April 15, 1972 - Page 106
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

[This text is continued from page 105. April 15's entry will appear on the April 16 page]
5:00 PM
It is still Apr. 14 -- this is a continuation. The time is 5:09, and the location is estimated to be at ♇ [Pluto astronomical symbol: P-over-L in a circle at upper right] on the map. I may be further than that, I'm not sure. I won't be able to get home before dark -- the sun will be going down in an hour or so. I got into Upper Newport Bay as usual -- the tide was quite low, but not as low as last time. The mullets gave a more spectacular show than usual, leaping from the water 2 and 3 at a time. There was one boat with a skier attached to it, and one gal driving a speed boat. This caused pretty high waves -- not just wakes, but waves -- and that, plus a fairly strong wind made it a little complicated while maneuvering among the fish. Anyway, I didn't spend too much time with them -- I went on to the inlet I had explored last Sunday, but this time, when it split, I took the right stream which was thicker and deeper. Here there was a strong current against me and it was slow going. I upset literally thousands of birds who simultaneously clouded the skies. Miraculously, however, I was untouched by their bombing raids.

This photo is mentioned on the previous page, April 14

When I began getting too tired to paddle, I switched to the faster method of getting out of the kayak and wading through the water, pulling the boat along. The water was very shallow, not more than 6 inches deep. The bottom of the "river" was fine sand on top of soft mud. I followed the river for miles, and the depth of the water changed from 6 inches to an occasionally 2 to 3 feet, and sometimes it was barely an inch deep. The current seemed very strong, and the wind was against me -- it was hard to keep the boat pointed straight. The mud underfoot changed often too -- usually it was like soft clay, sometimes it was sandy, now and then there was quicksand almost 2 feet deep -- if I didn't have the kayak to lean on, I may have found out it was deeper. At one point there was a change in the under water topography, so that there was a miniature waterfall, preceded by a very deep area of water (3 feet approx). I passed the loud little waterfall, and eventually came up to another vague fork, where the streams split. By this time my left foot was bleeding from one or two cuts (there were some sharp shells under water). I, characteristically, took a wrong turn. I entered what turned out to be a smaller, shallower area. (To be continued on page 35)

[Although the text takes us back to February 4, page 35, I will include it here to conclude this lengthy entry]

Friday, Apr. 14, 5:32 PM
This entry is from the Future, page 106. Continued: -- I followed the wrong river, hoping it would lead to the wider, freer flowing stream. (That "wider, freer flowing stream," I think, was the "2,000 meter rowing course" mentioned on the map on page 100. The course has long been out of use). The current, by this time, had changed, and water moving in the opposite direction, moving with, instead of against me. So I didn't have to push the kayak -- it just "swam" beside me like I was walking a pet dolphin. The river bottom got muckier and more polluted -- flies were getting common, and tall thick grass lay on the banks in occasional patches. Here the water was warmer than the air, which was about 65°. Finally, the river joined the rowing course through a narrow grass covered channel. I carried the boat over it, and began wading through the course, the bottom of which was clean, soft sand. Sometimes I sank knee deep in the silt. This went on for at least another half mile, and I began wondering if Alligators live in salt water. The banks began taking on the appearance of swamplands, tall grass and bushes covered the shore. This contrasted with the barren mud of most of Upper Newport Bay I was familiar with. I seemed to remember that there were alligators in these waters, but that must have been a year or so ago. The water was dead now -- too polluted for fish, frogs or alligators. But there was wildlife at water's edge. The ever present long-beaked birds were still around, but now there was other life: rabbits, squirrels, pigeons and horses. The horses were on the land, not far away, being ridden by girls. There also was a group of kids and an adult wandering through the grass and bushes, but the place still seemed desolate. After all, I was the only thing moving through the river. The water got deeper more often, and the mud went down further -- sometimes I was waste deep in water, thigh deep in quicksand. The landscape kept changing -- I'll have to bring my camera here sometime.

Already I was miles farther than I'd ever been in the Bay. At one area the water was only an inch deep and I had to drag the boat over it -- at other spots there were little waterfalls and water so deep I had to float, holding the boat to stay up. I passed under a bridge that I don't see on the map. Beyond that was deep quicksand that made it necessary for me to get back in the boat and continue paddling. The banks were covered with beauteous plants with tiny yellow balls on them. After a little bit further through this idyllic scene, I came to another bridge, one I remember having driven over often, and right now (five minutes to six) I'm underneath that bridge. It's the end of the line -- I'm floating in water which has come from ten pipes, four or five feet in diameter, embedded in hard rock (The bottom of the river is granite, I think). The sun is beginning to set, and my hand is unsteady from the cold. The water, streaming from 7 or 8 of the pipes, is noisy as it splashes down, foaming under the bridge. Above me there is the sound of cars speeding along the bridge. It is 6:00 now, and I'm going to try to get back to Eye Sore Park. Boy, it's getting cold! -- I just tasted the water coming from the pipe nearest me -- it's fresh! Wonder where it's from. I'll have to wait to find out -- gotta get home as soon as I can.

12:09:06 AM
The sky turned from blue to gold, then to twilight, dusk, and dark. The moon was just a finger-nail clipping (day after new moon). The tide was unusually high, like a bath tub filled to the brim. Saw the lights of three boats. Finally got home at 7:30, put the boat on the dock and walked to the Grand Shoebox with just the paddle. Mom was vacuuming the rug, and the TV was on to Hollywood Squares. She had called Chunk, then Dad, then the Harbor Patrol (that may have been one of the boats I saw). Watched H.S. [Hollywood Squares], then Sanford & Son, then a movie, "Hour of the Gun." Chunk came over at 10:30 to look at the films of King's [River races] while Mom was out buying some food. Watched the films till 11:30, then he left. I've gotta get up at 6:00 tomorrow to go with him to Kern. 'Tis now 12:19:00 A.M. Fini.

[From Bayshore Park to the far end of Upper Newport Bay is about 3.5 miles as the crow flies. I had gone on a round trip of more than 7 miles that day.]

Apr 09 - Exploring Upper Newport Bay

Sunday, April 9, 1972 - Page 100
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

8:00 PM
I got up today about 11:00. Mom did a lot of work on the vacant room today, so she can sleep in it tonight. At one o'clock I went out in the kayak, and the bay was beset with the most traffic I've seen, today being Sunday with a fair sky. There was one gull still pecking at the fish I offered Friday, and a couple were standing by. I checked a map and found out that the bay ("Newport Bay," technically) is about 3 and a half miles long.

Today the tide was down as low as I've ever seen it, giving "Upper Newport Bay" an odd topography. The Shoal sign seen on page 80 [March 20] was on dry land, and only one main trench carried water past the ski area. I followed it and a narrow branch for a few hundred yards, occasionally sinking thigh deep in quick sand, pulling myself out with the kayak, and finally coming upon firm water-covered sand where I put the boat on a bank and sunned & read "I Sing the Body Eccentric" until I discovered a form of wild life I'd been overlooking. Tiny coelenterates (I think) about 2 centimeters long embedded in the mud, feeding on organisms in the water. I experimented with the tubular little plant-animals for a while, then the tide rose and covered the mud with water, and I paddled home. Returned at 5:30 and took a bath. I am now quite red and itchy from sun burn. At least I'm some color. Tis now 8:10:35 P.M. FINIS

[BELOW: These pictures are attached to the back of the map on this page]
Photos of a couple of the more interesting portions of Newport Bay.

These pics are actually from exhibits at the
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago,
which Grady will visit later in 1972