Friday, May 3rd, 1974

I got a pen-pal letter today.

I saw CAT BALLOU on TV while eating coneys for the first time in a long time.

The day was marred, however, by learning in tonight's paper that Theresa Burkley, one of three girls who went with Debbie and I for a particularly fun day at the Public Library in the fifth grade, was missing. Says she has been missing since March.  On our trip that hot summer day, I remember when we walked through the lot where the old house had been and we found a dead dog lying in the overgrown grass. Theresa stopped to say a prayer for it. At school she was always reading horse books. I sure hope she's found okay but at this point I'd say the chances aren't very optimistic.

Also, I broke the other side of my glasses today. I'll have to have it fixed in the morning.

NOTES: CAT BALLOU was a 1965 western comedy starring the version of Jane Fonda that ceased to exist soon afterwards, replaced by the controversial feminist political activist.


For many years, I kept the newspaper clipping about Theresa (not her real name). It was just a school photo with a caption saying she hadn't been seen since March and giving numbers to call if anyone knew anything. I may still have it somewhere but I'm not sure where. Over the years, every time I'd see it, I'd wonder what ever happened to her. She was a very pretty girl, almost ethereal. We weren't close although I did talk with her a lot when I sat behind her in class for a while. She got me to read her favorite book, MISTY OF CHINCOTEAQUE, a horse book. By this point, in the ninth grade, I don't think I'd seen her in several years. She had moved or something and attended another school. I had a;ways remembered her, though, for that incident with the dog. At one point I even wrote a story around that scene (although in my version, the characters were all adults crossing a hot desert rather than kids crossing a vacant lot). Did she run away from home? Was she kidnapped? Taken by an estranged parent? Tortured? Murdered? Was she perhaps found and that never made the paper? Is she alive today? Even with the Net I wasn't able to find any info on her. Sigh...