Saturday, August 17th, 1974

We went to see BLAZING SADDLES and we had a great time.

Tonight I found out that the Ludlow isn't supposed to have any matinees tomorrow after Doug and Terry have already agreed to come. Boy!

I got MAD (with an EXORCIST parody) and some other mags.

Lately most things have been going just really wrong. I feel like I need to get away from it for a little while--all the movies and comics that I love so much, the fantastic imagination that I have that dreamed up Arkon, DM and SITUATION SIX, all the songs I love and all the feelings that I hide. I am mature beyond my years and it's not right. I wish I never got hooked on all those marvelous things and that I got average grades and wasn't the bookworm! Maybe then I'd have been interested in cars and sports and normal things and girls might have been interested in me. I'm almost 16 and I've never kissed a girl! I WANT TO!! Mr. Graves once told me I could get anything I wanted if I just tried and I believed him. By this time tomorrow, most of these feelings will have subsided probably. I could never give up comics or movies. They are my very favorite things! I love girls. They just don't love me. But I love comics and movies and they DO love me. I'm glad.

NOTES: Surprised I didn't say more about BLAZING SADDLES as I consider it still to be one of the funniest films ever.

I never bought MAD regularly but I did pick up issues with parodies of movies or TV shows I really liked.

A nice little "poor pitiful me" rant there, right in line with being a teenaged geek I know now. Interesting that I was perceptive enough to realize that the feelings I was feeling were likely to blow over quickly. And come back...and blow over...and come back...

Mr. Graves had been my sixth grade teacher. I had always thought of teaching as a woman's job. He was my first male teacher and ended up as my favorite grade school teacher!