Sunday, May 19th, 1974

It rained hard again this morning. I just played my new records a lot.

I wrote what I consider to be a lovely poem while thinking of Linda Blair. I also finished THE DARK AGE. One more quick rewrite and it'll be ready to turn in.

IT.

At work, we had to drag the ladder around and I had to pull one fluorescent light bulb from every single group of four to conserve energy.

A new sci-fi flick starts downtown at the Times on Wednesday.

NOTES: I'm surprised I didn't rant a bit more abut that light bulb thing. It's my recollection that it was a bit of a nightmare. If you weren't there, it's hard to realize how bad the Energy Crisis of the 1970's got...or at least seemed to get. A government edict came down on the lightbulb idea and since it was the Social Security Office, we were bound to comply. The office was lit by rows of fluorescent light fixtures, each with four bulbs inside and each with a cover that was a real bear to try to get off...especially without cracking it.


So that night we each had to do our regular cleaning and then Dad and I pulled the bulbs. Each bulb in the main area was about four feet long. In the conference rooms and the basement, they were six feet long!After I managed to wriggle each one out, thereby dimming its counterpart, we then had to figure out what to DO with the bulbs! They ended up lying on the floor in a little used storage room in the basement. For a couple of years. By the time we were instructed that we could replace them, many had been cracked or broken and had to be trashed. What a mess. 

Saturday, May 18th, 1974

A real rainy day. I went over to Cincy twice, only the second time with Terry. Got several big comics and mags, two MEDIASCENES, the new EC reprint (so soon!) and three underground comics including STAR* REACH. Terrific! The new PLANET OF THE APES paperback is out but I didn't get it. I got one Beatles album and three Beatles records.

Never did see BILLY JACK.

A Clint movie was on TV tonight I'd never heard of--TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA. Better than some movies I've seen lately.

Got my pictures back today. Rachel is really photogenic.

Watched STAR TREK tonight.

NOTES: MEDIASCENE was a performing arts newspaper with an emphasis on fantasy, science-fiction and comics. It was published by former comics artist Jim Steranko. Last year, 2011, I got to hang with Jim for a few minutes behind his table at a Con. 


STAR*REACH was actually referred to by its publisher as a "ground-level" comic book rather than an underground as it featured uncensored stories by mainstream creators that weren't really all that different. Eventually newer and more experimental creators would be added to the mix. STAR*REACH pioneered the independent comics market that would go on to dominate the eighties. 


Eventually I did see BILLY JACK...multiple times. 


My photogenic cousin Rachel would have been 10 that year. Here's one of the only two shots I took of her in the 12 pics I had gotten developed from a recent family gathering. I liked this one so much I had it blown up, framed and presented her a copy of it. I still consider it one of the earliest indicators that I really could take good pictures and not just out of focus snapshots cutting off people's heads. Eventually I would get paid for my photography which technically means I was, briefly, a professional photographer. 


TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA co-stars cowboy Eastwood with Shirley MacLaine as a Nun...sorta. It really is entertaining but for some reason remains one of his lesser-known starring vehicles.  

Friday, May 17th, 1974

On a bright sunshiny morning about a month or so from now, a telephone rings in New York City. "Hello, John." "Paul, get here as soon as you can, mate. We've been foolish. We were meant to be together. " "Alright, pal but what about...?" "I've already been in touch with Ringo and George. They're on their way." And they all meet in a rented studio and it starts all over again.  These were the kinds of thoughts going through my head on this rainy first day back at school.

Things worked out well enough. Later, I got my Kung-Fu book and a Beatles book. Might get a Beatles album tomorrow. Terry and a friend will be coming over with me tomorrow. Still plan on seeing BILLY JACK.

NOTES: Yes, having become a Beatles fan literally as the group was breaking up in 1970, I was one of the hordes clamoring for a reunion. We bought all the magazines with deceptive titles like THE BEATLES ARE COMING AGAIN and ate up all the rumors that dotted the real news fairly often such as the one about hoe the Fab Four would reunite for a charity concert for the UN or the Boat People.


Never happened, of course. John had Ringo and George on some of his albums. George used Ringo on his. Ringo would have Paul, John and George all on his but never all on the same cuts. Paul and John had actually gotten together in a Los Angeles studio in March of  this very year along with Harry Nilsson and Stevie Wonder. It's the last time the pair were ever recorded together and I wish I could say it was good. Instead, it's a virtually unlistenable cocaine-fueled jam session. Historically important in its own way but...a muddled musical mess to put it mildly.  


I maintain that, had Lennon lived, the only time the Beatles would have ever reunited would have been in animated form on an episode of THE SIMPSONS. And looking back from 2012, I realize that that would have probably been for the best.

Tuesday, May 16th, 1974

Home sick again.

IT but I destroyed the mags again.

I worked tonight, felt better finally and I know I'll be headed back to school tomorrow.

We got our check again. I'm getting to like this!

Found out Clint's new movie opens downtown next month!

NOTES:


Wish I could say I was in a position where I could like getting a check on a regular basis these days. :(


At this point in my mind, Clint Eastwood could not make  abad movie if he tried. Ah, I was so naive. Here's what I wrote recently about the movie I was SO looking forward to on this date:

As I've said, I was a big Eastwood fan by this point. But I hated this. Clint and Jeff Bridges as violent ant-heroes in Michael Cimino's excesses that just left me feeling yuck. Many love it, I know. I'm not one.

Wednesday, May 15th, 1974

Well I had to stay home again today. Took my medicine--pills, in an ice cream sandwich--and was some better after that.

I did go to work tonight but felt terrible afterwards.

IT.

I have to see THE SUPER COPS (R) sometime with David Selby and I'll probably make BILLY JACK this saturday at the Madison.

Watched Roddy on HOLLYWOOD SQUARES both yesterday and again today.

NOTES: As already noted two years later (in my other Journal) I didn't see SUPER COPS until it came on TV. It was, I believe, David Selby's only feature film starring role. Oddly enough, the DARK SHADOWS star is in the news again just this week for his cameo in the new DS movie. 


Note that no matter how bad I felt, IT was always a priority.

Tuesday, May 14th, 1974

I stayed home and went to the doctor and now I have to take some medicine.

Since I was home, I got to see a special 1930's show on MIKE DOUGLAS.

I'll probably return to school tomorrow.

Jeff Higgs told me that a girl actually fainted in a Glee Club presentation at school today!

The Social Security people didn't ;eave until very late tonight but I felt too rotten to go anyway.

NOTES: The nostalgia craze began in the late sixties and lasted about a decade. Everything old was hot again--books, movies, songs, dances, fashions. The twenties and thirties were huge in this period but the fifties had become the big deal by the end of the decade, probably thanks to the success of AMERICAN GRAFFITI and HAPPY DAYS and the failure of films such as DAY OF THE LOCUST, THE GREAT GATSBY and WON TON TON, THE DOG THAT SAVED HOLLYWOOD.


Jeff Higgs was a kid who was a year behind me. We had known each other since I was in second grade and he was in first. Last year, I spotted him on Facebook, a grey-haired psychologist now. We exchanged  a couple of emails. Ya gotta love the Internet.

Monday, May 13th, 1974

I made it through school. Didn't have to read much of the sex chapter aloud because my cough and sore throat are still so bad. I may have to stay home tomorrow and go to the doctor. We were supposed to go to the ballgame tonight but since I was sick, Mom gave the tickets to Agnes.

NOTES: Agnes was my mother's friend from work and her perpetual ride to and from work also. It was Agnes who came to the house one day when I was three and told my mother that they wanted her back at the factory where she had worked before getting pregnant with me. I wasn't thrilled. LOUDLY I wasn't thrilled! But after throwing as much guilt on her as I was capable of throwing, she returned to work. Agnes came by every morning for years after that and beeped her car horn for my Mom to come out. It became a running gag that whenever my Mom, my Dad or I heard a car horn, one of us would say, "Better hurry, There's Agnes." My Dad and I still did that long after my Mom passed in 1981!


Pictured is my mother in the early seventies, possibly from '74. She rarely smiled for pictures because she had genetically poor teeth but sometimes I could get her to grin a little as here. 


Happy Mother's Day. Mom. R.I.P.