Sunday, April 14th, 1974

Another Easter passes me by. No eggs this year. At least no colored ones. We all went to church but even that didn't make it seem like Easter.

As if I never realized it before, I now have a tremendous crush on Linda Blair. More than anyone I've ever had a crush on in fact except Debbie and maybe even more than that!

Since I'm off all week, I intend to see some movies and watch TV.

The feeling of summer is in the air today and all is easy. Possibilities of tornadoes this afternoon but there were none. Good!

Saw a good movie on TV tonight--THURSDAY'S GAME.


NOTES: THURSDAY'S GAME was apparently made as a theatrical feature in 1971 but for some reason was shelved. It was trotted out to excellent reviews as an ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK on this date 3 years later, most likely because nearly all involved were now bigger stars including Gene Wilder and EXORCIST star Ellen Burstyn.

Saturday, April 13th, 1974

Arthur went to see THE STING with me today. It's sure to make my yearly Top Ten!

Tomorrow is Easter. Forgot to mention that last night Aunt Velma and Rachel came down to visit briefly. That was unusual.

Oh, IT again. Hopefully for the last time this week!

NOTES: As I said, THE STING has been a favorite now for all these years. 


Arthur and I had known each other for years but this was really the only year we were particularly close at school and this movie was the only place we ever went together.


It was unusual that Velma and Rachel came down because the former was then in her seventies and didn't drive and the latter was about eleven years old. Wonder how they got there at all.

Friday, April 12th, 1974

We got out of school early today and I got a lot of books and mags over the river including a lot of stuff about Linda Blair.

I also got my last EC reprint in the mail.

NOTES: East Coast Comix was a company that set out to reprint the notorious--but by that point classic--EC comics of the 1950's in near-facsimile editions, complete with original ads and letter pages but with some new letters also if I recall. No longer ten cents each, they were now a dollar and available by mail-order subscription. The company was co-run by Bruce Hershenson, now a friend of mine on Facebook. The project lasted from 1973-1976 and only got a dozen issues republished but I, for one, was grateful and amazed!

Thursday, April 11th, 1974

Tomorrow's my last day of school for a week.

I may go see THE STING tomorrow or Saturday.

Tomorrow marks one full year since I last saw Debbie.

All is going well with the job except tonight some obviously "rookie" baseball players creamed a rear window. Again, no real concern of mine but they are very upset and thus so am I. Boy!

Nothing ever seems to go right in my attempts at being normal. Maybe I should just plan on staying different and give up vain hopes of close friends, a good job and a girl. We'll see.

NOTES: THE STING had been out for a few months and I hadn't paid much attention to it but the ragtime music of Scott Joplin had been resurrected due to the success of the film and I bought the theme on 45. It would go on to become probably my favorite film of this era. 

Wednesday, April 10th, 1974

I had a bad day at school.

We didn't get finished at work until very late because two girls decided to work late over there for some reason. When I finally got home, I watched two--or rather parts of two--great TV specials on the tube.

NOTES:

To add a little perspective, here are some highlights in the world of popular music from 1974:

Dylan tours for the first time since his motorcycle accident years earlier.

The Captain marries Tennille.

Cher divorces Sonny.

Kiss releases their first album.

John and Yoko reunite.

The Ramones, Blondie, Cheap Trick, Bad Company, Talking Heads and Van Halen play their first concerts.

Mama Cass dies.

George Harrison tours for the first time since 1966.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join Fleetwood Mac.

ABBA tops the UK charts with contest wining song, Waterloo.

Tuesday, April 9th, 1974

I saw an ad for a new newspaper like THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER which is supposed to have articles about Bruce Lee and Roger Moore. Can't wait to get it!

I'll probably get to see Tim's comics finally after school.

NOTES: No idea at the moment who Tim was. Don't recall going to look at anyone's comics during this period. We'll see.


The newspaper referred to as most likely THE NATIONAL STAR, an early edition  of which is seen here. Eventually it became a slick magazine known simply as THE STAR and is still around in that format today. 

Monday, April 8th, 1974

I got some great books I needed at The Ohio Book Store along with the TV GUIDE and that EXORCIST special. That paper gave me two of the best pictures I've ever seen of Linda Blair. It's just like last summer with Stefanie. I'm compelled to write to her and I swear I shall before the year is over.

The job is getting easier. I finish my part in just about an hour or less every night now. I hope the pay is worth it. I guess it will be because I wasn't earning anything at all before.

Today, Phyllis Claypool died. I never really liked her and I hadn't even seen her in a long time until recently when I passed her on the sidewalk. Still, I'm sorry to hear about her death.

NOTES: Man, I had fallen hard for Linda Blair and I had never even seen her in anything by this point! 


The year before, I had written a fan letter to actress Stefanie Powers in care of a theater I knew she would be appearing at the following week. I figured, apparently correctly, that they would hand her the letter when she first arrived at the theater. She wrote back, kindly answering a number of questions I had asked in true fanboy style. Her letter had been on motel stationary. I envisioned her returning to her room after a performance, taking a shower and then settling down at the room's desk to respond to my letter. I had no doubt I could figure out a way to reach Linda Blair, also. Just didn't figure it would take me 36 years to finally make contact with her!


Phyllis Claypool was a girl who lived around the corner form me for years. She was a year behind me in school and  for some reason we took an immediate dislike for each other. She was close with my friend Cindy (whom I called Cottontop because her winter wear had a white knit hat) and Phyllis had even replaced me when it came to my first paid "job," walking a first-grader from across the street named Brenda to school when I was in the sixth grade. Sadly, I have no recollection how Phyllis died. Seems like we saw an obituary in the paper that night.

Sunday, April 7th, 1974

Terry visited and we played a long game of Monopoly. As usual, I lost.

The Reds lost today, too--their third game.

IT.

I'm going back over the river to get that Exorcist Special and a few old comics after school tomorrow.

I traded Terry two old Batgirl stories for a rare Kirby Green Arrow story!

NOTES: Terry really liked Batgirl and I really liked Jack Kirby comics. It was a good trade. The Kirby story was a reprint from the fifties. At the time, I hadn't realized that Jack had been the artist on the Green Arrow feature for nearly a dozen stores not long before he returned to Marvel to create the Marvel Universe as we know it today.   

Saturday, April 6th, 1974

Over at the Ohio Bookstore I got some old Vampi's and a few other old mags but hardly any comics out of all of those new old ones. There's also a special EXORCIST newspaper out that I want to get soon.

Got the another new TBG today.

IT.

NOTES: "Vampi" was VAMPIRELLA, a black and white comic magazine that didn't subscribe to the Comics Code and thus often showed naked women! At 15 it was perfectly legal to buy. No one questioned it. On top of that, some of the stories and art were by some of the best in the comics business! Win-Win. I started with issue 14 and bought it for many years, even having a letter published in one when I was about 16.


If I remember correctly, one of the back issues I got this day was the one seen here featuring a now-classic story by Wallace Wood. (In case you haven't heard, I run a Wallace Wood blog, too!)

Friday, April 5th, 1974

I got a free adzine in the mail today.

Terry says there's a lot of new stuff out over the river. Much more than I can afford. We're going over at 8:30 tomorrow morning to check out 2000 new books they got in at the Ohio Book Store!

NOTES: An adzine was a comics fanzine that consisted entirely or at least mostly of ads. I remember this one was pretty cheap-looking and homemade once you got past the cover but they had apparently gotten subscriber names from TBG so they sent me one. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it was called POOR RICHARD'S ADZINE. 

Thursday, April 4th, 1974

Today I talked with Kathy Allen for the first time in a long time.

I finished work in an hour, did what little homework I had and tried to help Dad fix his garage door but couldn't. This just isn't his year for things that concern cars.

The tornadoes did terrible damage all around last night.

The Reds won their opening game and Hank Aaron hit one homer. Only one more to go!

NOTES: Okay, in this case Mom wasn't overreacting. I didn't realize that yesterday in 1974 was the date of the infamously destructive Sayler Park tornado! This was an F5 tornado in what became known as the Super Outbreak in which five similarly violent twisters struck around the same time. 


Dad had rented a garage space a couple of blocks away for the new car but the door never really locked and between the two of us, we couldn't fix it. Not a good sign.


Hank Aaron was one away from either tying or beating the home run record. Not sure which at the money.

Kathy Allen was a girl who had been a friend for several years in grade school. When Debbie moved away in 6th grade, Kathy and I sort of considered the idea of becoming a couple but it really didn't work out. She had quite a temper but a great sense of humor. Even though we had been in junior high together all along, we hadn't really had any classes together so we rarely saw each other anymore.

Wednesday, April 3rd, 1974

All the wrong people won the awards last night including Tatum O'Neal instead of Linda!!!!

I finally got the new TBG in the mail.

Terrible storms this evening and Mom was very scared.

NOTES: There had been a bit of a controversy when it was revealed that actress Mercedes McCambridge had "sweetened" Linda Blair's demon-possessed performance. Linda had still performed the difficult physical aspects of the role and the dialogue but the veteran McCambridge had added her rough voice to the mix for a better sound and that had been kept quiet. Mercedes wasn't happy and eventually was given a credit on the film. 


I hadn't seen Tatum O'Neal's performance in PAPER MOON at this point; wouldn't catch it until it showed up on TV a few years later. In retrospect, it really was an Oscar-winning performance. Tatum was, as many child performers are, a natural. Also like many child performers going all the way back to Shirley Temple, however, she lost much of her natural acting abilities as she grew older. 


My Mother was always scared of storms and passed that on to me. Even as I learned over the years that she was, on some levels, overreacting to basic thunderstorms, it had already been instilled in me. To this day, I worry a bit too much about thunderstorms...although, granted, in recent years there have been plenty in this area worth worrying about!

Tuesday, April 2nd, 1974

I had a really good day at school today.

Finished the new job a lot sooner tonight than last night.

I fact, my only real disappointment today was that the TV GUIDE and another mag with EXORCIST junk weren't out yet.

The Academy Awards are on tonight. I hope Linda Blair wins!

NOTES: It was unusual for me to do something like I just did--write about a show that was going to be on before watching it. More often than not, I wrote these entries at the very end of the night just before bed or sometimes even the next morning before going to school. 


Above is the Cincinnati skyline around this time, probably taken through a bus window.  

Monday, April 1st, 1974

April Fools Day and none pulled a single joke on me. Whew.

We started our job at the security office tonight and I think it's okay bit I'm not crazy about it. One interesting thing is they have a computer! It's a computer named Ssader who types out message automatically from time to time! Oh, well. It's an easy way to earn some money. I hope it works out, though.

I broke my second best tape later tonight in a terrible storm. In some areas, they said on the News that it was a twister!

NOTES: Never liked the concept of April Fool's Day. Back then, especially, I had a nightmarish fear of public embarrassment.


This was the day we started working as the janitors at the Social Security Office next door to our apartment house. 


The same man who owned our building owned the office also. Technically it was my dad that was hired but from the beginning my Mom and I worked with him as a team. Every night after everyone left the office, we'd go over and clean up. With the three of us, it only took between one and two hours unless there was a particular problem. After I finished my part--emptying the trash cans and ashtrays (yuck!) and tying the bags up to take out on Trash Night--I'd usually go home and catch some television. 


I also had to change a TON of lightbulbs, especially when President Carter's administration required government offices to remove two out of every four of their light bulbs during the energy crisis. 


There were 25 desks, 2 conference rooms and 2 private offices. My Mom cleaned the ashtrays, conference rooms and bathrooms and my Dad mopped the whole floor every night and buffered it occasionally. 


Sometimes the employees would work late and we'd end up having to go over very early (like 5:30 AM) the next day before they came in. 


I guess this was the very first time I'd ever seen a computer. It took up a whole room about the size of a large closet. It had reels and a dot matrix printer as well as something that spit out tape with punch holes in it. Whoever designed it never bothered to come up with some kind of receptacle to catch the little dots made by punching said holes so we had to sweep them up every night, always with the possibility of the darn thing spitting out more while we were doing it!


Ultimately we kept the job for ten years. During that time, my dad was sidelined for a year in 1978 by an accident so I took over the majority of the work. My mother died in 1981 and I took over hers, also. Somewhere in there, the Social Security Office moved out and the newspaper office moved in. They were a lot pickier and also more prone to working weird hours which meant I, also had to work weird hours. 


In 1982, I even lost my virginity on their conference room table to a young lady I snuck in one night at 1 AM.  Ahem!  


I ultimately left the job in late 1984 when I was by then promoted to full-time at Waldenbooks. 

Sunday, March 31st, 1974

Tomorrow is April Fool's day.

I finished my book and watched some more of the telethon.

Mom bought me the new McCartney record and ordered my baseball tickets.

This evening I watched part 1 of THE MOVIES and OSCARS, ACTORS AND THE EXORCIST.

IT twice.

NOTES: I can't recall either of those two TV specials.


IT twice? That was nothing. My record for one day was 5 times. Ahem...


The McCartney record was most likely the single of JET that had come out the month before. Mine was in a simple, plain sleeve. Doubt my mother would have purchased it if it looked like this image!

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Saturday, March 30th, 1974

There was a real bad storm last night.

I got a paperback book all about Bruce Lee along with a lot of good comics. Also got THE MONSTER TIMES with an article on Bruce.

We did NOT get to the movies. Either of them.

I watched a little of the Easter Seals Telethon which started at 11.

NOTES: The Bruce Lee book, the first of many, may to come, was THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE by Alex Ben Block. I bought them all for the next few years and I still think this one was the best.

Friday, March 29th, 1974

I got free baseball tickets from school today for my grades.

This morning I found a pen-pal letter in the mailbox. It must have been overlooked yesterday.

Terry and I may go see  a couple of movies tomorrow in Newport.

Mister Deters is coming again tomorrow about the job.

Mom says the girl might come next week about the Hot Wheels cars.

NOTES: Hot Wheels were cool. Sizzlers were even cooler!

Thursday, March 28th, 1974

I thought I did pretty well in Volleyball today but some guy almost started something with me because he didn't think so!

There's not much school left this year. I fear those big exams.I've never had one before.

I've got to do an essay and composition this weekend.

Hopefully my pen-pal letter will be showing up soon.

NOTES: I never really knew what I was doing when it came to Volleyball but as I think I mentioned before, I was surprisingly good at serving. It may have had something to do with my peculiarly acute sense of balance but I had a talent for hitting the ball across the net and making points! It never came up outside of Gym class as I never knew anyone who actually played Volleyball in real life. 

Wednesday, March 27th, 1974

Again I have high hopes of seeing THE EXORCIST. This weekend I also may see CONRACK at the Place.

I probably can't take that big test in English so I'll just have to do a lot of extra credit work.

I'm writing a composition soon about my favorite (and least favorite) movies of recent years.

NOTES: So weird. My son came home today in 2012 upset with a B+ he had gotten in English, Says he'll just have to do a lot of extra credit work. 


CONRACK was one of Jon Voight's biggest films since MIDNIGHT COWBOY made him a star five years earlier. I wouldn't end up seeing it until it hit TV a few years later, though. It was based on the autobiography of teacher Pat Conroy who would go one to become a best-selling author whose works I would be selling throughout my long bookstore career.