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.

Sunday, May 12th, 1974

Mother's Day. We went to church where I saw that girl from school again. We found out my friend from when I was about four, Jenny Adams, was married there last week at about age 17.

We had White Castles for lunch.

I sent in what I think was a TV blooper to THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER. I might win $50.00!

Saw a whole lot of new superhero toys at Twin Fair.

Saw Steffie on McCLOUD again. It was a rerun.

IT.

The cough I had yesterday was much worse today.

NOTES: Jenny was our landlady's daughter. i remember thinking of her as a teenager then and even looking at pics of her she looks older but apparently she was just a few years older than I was. Last time we saw her was at the Florence mall a couple of years after this pushing a baby stroller.


THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER became a favorite of mine around this time for entertainment news you just didn't get anywhere else. Little by little I came to question its reliability. I sent in several of their TV bloopers contest entries and while i was usually correct, many others also responded and I was never chosen as a winner. 

Saturday, May 11th, 1974

IT.

I spent over 13 dollars today! Got three Gazettes, one EC reprint, a magazine, a newspaper, a mother's day card, new comics and an old (1948!) copy of POLICE COMICS with Plastic Man and the Spirit for three bucks!

Ended up not seeing any movies today but I might tomorrow.

NOTES: I loved getting the Golden Age comic books when they were still relatively inexpebsive. The issue I got on this date had the distinction of Plastic Man fighting a villain named Eloc...which was actually the name of the character's creator, Jack COLE, spelled backwards. 

Meanwhile... in 1976

After sitting at $127.00 for the past two weeks on our campaign to fund a book of my original 1976 Journal  blog, we suddenly got two more backers after adjusting the incentives so that you now get a signed copy of the eventual book at the $50.00 level! Please check it out and consider pledging! 31 Days to go!

Friday, May 10th, 1974

I got a 100 on an Algebra test. Probably my last one.

Terry got his stuff today. From what he says, I'll need a lot tomorrow!

I'm going to see BILLY JACK and BLACK EYE (maybe). I can't see as many going forward because now they have to come out of my own money.

I drew a great picture of The Shadow today.

NOTES: OK, now this is a little weird. 


In 2012 (Wednesday):


My son took his MAP Math test for 9h grade today. A score of 250 is considered excellent. He scored 290+.


I burned some disks for my old pal Terry and delivered them to him early this afternoon. "Terry got his stuff."


I found BLACK EYE online and finally watched it 38 years late. One of the co-stars in the film is a man more noted for his radio performances than his movie roles--Bret Morrison who played...THE SHADOW!!!

Thursday, May 9th, 1974

Today was a pretty nice day. The weather was cool, I got 100 on an IPS test, I didn't have to take Gym, and best of all (I think) I remembered all of last year's Top Ten flicks of mine. I'm glad of that.

On the other hand, there was a bad earthquake in Japan. I sure hope it didn't hit either of my pen-pals.

NOTES: "IPS?" Another head scratcher, I'm afraid.


Both of my Japanese pen-pals were okay. "The Izu-Hanto-oki earthquake of 9 May 1974 was one of the most disastrous earthquakes in Japan.The earthquake killed 30 people, injured 82, and destroyed 121 homes. The tremor also caused road damage and landslides." Needless to say the one from a couple years back was MUCH worse.

Wednesday, May 8th, 1974

I finished work early tonight.

Did well in volleyball in Gym. Hopefully I fare as well with it again tomorrow.

I'm almost finished with my second Arkon story, THE DARK AGE. It's the longest I've ever written.

Just realized it's been about a year since I recorded for WCLU.

NOTES: Arkon was a sword and sorcery character I had created the year before. He was sort of a combination of Merlin and Kull, a king but also a wizard--a warrior wizard, in fact, capable of turning his hand into a flaming sword. Ultimately I would write (and finish!) three stories of Arkon.


WCLU was a country music radio station locally. In 8th grade, they had had a contest for most creative essays about America. The three winners, myself included, were driven to the tiny radio station (housed in the building above behind a local strip mall) where we recorded our essays to be played on the air on Memorial day. While we were there we were each drafted to record plugs fro the station's coverage of the Indy 500, also. This was my very first time in a radio studio. I was in love with teh idea. I wanted so much to do that a s a living at that point and every once in awhile over the next dozen years or so until I met a  number of folks in the business and realized how insecure it was.

Tuesday, May 7th, 1974

We had a sports award assembly today at school.

I got the new TBG and I may order form Bud Plant again this week.

I'll probably see Fred Williamson in BLACK EYE and maybe BILLY JACK at the Madison and/or Redford's THE CANDIDATE and JEREMIAH JOHNSON (again) at the International '70.

Oh, yeah...IT...darn it.

NOTES: Bud Plant was a dealer in comics art books and fanzines that I ordered from a lot in those days. I finally met him in 1988 at a Con. In 2011, even though we didn't have any direct contact, Bud and I worked on the same project behind the scenes for Yoe Books. Later on, I even did some publicity for him. 


Fred Williamson's movies mostly eluded me until the new century when, thanks to the wonders of the Internet and cable TV, I was finally able to catch a score or so of his movies, both good and bad. An amazingly charismatic actor, his BLACK EYE is still one I have yet to see.

Monday, May 6th, 1976

Yesterday I moved my bed and expanded my office area.

After a pretty bad day at school, I went over to Ohio and got THE SPIRIT set # 2, a few GAZETTES and the brand new TV GUIDE already.

NOTES: THE SPIRIT sets were bagged black and white reprints of Will Eisner's classic comic strips. Ten came in a plastic bag, thus they are also known as the Spirit Bags. I had bought the first one the year before. I think there were only four sets released eventually. 


I'm actually selling the first two SPIRIT bags on my sale blog if anyone is interested. The one in the back of this shot is the one I bought on this date 38 years ago.


http://bookstevesbookstore.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-lower-pricespirit-bags-1-and-2.html

Sunday, May 5th, 1974

I listened to two different radio shows tonight!

We went to my Aunt's birthday party. All my cousins were there. Rachel is really getting big. I still think of her as a little girl! Jeff actually got to meet Debbie recently! No need for me to be jealous, though. He thinks she's ugly. So what does he know?

I saw GOLDFINGER for the third time on TV tonight.

NOTES: It's all relative. Rachel would have been ten years old. She still WAS a little kid. LOL! 


The way Jeff met my old girlfriend Debbie was that he was hired to give piano lessons to her sister. I don't know if he actually said she was "ugly" or if I was talking editorial license. Doesn't sound like something he would have said.


My Aunt was old my entire life and eventually she lived to age 104 or 105. One of the last times my cousins and I all got together was at her funeral...not that many years ago now!


GOLDFINGER was and remains my favorite James Bond movie. A near-perfect mix of a good story, colorful villains, macho heroics and sixties spy gadgetry. All tied together by a great script. 

Saturday, May 4th, 1974

I stayed up to watch part of the late movie last night but fell asleep on the couch before it ended.

My glasses weren't fixed too well, today but I guess they'll do.

I picked up a couple fanzines and some magazines including one with a big review of THE EXORCIST.

The guy at Kidd's told Terry and I that there was soon to be a big sci-fi convention here in town and that Gene Roddenberry was here just last week!

IT.

I finally heard CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER last night at about 10 and I think I'll listen to it tonight, too.

IT again!

NOTES: THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER had gone on the air in January. I had developed a minor interest in old time radio after a substitute teacher a year earlier had simply played us a record of two episodes of THE SHADOW. This, however, was my first time actually finding it on the radio locally. In fact, seeing as how the official listing of the series doesn't even show an episode as being on the evening of May 3rd (or 4th for that matter as it only aired on weeknights), I think it's safe to assume the local station was delaying broadcasts anyway. Because of that I have no way of knowing which episode was my first. Here, however, is a site where you can not only find everything you could possibly want to know about every episode but you can actually listen to them all!


http://www.cbsrmt.com/

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...

Thursday, May 2nd, 1974

It rained hard tonight. We didn't even try to go over to work until late.

George gave me a dollar for helping him carry something upstairs in the rain.

Wasn't able to get over and get a TV GUIDE this week yet.

Haven't heard from Terry since Saturday. That's weird.

NOTES: I'm continually amazed at how some things don't change much. In 2012, it rained extremely hard last night and in 2012 I DID, in fact, see Terry both Monday and Tuesday. Sold him some disks. 


I gave up TV GUIDE when there was less and less on TV that I wanted to watch.


George was an upstairs neighbor who at one point would be desperate for 50 dollars. He gave my dad a gold diamond ring for security, my Dad gave him the money and we never saw him again. Years later, I would take the diamonds from his ugly ring and have them put into my wedding band. I didn't realize at the time that I was one of those people who just can't wear rings. It sat in a drawer for twenty years. Times being what they are, I had to sell it recently. Sigh...

Wednesday, May 1st, 1974

We got our second paycheck today. Less than two weeks after the first.

I might visit the International '70 again this weekend.

In Health soon we'll be starting a chapter about sex. I can't imagine myself reading that chapter but I know I'll have to. He always picks me to read. Another worry More grey hair.

I saw two programs about love on TV tonight that had a big effect on me. One starred Bill Bixby and the other starred Leonard Nimoy.

NOTES: The year before I had been called on in English class to read a story aloud that contained the word "Hell." I dreaded it for days after I saw it in the book when I read ahead. I was so nervous and sure enough, it was me she called on to read. I knew what was coming but the other students did not. When I got to the phrase--"Run like Hell!" They laughed for several minutes!


The thought of reading aloud about sex hit me about the same.