Snippets from my five-year diary.

March 12.

*1970 (age 12): Hot Dog Day. Walked Pepe.

Not only did I get to eat hot dogs, but I also walked the neighbor’s dog and made $2.00.

*1971 (age 13): Fri. Spelling test got none wrong.

This was a big deal to me. The night before a spelling test, my dad would quiz me until I spelt all my words correctly. He always wanted the “report” of how I did at school during that night’s dinner. Needless to say, dinner was enjoyable when I announced my perfect spelling score.

*1972 (age 14): Sun. Today and yesterday the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon was on and me and Cathy went. We saw Mike Conners and Dr Smith (Lost in Space) in person.

Those telethons were one of my most cherished childhood memories. My friends and I would get a ride down to the convention center and stand in line for hours to catch a glimpse of the celebrities. We also had a chance to get their autographs. I was thrilled when I found out Dr Smith would be there since Lost in Space was one of my favorite shows. I remember when I finally got close enough to Jonathan Harris who played Smith and was so disappointed. He was as grumpy in person as he was on the show. He snarled at us as we walked by. I never figured out if he was just in character, or truly upset to sit and sign autographs for a long line of teens.

*1973 (age 15): Mon. A year ago was the telethon. Today, Kim, Diana, and Greg came over to work on our posters for the car wash. Well, somebody got the hose and before you knew it we were all wet.

Note, I was still writing about last years’ telethon like it was a holiday or something!

And yes, the car wash fundraisers. When you take a bunch of kids and give them a hose, someone, if not everyone is bound to get wet!

*1974 (age 16): Tue. Well, another day. I am so tired, at school today I almost fell asleep, And more than once too. Bruce said he’d call tonight – If he does, I hope I don’t get all shaky like before.

Not sure why I was so tired. I looked back to yesterday’s post and there wasn’t anything specific happening. And Daylight Savings Time didn’t start back then until April. Just one of those days, I suppose.

Ah, nerves when a boy called. I remember it well. I also remember we only had one phone – a dial phone that hung in the kitchen. It only had a six-foot cord, so privacy was impossible. My dad was notorious for getting on the phone just before I was supposed to get a call from a boy. In those days, the caller would receive a busy signal – no voice mail option. So, if my dad was on the phone, I’d pace back and forth until he hung up. Then be stressed the whole time wondering if the other person had called and gotten a busy signal and if they’d try to call back. Kids these days have no idea how easy it is to use the phone.

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Note to self: Those telethon memories were special times. Not only did you participate in a community giving project, you saw famous people which you’ll remember for the rest of your life. Good for you for writing it all down.

Also, if you’d just pretended you didn’t care about receiving a call, Dad would have never even gotten on the phone. You made it too easy for him to give you a hard time – especially when you’d have melt-downs when expecting a call.