Saturday, February 21st, 1976.

IT happened again. $3.83. Ugh! Worst part of the day. Why can't I control myself? I am ME! I must learn to control all aspects of myself!

Afternoon was better. After years of reading about how good it is, I finally saw CASABLANCA! And it really was! The story was just good but boy, the individual moments! Everyone has his favorite but mine has to be the ending. I may even see it again tomorrow when they do the rerun--at least the ending!

It rained all day. Dad and I watched DIRTY HARRY together for the third time. Maybe that's why he was in a good enough mood to allow me to stay up to see the Marx Brothers movie!

NOTES: "It" was happening off and on in between mentions of it here, also. I didn't document every time. I presume the $3.83 was some dirty magazine I had bought for like $3.75 and tax. It was easy to blame such mags for planting the idea in my head but I kept buying the mags anyway. The heavy levels of guilt seem so odd to me now and yet even today my own son (Shhh! don't tell him I told you) has similar guilt issues over his sexuality after a much more progressive upbringing than I ever had.

My dad had taken me to see DIRTY HARRY in the theaters a couple of years earlier because he liked Clint Eastwood from TV. It was the first Eastwood movie I had ever seen and I immediately became a fan.

As a Bogart fan and a film buff, this was, of course, a red letter day for me! I finally saw CASABLANCA! When pressed to narrow my favorites down to one single movie, to this day, more often than not, I will name CASABLANCA! I have probably seen it 50 times since including three times in crowded theaters. Every moment is a gem and the overall package glows in its glorious black and white!