Monday, March 29th, 1976

The day we should have been off school. Last day for Mystery Class but with nothing left to do, we watched TV. Two big tests tomorrow. Mom was home when I got in today. She got off at noon.

TBG was back to Mondays after two Wednesday arrivals in a row. Lots of comics items in my life lately--Steve's new store, his con next month, Omnicon and maybe even the Cleveland Con again like last year. It's a good thing I didn't write Don Rosa again yesterday because today I finally heard from him in response to the last time I wrote. The only bad part is that the Con is not IN Louisville but "15 minutes" from town. I hope I can talk them into us going down a day early and maybe even driving down. I really doubt that last part, though.

Been thinking about Debbie again and I don't know why. Thought I'd finally gotten past that. As I write this, a song on the radio just said, " the past is gone." Is it? We would be strangers who had never really met and yet I would know that we had in another lifetime. Only thing is I might not even like her and she might not like me. No one else seems to.

The Academy Awards were on tonight. For a change they picked some winners I liked. George Burns was presented his award by Ben Johnson and LINDA BLAIR! I had been kind of cool on her lately but I'm still crazy about her. So pretty! Marlo Thomas was also in evidence. We stayed up until 12:30 watching it and I still don't feel like I can get to sleep right away.

NOTES: Things were progressing nicely toward getting us to Don Rosa's Omnicon. We would NOT return to Cleveland that year or since. The whole weekend we were there the previous August, Cleveland had had torrential rains and storms. If you looked out the window of our hotel room all you could see was the wall of the hotel next door. If you leaned out (there were no safety screens at all) and looked to your left, you could see a black river (or lake?) covered by black smoke. A week after we came home, they had an outbreak of malaria! I'm told Cleveland is much, much better these days.

Debbie, Debbie, Debbie! It's a little embarrassing even now that I just couldn't quit thinking about her. Still a few months until she turns up one last time in a most unexpected place. The song I mention was probably Aerosmith's DREAM ON.

Seen above is a frame grab from George Burns' Oscar win as I watched it that evening in '76. In the original journal, though, I said that the award was presented by Linda Blair with Roy Schieder! Imagine my surprise when I looked up the clip and saw that it was clearly Ben Johnson instead! So I corrected that. Having admired both actors for many years now, I find it hard to imagine a time when I would confuse them for any reason but I suppose that's what happened here.