Thursday, Sept 30th, 1976

Two subs today.

I added several pages to my other Journal.

Looks like it's more or less official about late next week. Dad's going to be off, too.

I talked with Constance today on the way to the bus and mentioned I knew her birthday was coming up. She seemed not only surprised but a little worried that I knew that so I guess I'll be skipping the card I had planned on sending.

Watched the original pilot for HAPPY DAYS on a LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE rerun. Was weird. Had Harold Gould and Susan Neher in place of Tom Bosley and Erin Moran. And no Fonz at all!

NOTES: The reason I knew Constance's birthday goes back to when I sat near her in the school auditorium a couple of weeks earlier. MY spooky memory immediately made note of her birthday when she mentioned it to her friend that day. To her, though, it must have come across like stalking. To me, it was just information gathering.

HAPPY DAYS was, at times, a great show. By the end, it was too stagey and too preachy and, of course, would literally define the term, "jump the shark." But in 1976, the fifties were still cool, Fonzie was still cool and HAPPY DAYS was still cool! The original pilot hadn't sold but, like many failed sitcom pilots, aired as an episode of the anthology series, LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE. If I remember correctly I HAD seen it when it first aired but here, several years later, the differences were a revelation making it seem like an Earh 2 episode. DC Comics fans will get that reference.

Wednesday, September 29th, 1976

Mr. S checked on my HORIZONS interest for next week's meeting and Mr. T really enjoyed one of my sentences in Comp.

A few new books out in Cincy already.

A new TBG gave me the chance to make out a new Undies Want List. 18 of 'em.

Saw part of THE MUPPET SHOW but the highlight of the evening was we got a much better view of Farrah's tits.

NOTES: Mr S was the previous year's English teacher, Mr. Spurlock. He was wondering here as to whether I had decided I wanted to be involved with the school literary and arts magazine. Mr. T here is Mr. Tucker, my then-current English teacher as opposed to the "I pity the fool" gentleman who would become big a few years later.

"Undies" here was my nickname for the adult, underground comics.

Muppets or Farrah's chest? We see what I prioritized at age 17. At my age now, I'd definitely prioritize Kermie and crew.

Tuesday, Sept 28th, 1976

I took WEIRD HEROES to school with me. Didn't help.

Several movies opening I want to see this week.

Rumor has us getting off early at the end of next week and at 2:30 for PTA from then on. We'll see how reliable that is.

Watched the Bronsons on TV again and ONE DAY AT A TIME made a triumphant comeback.

NOTES: Not sure what exactly it was that WEIRD HEROES didn't help. Didn't help pass the time in free periods? Didn't help me muddle through it? I seem to recall which volume of that multi-volume series it was (# 2) and that I never have finished getting through a couple of the stories so that could be it.

Charles Bronson had stolen Jill Ireland from his own former BFF, David (NCIS) McCallum. Unlike many similar showbiz situations, however, theirs seems to have been a genuine romance that lasted to her death. The two were paired together (probably at Charlie's insistence) in a number of films while the actor was still top box-office.

Monday, Sept 27th, 1976

Luck with buses today. Leaving early but missing the Rosedale, turned out the Latonia was early so I caught that!

Dad got sent to the doctor today but picked up coneys on his way home!

I finished reading THE ADVENTURE OF THE PEERLESS PEER.

Big day for TV. Dick Van Dyke and MTM were on DINAH and the Bronsons were on MIKE DOUGLAS. Eve Plumb from THE BRADY BUNCH pulled a "Linda Blair" as DAWN tonight. a teenage whore. I alternated watching it with ALL'S FAIR. Very depressing and I decided I didn't need that so I skipped the ending.

NOTES: The Rosedale and Latonia buses were essentially the exact same route except for a variation toward the end of that route. Thus, as far as the distance between school and home, I could take either.

Not sure why my dad was "sent" to the doctor that day. Rarely sick a day in his life, somewhere in this period here he found out that he was diabetic. Hardly a crushing blow, he simply and relatively easily adjusted his diet, gave up Pepsi and chocolate drops, started taking daily pills and moved on. I was impressed. I'm supposed to be checked every few years but it's been a while.

Always fun to see Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke reunited. The Bronsons were actor Charles Bronson and his wife Jill Ireland. After years of character roles, Charlie suddenly found himself one of the world's top box office attractions for a brief period and he and his wife became a modern Liz and Dick almost. No big scandals, though. They adored each other and when fickle fame moved on, they simply adjusted their jet-set lifestyle downward as needed. Sadly she died of cancer in the eighties but not before becoming quite the advocate for research.

DAWN: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY. was exactly the type of thing Linda Blair had been doing and I'd be surprised if she hadn't had first refusal on it. It served well to help Eve Plumb from being hopelessly typecast as Jan Brady--at least at the time.

Sunday, Sept 26th, 1976

I spent most of the day around home seeing for sure that my pain from yesterday is gone and it appears it is...whatever it was. I did go with Dad to Kentucky Fried Chicken and White Castle even though we skipped church on account of rain. Spent the rest of the day reading, drawing and listening to records. Also a lot of thinking today--the kind that might lead to depression tomorrow. Hope not.

Mom made some more of those cereal things.

TV was good straight through from 6 PM to 11:30 tonight with a lovely Marlo appearing with Cos. Farrah guested on her hubby's show.

NOTES: If I'm remembering correctly--and I can't imagine I'd forget it--I never did have pain like that and I never found out what caused it that day. Since my parents knew I tended to exaggerate things like that, they never believed just how bad it felt, either and so never insisted on my getting to a doctor.

While all this was going on, another seminal disco era song, "Play That Funky Music, White Boy" by the group Wild Cherry was about to enter its third and final week at the top of the charts. I often wondered if it was the song or just the album cover, seen here, that caused the song to succeed as well as it did.

Saturday, Sept 25th, 1976

Checked out the PLAYBOYs at the Ohio Book Store today. When I start getting them I'll definitely be doing most of my collecting there. Also picked up a neat STARLOG and finally ran across the Marvel Calendar for next year.

While watching BYE BYE BIRDIE this afternoon, my chest began to hurt something awful and I didn't know what to do. I just sat there watching but everything hurt and attempts to move hurt worst. Finally I decided to get the blood flowing with IT to see if that would help. Direct result or not, the pain went away right afterwards.

NOTES: Maybe I was a bit of a hypochondriac. I don't know. I would occasionally have a tightness in my chest and I never knew what caused it. But I remember feeling that day as if I was having a heart attack. And it all seemed so surreal watching Ann-Margret cavort onscreen while it was happening. And yes, Ann-Margret or no Ann-Margret, the concept that I would decide that masturbation might help seems odd...to put it mildly...but that's what happened. And it worked! So...

In later years my wife twice took me to the ER for chest pains that weren't as bad as the ones I experienced that day. In both of those cases it was determined to have been severe indigestion.

STARLOG was my new favorite thing. STARLOG was a then-new magazine about science-fiction movies, TV, comics and novels. When STAR WARS hit the following summer the mag's sales would soar through the roof and it would continue to be popular for decades.

Friday, Sept 24th, 1976

Quick day in school. Absence excused. Designed debates in first and played chess (not me) in third.

Caught the Eastern bus over on Greenup into town to pick up dinner and three books. Missed one book and a sold out calendar.

Got a refund in the mail on that first bootleg I ordered along with a catalog of hundreds more!

Felt really awkward about the STAR TREK event tonight as Terry invited a couple of people along that I had never even heard about. Again! Didn't even ask. I enjoyed it all immensely though, in spite of the guests. In fact, they may have even added to the enjoyment!

They picked us up down at the telephone company at 7. The girl was quite beautiful but she smoked way too much. The man was a professor type. Terry never did tell me where he met him or what he does.

He parked down on the public landing by the Delta Queen and we had to walk up a huge spiral staircase to get to the Coliseum only to arrive just exactly as they opened the doors. Although the colder temps kept me from wearing my Trek shirt (I wore my leisure suit) but I saw that many others had my same idea.

We got fairly good seats down on the Coliseum floor but as usual the show started late. Why do shows always start late?

Some time after 8, the Klingons and the Feds who had been on stage at the mike were replaced by...RODDENBERRY! Yay! I enjoyed those best but missed the chance to see them again after the show. They included lots of scenes of break-ups and running into doors. Starting with the regular theme interspliced with cats and ending with the real NBC emblem, in between was lots of cussing (Yvonne Craig twice!), a little nudity, jokes, flubs, etc, Just hilarious!! I missed the jokes because the entire place was laughing so hard!

Roddenberry talked about TREK, his own career before and since, TV censors, religion. Vulcan sex lives, bionics, the future, the upcoming movie, the Space Shuttle and the fact that all three networks have already said they want STAR TREK back if the movie is a success.

The unseen pilot was shown. It was a black and white print print (illegible) by the fans and was run completely uncut! The most interesting thing about it to me was the title and the credits. It was entertaining but I'm glad they switched what they did for the actual series!

We never saw anyone selling programs but I bought a still, a poster and a couple of buttons. In order to avoid some traffic, we left about 10:45, not staying for the bloopers again. In all the big crowd as we were leaving, I accidentally brushed up against our lovely companion's behind. She's probably about 22. That was actually a highlight of the trip even with all the other neat stuff on stage and onscreen!

They got me home in time to watch the last of MAGNUM FORCE on TV. Doubt if I'm going to get to sleep tonight. A very big day topped off by my first piece of ass! What a way to end this section, though! Whew!

NOTES: Technically the show was called THE WORLD OF STAR TREK and was immortalized in part on an LP not long after this. Gene Roddenberry had become a guru to all of us who discovered STAR TREK more through the reruns than we had in the original run so it really was like seeing a rock star for all of us geeks that night.

To this day, I'm not sure who Terry's friends were or where he knew them from. The girl was much younger than the man and was either his daughter or his sister. It says volumes I guess when I wrote that copping an accidental feel was a highlight of this uber-nerd night! Sigh. I was so naive. Never saw her again. Terry would go on to invite "the Professor" along to various other events he and I had planned on attending together including, ultimately, the first time I attended a strip club five years later! (I presumed at the time it was the first time for Terry also but he says now it was not.)

Synchronicity being what it is, also in the crowd that night at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum was a young woman named Rene King who was 15 years old and attending Conner High School in the next county. I wouldn't meet her until eleven years later but her love of STAR TREK was just one of many great qualities that led to our marriage in 1991. (Between the TREK event and our eventual meeting there would be one more bizarre, TWILIGHT ZONE-like incident that pointed toward our meeting. Read about it here.)

Thursday, Sept 23rd, 1976

I figured to be home today and the fact that I awoke at 3:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep cinched that. As I lay there with my mind all fevery and such I kept thinking about making love to various actresses and girls from school. Sigh...

Mr Logsdon called about my absence and sounded skeptical. Jeez, Can't a guy be sick!?

Finished my Farrah collection and relocated all my old mags.

My cold was finally getting a little better by early this evening. I went over to work alone so I could go early enough to get back to see TV.This was the first day in ages where I didn't even set foot outside until after dark.

Watched the first Ford-Carter debate when I got back.

NOTES: Mr Logsdon was the Dean of Boys. I didn't have a lot of interaction with him but he was never my favorite person as he always seemed to have something against me for some reason.

"Finished" my Farrah collection. Ha! Little did I know just how much we would all be over-saturated with Farrah photos over the next year! And I was collecting a ton of 'em!

Jimmy Carter had come out of nowhere relatively late in the Presidential campaign season. With his toothy grin--comparable to the Osmonds and Farrah!--his soft, Southern accent, the peanut farmer jokes, the goofy brother, the feisty old mother...it was hard to take him seriously. And yet...we slowly started to do so. By this point, he was THE chosen Democratic candidate and we were all anxious to see how he held up against President Ford--a pleasant but ultimately ineffectual "filler" president whose wife Betty would, in the long run,arguably make more of an impact on society than he did.

Wednesday, Sept. 22nd, 1976

Cold day. The weather and me. Almost stayed home but I went.

ALICE is still on at Showcase. I'm surprised.

Them dummies next door were late again but I got back in time to watch Part 2 of THE RETURN OF BIGFOOT. I came up with a deal to alternate tonight's conflicting shows with Dad.

Not sure what I was expecting but I was somewhat (but not completely) disappointed with Farrah's much-publicized braless scene on CHARLIE'S ANGELS but lots of dun double entendres. Began my Farrah collection.

Wrote a real personal journal entry today.

NOTES: Still nursing a bad cold here, also, in 2011.

THE RETURN OF BIGFOOT was a popular episode of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN.

Farrah Fawcett-Majors was someone I had known on TV for a few years. I first recognized all that hair and teeth in commercials, then some TV-movies, then on David Janssen's HARRY O series. I knew Kate Jackson from DARK SHADOWS and several years on THE ROOKIES and Jaclyn Smith had been in a memorable episode of McCLOUD. These facts, added to the "braless" publicity, made CHARLIE'S ANGELS an immediate favorite. Thus I immediately started my Farrah picture collection. Soon enough the poster would arrive.

My entry in the school journal was a two page philosophical retrospective on life, innocence and sex, contrasting 1966 with 1976. In retrospect, pretty naive and surprisingly conservative.

Coincidentally enough, of course, I have a blog for each of those years currently!

Tuesday, Sept 21st, 1976

Slept bad and had to suffer through the whole day with a cold and a sore throat. The day's saving grace was the announcement that we'll be getting out early (at 11:45) on Friday.

Late start at SS tonight so I had to kinda fudge my way through quickly to see Pinky on HAPPY DAYS and then all the new shows.

NOTES: Odd how 1976 parallels 2011...or rather the other way around. As I write this, I have a cold and a sore throat. My son came home from school today talking about how they switched his Spanish room on him without telling anyone...just like it happened to me in '76!

"Pinky" was Pinky Tuscadero, a new character on ABC's big hit HAPPY DAYS designed to be a female "Fonzie" type. Played by Roz Kelly, in spite of the hype she was an unattractive character played by an unattractive actress (Sorry, Roz) and was soon replaced by Pinky's cuter sister, the early punk Rocker Suzi Quatro as "Leather Tuscadero."

Monday, Sept 20th, 1976

I was kind of depressed for quite a lot of reasons today but didn't even realize it for a while.

We had a rather sexy sub in Government today and found out all about her--even that she smokes pot!

Saw Dick Van Dyke on one of the morning shows at school and then earlier tonight on his premiere along with all the other new shows.

Reese kept messing with me today and I kept trying to turn the other cheek and ignore him. Why can't these ignorant fools just leave people alone?

I didn't do well on a Spanish test due to the depression.

Read the new issue of LITERARY CAVALCADE in Study Hall.

Luck enabled me to see Linda Blair's scene in AIRPORT '75 without even having to see the rest of the film. She seems so familiar--like an old, old friend. Sigh...I wish.

NOTES: Can't recall where I saw the AIRPORT 1975 scene at this point as this was a year or more after I saw the film itself in the theater. Maybe it was on TV and I tuned in at just the right moment. Linda plays a little girl on the plane who's going for a kidney transplant. Helen Reddy as a nun sings to her. The scene is best remembered today for its parody version in AIRPLANE.

LITERARY CAVALCADE was a slightly more sophisticated version of the school mags like SCHOLASTIC SCOPE.

My sources say that Dick Van Dyke's variety series, VAN DYKE AND COMPANY, actually debuted 2 weeks earlier with a rerun of the 1975 special that served as a pilot so...don't know. The series is remembered today as the first major showcase for Andy Kaufman.

Poor Reese. In the long run his bullying was so ineffectual that I not only don't even recall him in the slightest. I don't feel like looking him up in the yearbook to jog my memory either. I am more than cool with letting him stay back there where he belongs.

Sunday, Sept. 19th, 1976

I cleaned my room all morning while watching a dumb "classic" musical.

Read PEANUTS JUBILEE and was surprised to find that, while PEANUTS is still my favorite strip, Schulz and I really don't agree on much otherwise.

Mom called Mrs. Pritchett and confirmed that the victim in a recent attempted murder-suicide was a girl I don't remember who used to live here in our building.

Several good shows on tonight including the premiere of COS and the return of good ol' six million (with Lady Bionic!).

Mom fixed some of her special (illegible) marshmallows.

I discovered some historical interest items such as notes from my first grade teacher that I didn't remember.

ALICE looks to be going off this week already. Oh, well.

NOTES: I took a magnifying glass to the illegible word and even showed my wife. No clue. I remember my mother making some kind of dessert dish from time to time with melted marshmallows and...something...in a big dish but...not a clue. Sorry.

COS was Bill Cosby's third TV series after I SPY and THE BILL COSBY SHOW. The first was a lighthearted spy drama, the second a "relevant" sitcom. This was a hip but old-style variety series, perhaps best remembered for making Lola Falana a household name at the time and later featuring Groucho in one of his final TV appearances.