Tuesday, Oct 12th, 1976

I wore a really loud shirt today. We went outside again in Comp and I hated it. I and a bunch of others got to leave five minutes early, today!

I tried a new spaghetti today but wasted it. I avoided Cokes today for the first time in months!

Watched Bernadette on with Tony & Dawn tonight and realized that ANGELS will be cut off by the playoffs!

THE REDS WIN THE PENNANT! I watched the big finish and then lots of news of it afterwards!

NOTES: Man, I was crazy for exclamation points on this day, wasn't I?


Coca-Cola has always been my biggest vice and once again, as 2011 parallels 1976, I have cut down drastically on my intake of the soft drink in the past week. To the point, in fact, where I went to whole days without a single sip!


No idea what new kind of spaghetti I was referring to there. Franco-American spaghetti had been my favorite food as a child and as I got older, I would often try making my own spaghetti and sauces, to varying degrees of success. I'm told my spaghetti casserole recipe nowadays is my best dish!


As I've stated, I wasn't big on the Reds by this point but my Dad sure was and, for me, there was always a certain amount of home town pride when they'd win.

Monday, Oct 11th, 1976

Feeling down but went to school after another sleepless night. Wasn't that bad I guess but the did cheat me outta my HOLMESPUN. I was indifferent to Constance today.

No SS work tonight since they weren't there at all today because of the holiday.

Finished the sci-fi book!

Had beef stew for the first time in ten years tonight but the old taste just came right back. Delicious!

Bill Shatner was a guest on TO TELL THE TRUTH.

NOTES: HOLMESPUN was the school newspaper. I don't recall it as being particularly riveting so it must have been the principle of the thing that I was ticked I didn't get my copy that day.

The holiday, of course, was Columbus Day. It was always confusing as a child in that some years we were off school, too. Others not. Generally we went, though, and just banks and post offices were closed. This was complicated more by the fact that the buses were on holiday schedules.

TO TELL THE TRUTH was one of those smart panel game shows with four celebs, in the case of this show generally including Kitty Carlisle come hell or high water. The panel would attempt via questioning to determine which of three contestants is the person they claim to be. It lasted all through the sixties and was revived in the early seventies and a number of times since.

Beef stew. Yum! Still don't have t that often but that taste really does come right back with nostalgia.

Sunday, Oct 10th, 1976

After church, I watched a '68 movie that it turned out I had seen in the theater back in '68 of all things! Didn't remember it at all at first.

Read the sci-fi history the rest of the day. Very engrossing!

The Reds won their second.

Finally cleaned my desk off again.

Shatner and Walter Koenig were reunited on tonight's return of COLUMBO! OR at least TV GUIDE says they were. I just watched it and didn't see Walter anywhere! Not at all.

NOTES: According to IMDB, Walter Koenig, STAR TREK's Chekhov, was "Sgt. Johnson" on Shatner's COLUMBO episode. I don't think I've seen it since so I still don't know where I missed him. Must not have been much of a role.

David Kyle, the author of this very first history of science-fiction I had read, was a prominent BNF (Big Name Fan) in sci-fi fandom since its earliest days and later a writer. Still around today in his nineties, he remains a seminal historian of the genre.

Saturday, Oct 9th, 1976

Went past Oktoberfest in downtown Cincy to get us Wendy's for lunch. On the way back, I picked up the new MEDIASCENE at Kidd's--my first purchase at the new location!

The mailbroughta letter, the San Diego Con Program Book from last year I ordered and my last sub issue of RBCC. Need to resubscribe.

Little time for my new sci-fi book yet.

Watched a PISTOLS 'N" PETTICOATS compilation film. Loved that show. Playoffs started tonight. Saw MONKEES in a concert episode I don't remember ever having seen before and I heard they're back on weekdays with STAR TREK replacing that music show.

I started wondering if maybe I could become a comic book letterer.

NOTES: Answer: No. I could not have become a comic book letterer. At the top of this page were three word balloon lettering samples and they were all strictly amateurish. This particular ambition didn't last long.

PISTOLS 'N' PETTICOATS was a fun comedy western from about a decade earlier that was cancelled after a single season when its lead actress, forties "Oomph Girl" Ann Sheridan, died of cancer halfway through the year. With not enough episodes to rerun, it was never seen again. After the series' run, though, the producers had edited together 3 episodes into an ersatz feature film and that's what I saw today. In recent years, I've managed to see quite a few of the actual episodes and it holds up pretty well.

Friday, Oct 8th, 1976

Big day started with IT early. Dad brought home coneys for an early lunchtime. Then we all left for Cincy about 12:15 and went to Shillitos where we picked up three fair to good tickets to see the Hope show. Then, borrowing four bucks from Dad, I bought an eight buck history of sci-fi books! Then we all saw a fair horror movie in BURNT OFFERINGS.

Big surprise! Saw Marcia and the two younger Bradys with Florence Henderson on DONNY & MARIE! I didn't even recognize the kids. Kids??!! Not any more.

Saw my first Farrah commercial since getting the poster. Watched Sally Struthers in THE GREAT HOUDINI just now. At the end, Viv called Harry an S.O.B.! She can't say that on television!!! ...but she did!

NOTES: It was rare the whole family went to movies together anymore. BURNT OFFERINGS was a pretty old-fashioned horror film from Dan Curtis who had done TV's DARK SHADOWS.

The book I bought that day was A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE-FICTION, a British import by David Kyle.

The Brady actors' appearance on DONNY & MARIE would lead soon enough to THE BRADY BUNCH HOUR, a similar variety series reviving the classic sitcom in bizarre circumstances! It's considered one of the worst TV programs of the seventies.

THE GREAT HOUDINI was a marvelous TV film starring STARSKY & HUTCH actor Paul Michael Glaser as the legendary escape artist with Sally Struthers as his wife, Ruth Gordon as his mother and Vivian Vance as his nurse. The rest of the impressive cast included Peter Cushing, Bill Bixby, Jack Carter, Adrienne Barbeau and Maureen O'Sullivan! Not your average TV movie! And that language! I was obviously shocked! And yet you never see it anymore. Is it even on DVD?

Thursday, Oct 7th, 1976

Two tests at school today before getting out at 11:45. Took the Eastern bus on over the river but even it was crowded for a change. Not much out over there.

Dad came home sick at 11 and ended up sleeping all day.

Problems at SS tonight with a dead black cat.

NOTES: Black cats have always been lucky to me for some reason. This one that day obviously not so lucky either for me or for himself.

I don't really recall that incident but years later we found a dead cat that had broken into my late mother-in-law's closed up home and somehow died in the half-flooded basement. It became a macabre comedy of errors as I attempted to clear the cat out so we could show the house to potential buyers! Using gloves and boots and a shovel, I had to pick up the animal from the floor and drop it into a double trash bag.While this did not run as smoothly as it sounds, I did eventually accomplish it...only to find over the next couple hours that, due to various legalities, there was no place for me to legally dispose of it! I'm driving all over the area in a sick equivalent of the 1966 BATMAN movie's "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!" Finally, however, I found a place that may or may not been legal for me to dispose of her. I didn't actually bother to check on that one. I said a prayer and lamented her 9th life, then sent her on her way.

Wednesday, Oct 6th, 1976

I wondered today for the first time where Debbie might end up going to college?

Had the organizational meeting for HORIZONS today. Looks pretty good. Me, Lee H, Lisa V and 3 others I don't know. We gotta make posters and judge all the various entries on my movie scale.

Ordered my yearbook at lunch.

Constance spoke to me first for a change.

Good TV early tonight (Bionic) and then watched second debate. Earlier watched more Connie on MIKE D.

NOTES: I was never big on Yearbooks. Maybe it was because I'd never heard of them until seventh grade. No one told me about getting people to sign them or write stupid "predictions" or stuff like that...so I didn't. They distributed the yearbooks in seventh grade and I took mine home. Same with every year after that. Just seemed wrong to purposely allow someone to deface a brand new book!

Lisa V went on to marry another guy in my class after graduation and his mother, whom I had never met at this point, would later become my favorite customer when I was managing bookstores!I saw her again just a couple of years back when I was working at the Airport Borders.

Lee H was a guy I didn't know very well. Didn't have anything against him. Just didn't really know him. At my 20th Reunion back in 1997--the only one I've ever attended--he told my wife we were very close friends in high school. No idea if he was mis-remembering or what.

Number one on the charts this week was one Walter Murphy with, believe it or not, disco classical music! A FIFTH OF BEETHOVEN.

Tuesday, Oct 5th, 1976

Basically a bad day at school. Did, however, get rave notices on a paragraph I wrote for Comp. We went outside for class though and I didn't like that much. Mr. S told me to go to Senior Library in our extended homeroom.

I saw where Bob Hope is coming to Riverfront. $12.50 a ticket. Hopefully we can go.

A very good M*A*S*H and ONE DAY AT A TIME tonight.

NOTES: Bob Hope did several of these charity shows for a local charity he supported in Cincinnati. Eventually, he ended up doing a golf tournament instead of the actual performances but we always went when they had the actual shows. The guests lists would fluctuate usually right up to the day of the show. In this case, for example, Ben Vereen, then at a peak of popularity after ROOTS, did not show up. In 1977, talk was that Hope would get Bing Crosby to come...only then Bing died.

Monday, Oct 4th, 1976

Lost a little sleep last night and ended up feeling bad all day. One reason is that yesterday, somehow, life became real again and I was trapped inside looking out instead of outside looking in like usual.

Mr. Shoemaker got in a bunch of Spanish language PEANUTS and ASTERIX books and I read ASTERIX & THE HOME OF THE GODS (rough translation) as best as I could. I liked it!

Mr. T kind of liked my journal.

We had to sign a graduation card.

After school I walked half a block downtown with Constance making small talk. I was afraid to go any further so I just came on home.

Saw part of Barbara Walters' ABC debut. Got to see Connie co-host MIKE DOUGLAS, too, which, after that movie the other day, lead to IT, of course.

NOTES: Barbara Walters had been popular as co-host of NBC's TODAY for more than a decade and her jump to ABC was highly touted and a tad controversial. She, of course, became a mainstay of that network.

I have no idea what that "graduation card" was or why "we" had to sign it.

ASTERIX has been an amazingly popular French comics character for more than 50 years now and has been translated into many European languages. It has long been a staple of foreign language classes in high school. Various attempts to promote the delightful strip in America have failed over and over but in France, multi-million dollar blockbuster films are made of the characters. In yet another example of "the more things change, the more they stay the same," this very morning in 2011 I watched ASTERIX & OBELIX: MISSION CLEOPATRA from 2002.

By the way, the volume I read that day in '76, my first ASTERIX story, is generally translated as THE MANSIONS OF THE GODS.

Sunday, Oct 3rd, 1976

Went to Rinks with Mom and Dad for the first time in a long time and got a lot of stuff. Got some huge tootsie rolls! Passed up a Marie 8 track for a Simon LP. Bad deal? I do consider it a coup that i got the lovely Farrah Fawcett-Majors poster. Nt a bit like I expected it to look. It's a smiling shot of Farrah in a one piece orange bathing suit with breasts centered and nipples protruding much more obviously than on TV. I was afraid Mom would say something and I'd have to go into my, "Mother I am seventeen years old, darn it!" routine but she didn't.

When we got home I posted it next to my bed and worked out my books update while listening to the new album and glancing up at her every few minutes.

Today's paper had a new article by Ray Bradbury.

Mom made more of those marshmallow thingies tonight to munch on with television but there wasn't much on that was very good.

NOTES: Passed up Marie Osmond's new 8 track in favor of LIVE RHYMIN', Paul Simon's live album. In the end, I think that was a good deal.

But who cares? This was the day I got Farrah! There comes a time in every young man's life when he gets his Farrah, whatever it may be. In my case...today was the day. My wall, which had had some pictures and posters from comics and movies on it as long as we had lived there, was about to become babe central!

Saturday, Oct 2nd, 1976

Pretty bad morning. Got the paper for a change but NO TV mag! From about 11:30 on things got better.

At Bell-Block, I saw Pete Rose coming out while I was going in! I didn't know what to say but he looked at me and smiled behind big ol' sunglasses like, "I know you know who I am, kid."

Saw SCORCHY, a pretty good cop drama greatly enhanced by my first nude views of Miss Connie Stevens. Lots of topless shots of the middle aged Miss with the sexy voice and one very realistic looking intercourse scene! Wow!

Got a few new books which occupied most of the rest of the afternoon (including HIGH SOCIETY). May skip a movie tomorrow and go with Mom to Rinks instead to get a Farrah Poster. Terry says they have them there.

NOTES: Looks like the Farrah posters came out sooner than I remembered.

Speaking of memory playing tricks, the way I've told that Pete Rose anecdote above for as long as I can remember is that he was leaving the store as I entered, pushed the door open very quickly and nearly knocked me down, saying, "Watch it, kid." I stammered back , "You're P...Pete Rose" and he hurried on his way. Inside, the store owner told me Pete had been in to buy a gift for his fellow player Joe Morgan. Pete was my favorite player then and now so why would I make up anything negative about this momentary experience? On the other hand, why would I leave out anything negative that very day if it had actually had happened the way I remember it?

Connie Stevens a "middle-aged Miss?" Hahahaha. She was 38 at the time. Seems so young now. I had long enjoyed Connie on TV. I read where she spends much of her efforts as a conservative political supporter these days.

And I like the reference to the "very realistic intercourse scene." Like I'd have had a clue what realistic looked like.

Friday, Oct 1st, 1976

Not a thing with Constance. Slow, bad wish day with only unimportant wishes coming true. The less said the better, really. No paper again. IT tonight just as an attempt at tension relief.

Watched DONNY & MARIE new tonight and saw PAPER MOON. Stayed up to see some hilarious scenes on Johnny Carson's 14th Anniversary Show but had to agree to skip staying up for Eric Idle on SATURDAY NIGHT tomorrow.

NOTES: Whoa, was I bummed this day. No memory as to exactly why.

PAPER MOON was the marvelous Peter Bogdanovich film from 3 years earlier which was shot in lovely black and white and starred the ultimately uber-troubled father and daughter team of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. I hadn't seen it back then because I got upset that ten year old Tatum was given the Oscar that I wanted Linda Blair to win. When I finally saw it this night I was amazingly impressed!

Johnny Carson's TONIGHT SHOW was on much too late for me to watch on a regular basis. By this point that may well have been mainly because of the location of the television sets in the house. I don't recall if I mentioned but we had a huge living room. It was, however, directly next to my parents bedroom which, itself, was directly next to the bathroom, the short hallway to the kitchen, and my own bedroom. Thus, whether I was on the big color console or the little black and white, one way or the other, the TV was right next to my parents' bedroom. Yes, both rooms had doors. Huge, thick sliding oak doors...that never closed all the way or, when they did, wouldn't open easily afterward. I had once been trapped in my bedroom for hours just because I'd wanted a little privacy! The problem would occur again a few years later on the sole occasion when I ...well..."entertained" a young lady in there late one evening. So in the 26 years we lived there...the doors were rarely used. Thus, I had to negotiate staying up past 11 to watch TV. To be allowed twice in one week was unlikely.