Episode 3 - SVW Tapes - 27th April 1979

Full Transcript 

Episode 3 - SVW Tapes - 27th April, 1979

"...the lane out of the bridge. Half a mile so south, quarter mile, half mile south in North Avenue, stopped very backed up to and flew the foot that changed. Down below that on the South Expressway is a stalled truck in the center right and also it right up lower stadium and Southbound Valley is just very removed is afternoon trying to get through the downtown area, it's an excellent avenue sign up the surface street to get through the downtown area, Spring Street, Portland Boulevard, all of avenue not Bo Avenue but memorial any those gets you through and just maybe some town this afternoon it just stopped upside north down you probably start getting heavy right around the boulevard. all stuff happened right around 10th Street space take all the way up into the Brookwood interchange, headed up the northeast expressway and hit a solid wall of automobiles as well all the way out past Claremont they'll begin to listen up a little bit about Hanway between Claremont and She... there couple cars like over the media that news when everybody slowing down to take a look at the inbound starts getting maybe the land road and it founding going big down into the Brookwood interchange as well Always were but they were moving we 285 right now to northeast side of town and on flow shot both north and southbound between Glenwood and La Vista and Longville Highway but no serious problems here to report on the news watch Gropers in Melbourne only time. I think it's bad enough listening to it, you want to try driving in this area northbound traffic is just about standing still, this is your mother traffic watch. There's Charlie what happens at the North shopping center and Laville High. This is B... Bill reporting for I came to Midas to get Midsize and got the shock of my life the right shock for my car absolutely it's our special offer good at Midas dealers until April 30 when you buy three of them and to get home that way trying to get home some else since the downtown Connector southbound with problems this afternoon on the northbound side the usual same thing for the Northeast Freeway they're stop and go from Brookwood around North Druid Hills on the northwest Freeway outbound from Brookwood is all the way heavy to about West Paces Ferry southbound Freeway outbound has got its slow spots around the stadium and University Avenue, the East freeway is pretty slow for a change. From the 120 interchange around Boulevard, Northwest Freeway doing double nickel coming up next going to get into something from the cakes on 96 rock at CMC start with I heard two shots and I saw police involved and then I heard two more in another police car. We began to see the blood fall and then four more shots were fired and there was a police car in front of us and their cars were blown out..."

At that time, Carol Coley, when the shooting stopped, two women were dead, one civilian and five policemen were wounded in San Antonio. 45 minutes later, police closed in on a mobile trailer and opened fire. Moments after that, the gunman, shot in the head, was lying dead on the pavement in San Antonio, Texas. Official seal at the US embassy in Moscow says no one was hurt today when a Russian man claiming to have a bomb forced his way into the embassy compound. The man fired two shots from two sawed-off shotguns and surrendered to US personnel. They turned him over to Soviet authorities. The embassy says, rather, the man gave no motive for his actions. The White House says there's been a prisoner exchange with the Soviet Union. Five political and religious dissidents were flown from Soviet prisons to New York in exchange for two Russians convicted of spying in the United States and White House spokesman Powell says the Soviet group includes Alexander Ginsburg, one of the best known Russian dissidents. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is ordering a shutdown of eight nuclear power plants designed by Babcock and Wilcox. The plants are to stop operating for safety reviews and modification. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is cooling down, but a gauge failure is making it difficult for officials to tell how fast and how much. So the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has opened up its hotline to the Harrisburg trouble spot. Correspondent Patina Gregory told us what happened: "The NRC says a gauge failed today that reads the water level inside the primary cooling system of the reactor. So what authorities did was turn off that primary cooling system and go to a system of natural circulation to cool the reactor down. But in the meantime, the NRC in Bethesda opened up a hotline directly to the plant so they could monitor what was going on. And we have learned there's been a leak of radioactive iodine into the control room, and all people inside that control room have had to put on masks or respirators. No word on how..."**"...radioactivity was leaked." That was correspondent Patina Gregory in Washington.

The president of the Atlanta school board, Benjamin Mays, says teachers should forfeit pay for any time missed because of a strike. The Atlanta Association of Educators has mailed a strike survey to teachers who are upset because the school board's proposed budget for next year provides a raise of only six and a half percent. Other teachers in Georgia would get a nine and a half percent pay raise approved by the Georgia legislature. A motorcyclist is the third traffic fatality in DeKalb County today. Police spokesman Chuck Johnson says the motorcyclist is identified as Ashland Alexander School, 26, of Marietta, Georgia. He was traveling at a high rate of speed northbound on Claremont Road and apparently was unable to stop for a Cadillac which was making a left-hand turn onto Audubon Drive. That accident occurred at about 1:30 this afternoon. Johnson says the victim was taken to the DeKalb General Hospital where he died about an hour after the accident. We returned to daylight savings time this weekend. Remember to turn your clock ahead one hour when you go to bed Saturday night.

Hello news wide sports. After a two-day rest, the Braves continue their current homestand tonight, starting a weekend series with the Chicago Cubs. The Braves' Bill Niekro will be going after his 199th career pitching victory. The Atlanta Hawks have evened their NBA playoff series with the Bullets, with the seventh and deciding game to be played Sunday in Washington. Pro golfer Nancy Lopez has decided to pass up the Lady Michelob tournament next month at the Brookfield West Country Club. However, the tournament will have 8 of the top 10 money winners entered. On the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial average closed down 4.33 at 856.64. Volume 29,610,000 shares. Eaton Airlines... Well, a lot of people are already cutting back on meat consumption, and prices continue rising. What will a boycott do? "I don't think enough people cut back." "Enough, yes, because they figured, oh, I haven't cut back fast enough yet. I realized that I got meat in my freezer." "But I'm not going to lose it. One person I buy meat from doesn't have an effect. 100 people in one... people in large turning away in that meat corner will have an effect in a hurry." "...after this."

That was the lady that started the boycott on coffee. She's now getting a boycott too... She's starting a boycott now on meat, which is really expensive here, just awful. 14th Street... no real problems into Peachtree Street as you move through Brookwood. Old Peachtree Street traffic heavy up to Brookwood Drive and the Deering Road, 25th Street area. Traffic on West Peachtree Street as you move north of 14th is looking pretty good till you get up into Peachtree Point, and there... there's not a red light up there you will know. Then you have to work your way out into Peachtree Street Road. Expect some delay there. The traffic on Northside Drive... earlier there was an accident, 1700 block of Northside Drive, police are getting it cleared up. You might want to use Howell Mill Road as an alternative. That's all we have from the news radio 92 CB traffic center.

Well, I just thought you might be interested in what the traffic's like here every afternoon. From about three o'clock, they have the chopper report and the bubble top report pops all over, they call them. They've got choppers all over the place, and they're all ringing in telling you what's going on. That's really hell out there. I mean, these freeways are five and six lanes wide, and they get absolutely jammed up. It's tough going. And the other was a little bit of news of daily events in the United States. San Antonio was the big place today with some guy going crazy, but there's always something going on, you know, just even locally. But we had a spring holiday just before Easter. They have a week off, the public schools do. The private schools have a different week. It really is quite funny; the private schools will not conform at all with the public schools here, and they always have separate holidays except for the summer vacation, which is, of course, the same three months during July and August. But anyway, during that week the children had off, which was when Maitland had his accident, there were two little girls kidnapped that go to Rachael's school. One was in her class. Fortunately, it all came to a reasonably happy ending, but... kidnapped them. My mother was in hospital and found out all about it and went round and told the babysitter that had been told to come and take them to see their mother. And he went off tearing out of town. He was miles away. And the older girl, the one in Rachael's class was 8 and the other almost was 10, she jumped out of the car at some point, which was a terribly risky thing to do, but she was okay. And after that, the guy sort of panicked about it and ran into a lamppost, pranged up the car, and he tried to get a woman in a pickup truck to take him somewhere, and now they all got in her car or something like that, and they ended up going to the hospital because he had hurt his arm and was unable to drive. And when they got to the hospital, the little girl was screaming and shouting, and finally, they realized what was happening. And the other little girl that had leapt out of the car... and they all were returned home, and the guy apparently is now behind bars. But then just last week, there was a little boy murdered in the southwest, a nine-year-old boy murdered by, I think, a nutcase of about 19. And the children at Rachael's school were collecting money to help with his funeral expenses and so on, which were very high here. He used to be in Mrs. Curley's class, that's Rachael's teacher, and Rachael said that when the children were told, they were all crying and carrying on. They had television in the classrooms, and quite often they let them watch the news or whatever, and apparently, it was on the news. So, you know, just daily things really. Pretty dry stuff.

But life here in Atlanta generally is really very nice. The trees are... middle school just right now? And we've been very busy. Ruth's been traveling a great deal. She's been... well, they've been away for a couple of weekends, and she's in New York right now. She was in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, and you know, it's just busy Bev. Okay, I recorded that on Friday the 27th of April. It's now Sunday morning, and I was busy writing to you, but I've decided that I'll complete this tape and send it to you with the general news on it. Maitland has just come up, and he wants to start talking, so I'll let him go. Are you ready, Maitland? Do you know what you want to say to Auntie Nana and Grandpa? Well, Maitland... as he... he wants to tell you what happened to his chin. "I fell right over with the phone in my arm. And I crashed onto one point, landing on the world." "You can talk better than that." "And so what happened after that when you hit the one-point landing?" "I hit the one inside." "Yes, and then what couldn't... you couldn't run." "My lady carried you, didn't she? And then what? What did Jimmy say?" "Doctor's... got to go to the hospital." "And what was it like at the hospital, Maitland? D... D... How... who was the doctor?" "Mr. Hobby? Mr. Hoy?" "And what did he do to you?" "He gave me the shots." "He gave you shots." "Well, was Mr. Hobby nice, Maitland?" "A little bit nice." "He was... See what Rachael's... You want to see what Rachael's doing? She's doing... making something for a program. She's making something for a program. What program she's making? She's putting the line on a bed." "And that brown big thing on the Maitland's bed. And let's see what sort of program she is having." "I think it's The Lion and the Clown. Oh, she is making another program." "Do you want to play on that program, mate?" "I think she's doing little plays downstairs. Do you think you could participate in that nicely?" "The other little boy was that of Helen, the little girl that lives across the road. She's just had her seventh birthday."

Anyway, oh, there was just something I was going to mention on that bit of news earlier on the tape about teachers. Ruth's... she's in sort of an administration area, they call it. She's on a certain program called a Follow Through program, as they call her, but she's still on a 12-month teacher's pay. They have different kinds of teachers, and she's in the 12-month group, which are obviously the full-timers, but they have had a cutback recently, and she's been cut back by something like 20 days, which means, you know, obviously she doesn't work. And this is what they do with all the teachers. It's unlike New Zealand, where they're paid for the full year; they're just paid for so many days a year. Like the days that the children had off during the ice storm have to be made up also on a Saturday. They have to go... the 6th of June will be a Saturday, and they have to go back to school that day to make up for it. They made up one earlier in the month. Anyway, but as I said, the teacher's pay is organised quite differently.

What else was I going to mention? Oh yeah, television here. You know, there are so many channels, and for instance, last night John was home late, and there was... there's such a lot of garbage on, you know, CHiPs... I don't know whether you had CHiPs? That's about two crazy motorbike cops and all that sort of junk. And the $1.98 Beauty Show, which has got a whole lot of uglies on, and they get... the $1.98... the one that wins, and so on. They're really quite crazy. Well, last night, we've had... There are several education channels, and they really are excellent. They have as little advertising as possible. Instead of actual advertising, they have that, you know, IBM or some large organisation had sponsored putting them on. And for instance, last night I watched Shakespeare's plays, that was Henry VIII from the time that he married Catherine of Aragon to the time that the first child of Anne Boleyn was created. And it was three hours, and I guess that it was in four parts, and there were only about two advertisements between each part, which is very, very few for here. We're constantly barraged with advertising, and you really are... bad news, but you get to the point... the ads are... some of them are excellently done, they're very, very good advertisements, and you do get to... you do get very many of them. But I gather Helen's been sending us newspaper clippings quite regularly lately, and I gather that South Pacific Television Channel 12 is in serious trouble, so obviously the advertising is the only thing that keeps it going. But we thoroughly enjoyed watching the plays last night. I was going to have an early night, but I went on from there to watch Saturday Night Live, and it was finally about quarter to two, which, of course, was quarter to three when I went to bed.

Oh, the other thing that I noticed in this week's clippings was that Orewa would be in serious trouble. I gather they're selling up all the land, and I think the article read that it was planned that 15,000 people would live there, but now apparently only 3,000 are there at present, and they're selling up the rest of the land. So obviously the building industry is still in trouble. We are just floored, you know, by the comments from different people about what's happening down there. I don't know whether you notice it when you're living in it. You know, we always feel that when you're living in something, you never really... Life still goes on happily. For just a moment... I'll tell her... Yeah, Rachael's just come upstairs, and she informs me that she's getting things organized downstairs. "What exactly are you organizing downstairs, Rachael?" "Well, we get lots of... putting them in front of each other on a rag on the floor, and then we will invite some people to sit in the chairs and the children on the floor." "And you see me and Bay and Clown and Lion will be in play. And the Lion has a dress on, one of my dresses, and we did... as he up there's in it? And we put a bow on his tail. He looks very beautiful lion." "You better explain to Nana... Lion is very big." "What you mean play? What have you called the play Helen wants to know?" "The Lion That Eats Everyone?" "The Lion That Eats Everyone? Oh, The Lion and the Clown." "Lion and the Clown. And what do you call this room you've got set up down there, Rachael? The studio?" "No. Oh, you just told me it was your studio." "Call it the movie... the movie... movie..." "The..." "...And you're going to have good fun watching?" "Are you going to sell... Are you going to have fun at the play? We're going to try and get some people to come to it." "Are you going to charge them?" "How much are you charging them?" "$2?" "$2. That's quite expensive, isn't it?" "I'm..." "...a billion billion... adults $2 and children $25 cents? Oh, yourself? Sell some cookies and stuff." "Now we're making ice blocks in the freezer already on the television." "Well, do you want to tell Nana something about what's been happening at school? Do you want to tell her about the exam that she had to sit?" "I want you to tell her about Rachael..." "But you didn't mind it, did you at all? You thought it was easy peasy." "Why, what's the problem? Ba... one? Maitland's got something to say." "Nana, we're going to do the pledge." "I'll show you the name of my teacher and how I whistle." "Go somewhere. Okay, where do we go? Quickly, quickly?" "This... Miss... Now we're going to do the play. Everybody ready. Thanks. And just look for it." "That's excellent, children."

Well, it's Maitland's sixth birthday on Tuesday, and he's very excited under Maitland. Yes. Tell Nana the people that came. We said we know... Oh, oh, how many boys? And who are they, are you? "Dies? You got lots of buddies at school, haven't you now Maitland? Did you have to sit in the thinking chair last week?" "Are you telling me the truth? How many times did you sit in the thinking chair?" "Anon." "Missus... Miss Eson told me that it was five times Maitland, was it? How many times?" "So." "She always says that." "Well, I got a message through Rachael the other day. Rachael came running out, and she said, 'Ms Eson told me to tell you that Maitland mightn't mind her, and he won't mind the music teacher.' Is that true?" "You would mind the music teacher? And you would mind Miss Eson? Well, wonder what you were doing, babe? Was it Stevie?" "Yes, he keeps on annoying me. So I hit him back." "Is that right? I see. We don't have to annoy him back, Maitland. Then you won't get... then you won't get... TC William?" "I didn't." "Oh, I see. He made you." "Like voice?" "Oh, I see. He makes it sound like your voice. He must be quite clever." "Does he have a screechy little voice?" "Oh well, you're looking forward to a happy birthday party, aren't you Maitland? And do you know what, Maitland? Open that present that Marcisha sent you that you haven't been allowed to open yet. There's a letter there from Nana, a card from Nana." "No, no, not even till your birthday. I'm going to keep it till Tuesday morning."

Well, that's a little bit of the children. Maitland goes a bit... like both go a bit silly when they're on the tape. You find if you can distract them enough to sort of like when he got carried away about Stevie, if they sort of forget they're on, they perform much better. Anyway, what can I tell you about...? We had a lady staying last week for just over a week. She was here, and she's from Sea Island, which is on the coast, and she was here to have tests and her medical at West Paces Ferry Hospital, which is where Maitland went for his chin. Her name is Dudley Robinson, but we called her Lamb Robinson. Anyway, Dudley arrived on Tuesday a week ago. She's a very close friend of... Jimmy's family, Jimmy's family from Lynchburg, Virginia. And this lady lived up that way too, and her husband died five years ago, so she sold her house, her house up there, which was apparently enormous and had 20 bedrooms, and she sold it to the government. It's now a state home for tourists. She bought this enormous place down in Sea Island where Ruth and Jimmy do go and visit her quite a bit. So they wanted her to be pretty comfortable here, and we entertained her royally on Saturday night. We had 30 people in for dinner that she had met that have been down to Sea Island. They're all golfers. During the evening, John was setting me... was wanting... and come... and they're all royals, and they all played golf. Anyway, they all came. They'd all been down to Sea Island because Sea Island is purely a tourist resort. It's just a hotel, and there's a few hundred people living over there, but it's mostly beach houses, Richard Mansions, and the hotel and golf course. Most of their principals have been down. It's one of the holiday resorts around here, and it's terribly expensive.

Anyway, all these people came for dinner, and we planned it three weeks before. And Ruthy and I... for outdoors, can you believe that? Well, on the Saturday, it was just a fabulous day. It was warm, but it wasn't too hot. If it's too hot, the bugs come out, the bugs... but it was just very pleasant. We had folding tables out on the patio and linen tablecloths and napkins and all the silverware and crystal and beautiful floral arrangements. And we served this meal to 30 people. It really went off extremely well. During the morning, one of the couples that were coming called up and said could they bring a guest with them, and Ruth said of course they could. And we were joking that it was Lamb Robinson's date because it made up the even numbers to 30. It turned out his name was Mitch Kupchak, who is a professional basketball player for the Washington Bullets. And they were here... the basketball is about to end, and the playoffs are on at the moment. In fact, this afternoon we're going to watch the very final, which is the Washington Bullets and Atlanta. They've won three games each, and they're about to play off for the seventh game. So this will be an exciting game today. It's all very exciting, terrific basketball. Anyway, this guy is in the Washington Bullets. He's white, which is quite unusual, I think, you know, about 80% of the teams are black. And he's seven feet tall. Well, I thought we were going to have to remove the doors completely, but he almost touched the beams on the roof in the den where we had drinks beforehand. He's just gigantic. And the guy... the couple that he came with was... the chap's his financial advisor here in Atlanta, and he stays with them when he's down here. Very nice guy and promising future, I gather, though they have to be preparing for later on. Apparently, the tragedy of these professional sportsmen is just shocking. The terrible things that happen to them when they retire... of course, if they're injured and out... I mean, they make millions while they're at it, but they spend a lot also. Their standard of living's extremely high and your life can be quite sad afterwards.

Anyway, he was here at the dinner, and we really had a very nice evening. Everyone was all dressed up. Ruthie has a friend called Dudley, and Dudley's just got so much money. John claims her only program in life from day to day is how to spend it all. One of her problems is that she has a beautiful home, really fabulous. Both of them... each of them have a dressing room, and Dudley was showing Ruth and I her new wallpaper. Apparently, it's been wallpapered about six times in the last six months because she can never find one that she's happy with. She was showing us... this is a sunken bath, tiled bath, and the sauna and goodness knows what. But there is a whole wall that would put Ashley... out of business. It is full of shoes. I mean the most... they're Gucci and all the big names in shoes. And... but occasionally tries to get her act together and pops the shoes in the wrong boxes, and Dudley can spend hours just looking for the pair of shoes. I'm sure that she only wears them once or twice, so it's probably not a great problem. Anyway, Dudley was over for dinner also a few weeks ago with another couple, friends of Ruth and Jimmy. He's the Martins. He's an eye doctor, they call them here, which sounds rather quackish, but he's an optometrist or some damn thing, or he's an eye specialist anyway. They're a super couple. Anyway, they've got two children. In fact, they live just up the road from the Shields. The Shield kids are in the same class at school and go to Westminster. Four and a half years ago, they purchased a snake, and they called it Noah the Boa. Well, Noah the boa has caused all kinds of problems with the servants and maids and so on. One time a maid, who was terribly frightened... the snake had a reputation of going missing. Dudley, when she was there dining, would not eat or sit or drink or anything until she had completely checked out where Noah the boa was, that he was safely in his cage because people were always sneaking their arm around her back and tickling her and so on. She'd think this snake had appeared, but his history had been one of disappearing for two weeks at a time. And on one occasion, they hid him in the bathroom, and he apparently got up into the air conditioning vent, which was a good four feet from a painting on the wall, which he must have got to, and then up through the roof. And they found him in the attic, and he'd been there two weeks. But one time he was missing, and the little girl had hidden him, and the mother took her out to McDonald's for a treat and tried to con her into finding out where the snake was. And anywhere the little girl told her that she'd popped it in a closet... Auntie Ruthie's home? But she unfortunately got there today with a white face, a black maid standing at the door, and she didn't even have to ask. Yes, she found Noah. She had put her hand into the closet to get out or put something in, and the snake appeared. When they bought it, it was about a foot long. Finally, just a few weeks ago, it was 5'6". I mean, it was huge anyway. And I gather it's not something you ever get terribly fond of. You know, they don't sort of become family pets, but its weekly diet was one live rat. Can you imagine going to buy a live rat every week? Anyway, this particular week, they bought the rat and so on and gave it to Noah. And Noah was moving or shaking or whatever the hell snakes do periodically when he was obviously in a very apathetic state. And when they went in, the rat had eaten Noah, which was just charming. So that was the end of Noah. I told Beverly about it, who wasn't... you had to admit that she wasn't terribly upset because she couldn't bear the damned thing. So that was the end of Noah the Boa.

Ruthy and Jimmy have some wonderful friends. They really are very nice people, and they're all very sweet to us, and you know, it's just very, very nice living here. The kids just adore Elodie. Jimmy caught Maitland the other morning. He's always having his cuddle, and Jimmy had given Elodie to him early in the morning. He was sitting in Jimmy's big armchair with Elodie in his arms, and he just looked into her eyes, and Jimmy heard him... he said to her, "I just love you, Elodie," looking deep into her eyes. He really... just the novelty just hasn't worn off with them. It was quite funny. We were coming home from school the other day, and the children said... Was it right? Rachael said, "Yeah, do you know what a real family is?" And I said, "No, what's a real family?" "Should have a mother?" I said, "Yes." "And a father?" I said, "Yes." "And a brother?" "Yes." "And a sister?" "And a baby?" I said, "Oh." Because I said, "Well, we'll need a baby." And Maitland said, "Can we steal Elodie?"

Well, John's finding himself pretty busy now. He works nearly all weekend for Bob Edwards, you know, doing things around the place. But in fact, he's just come back this morning and went over... Bob's there away for the weekend, and Bob had got the whole roof space sprayed with sort of insul-fluff or some damn thing anyway. As you go in through the gigantic totem poles and through the main front door, there are two closets on either side of the front door, which most of these houses seemed to have. And when the house was completely sprayed with fluff, they realized when they opened one of the closets that had the vacuum cleaner and stuff, and there it was... it was full of insul-fluff. And there had never been a ceiling put into this closet, if you believe. So they're away for the weekend now and asked John if he would go... And, I mean, part of your job in this case is also to clean up the insul-fluff. Whoever heard of doing anything like that? And so he's just gone over there this morning. But one of Bob's daughters is home studying. She lives away from home, but she comes home to study in peace and quiet. And so she has just asked him politely, you know, did he have to do it today? She really would rather he didn't. This... well, I'll run out of tape. So bye y'all, take good care, and we'll see you soon.