Episode 6 - SVW Tapes - 30th September, 1979

Well, good morning, y'all. It must be like the 30th of September today. And I don't know whether you ever received any blank tapes, but this tape I had already recorded a little bit on the 31st of January. I don't know whether I started another one or not, but if you ever get any blank tapes, that's just a mess up at this end.

Well, the rains have come. on the 30th of September, we've had no rain at all, you know, and yesterday, Sunday, it rained all day solidly, and it's raining again today, and the forecast is for a few more days of rain. It's most unusual to get rain consistently like this; usually it comes in thunderstorms and stuff, you know, but it's very wet out. And the children got all dressed out this morning. Actually, it's quite cool this morning; it's down to about 60, which is a heck of a change from that humidity just over a week ago. It was, you know, still very, very humid and hot, and maybe it won't get up to the 90s again after this. I shouldn't think so, although there are over 80 problems for later on in the week. The leaves are starting to fall, and the trees are starting to turn colour. There's still a lot of green around here, of course. They're talking about the leaves starting to fall on the mountains, so it's much colder up there. Here, there are a lot of leaves on the ground already, and the section's starting to look messy, you know? It's much prettier when there's a lot more leaves on the ground.

Anyway, so what's been happening? I thought I'd better catch up on this. I've had a lot of communication from Graham and stuff lately, which I've had to attend to, a few phone calls and so on and so forth. Nothing disastrous. Graham called the other morning, which is quite a thrill, just said g'day life. Like he was calling from Tower to Wellington, but it's mostly been over Brian Hazlock that's in John's workroom. She is there... I'm hardly awake yet. Oh well, as you can see, it's very early in the morning, it's 7:30. I've been up since about quarter to six, but I'm just not quite together yet. By the way, it is only the 29th today. You can tell I don't know what day of the week it is. But anyway, what was I saying? Oh, about Brian. Yeah, he wants to... there was a clause in the contract where he could not open another business anywhere within a million-mile radius of Wellington, so on and so forth. And he wants to buy another business in Wellington, which he called here about a couple of times the other week, and John's perfectly happy for him to do that. He's buying a guy called Rama Ethan, an Indian guy. Well, why the hell he wants to do it, I have no idea, but he wants to buy his business and operate both of them. And Rama has been operating this business without even being there, so there's no reason why he can't do that. And he still will continue to run Lambton Quay, which is where, of course, John wants to be with all the new buildings. Graham said there's 28 buildings going up, and Lambton Quay has always been, I think, the best part of town and will remain that way, and a lot of that building is going on there. So he naturally wants to keep his office open there, and so no problem. You know, Graham's got all sorted out, but although Brian said that he'd called and it was all okay with John, he just said, "You're better to be sure than sorry," you know, so he just put a call through. And he hinted that he and Betty may well come over for a trip, which will be nice.

That was the news from that end. We had Pat Lyford here last week, who lived at number 12 Cromwell Street. You know Joan lived at 16, so it was just a house between them. He's a guy from Blenheim and had gone to school with John and Graham and Ron and everybody. And he's in... he manufactures Rembrandt suits. So they have factories out at Naenae somewhere, and he was over here for the Bobbin show, which is a big annual event in Atlanta, looking for machinery. Quite offended Beverly, I think, when they popped in to see her. John picked them up about five and ran them around while it was still daylight and showed them a bit of Atlanta and then called in briefly to see Beverly because, of course, he knew Bev and Jack as well, well from 25 years ago, you know, he remembered them at the school. Jack was a teacher at the school, and Beverly was still a pupil, I guess, in the sixth form or something. And she's a bit older than John and Pat, you know. Of course, Jack was back there as a teacher, so he knew them. But Beverly, "Oh, you've come over for designs?" And they said, "Oh no, they'd come over for machinery." In fact, Rembrandt isn't an American company, I gather. And they said, "Oh no, we go to Europe for our designs." And she, I think, was quite offended at that. But I mean, you know, nobody ever said... she, of course, immediately said, "Well, you know, New Zealand guys have never been well dressed." And as I said to Sunny next door, nobody has ever said that New Zealand was the trendsetter. But I do believe that New Zealand men aren't too badly dressed. Heavens, obviously, you see some real weirdos around here, and American fashions aren't all that hot, you know. And all their best designers go to Europe, so I don't know, she was just getting a little touchy. And the other thing they apparently said wasn't that... American men were so... clothes were kind of flashy, you know? And so I had to explain to her that, you know, even Jimmy Watts, who was a Brooks Brothers conservative, like most... you know, I mean, he's a well-dressed guy, but Brooks Brothers is the most dull shop in the whole place. I mean, they have that preppy look. And they all wear those cotton shirts, all the same. And they all wear... even their dressing gowns are the same. I mean, it is one conservative store. And you know, that same Jimmy Watson and the like, you know, the ex-Virginia University kind, will come out in golf clothes that would just... you make your eyes water, that you just about need sunglasses to wear. Well, you'd never see a New Zealander in clothes like that. And you know, not that that's not fair enough, but you only see that here. You don't see that in Europe or anywhere else. It's only Americans that come out in those big clothes. And when you live here, you get used to it and wear it out yourself. Anyway,

So what else has been happening? Well, I don't know. We've been flat out. I have not written in my diary for months. So I sort of have to just go by what I can remember now, because the kids are well back into school. We've been having a hell of a lot of problems with the school buses. You know, I mentioned to you that they weren't taking Marta buses this year, that the subsidy was just too high for the Education department to handle because the fares had gone up to 50 cents, and they only want the kids to pay 15. So they've now... the city schools have now gone over to national buses, which is what all the other schools use anyway. That's those yellow old-fashioned looking buses that beetle around. And it's been no end of trouble. And what is so infuriating is that Miss Wooten, the headmistress, has spent hours on this goddamn thing. I mean, she's just flat out, and you know, we would much rather her teach our kids reading, writing, and arithmetic than worrying about goddamn school buses. But she has spent... what is it? We're a month back into school, and she's still buggering around with these buses and the problems. I said back to her Friday about another business again and said that if there was anything I could do... Sunny and I had ridden the bus two days to try and see if we could help the drivers and stuff. You see, the problem is... one of the problems... there aren't any... I must confess... that these black drivers just do not know this area. And of course, those little buses do funny little routes. I mean, they go down every damn street around, and you know, it's hard for us to know exactly where they go because they go on such funny little routes. But anyway, they come, and of course, then they get a good driver, and the next thing he's off sick and one thing and another. With Marta, I guess if they had somebody off sick, they'd just throw another driver on. Well, the national buses aren't the same, you see. And of course, these guys probably don't earn as much. The Marta drivers can earn up to $40,000 a year. I imagine that's with a lot of overtime. These guys wouldn't get the opportunity of so much overtime because although the national buses do an awful lot of carrying around, they don't, you know, they're obviously not working all day.

Anyway, so they finally... Miss Wooten said, you know, one of the problems... Sunny had said to her, "Well, I'm just waiting to see a typical day." She said, "We haven't had one yet." You know, I mean, it's just unbelievable. They break down, and the drivers don't turn up, and they get lost for two hours and all this sort of stuff. Anyway, finally, our bus seems to settle down. We seem to have a nice driver, and he chats away, which is... he's at least civil, which some of them have not been. But I think I've told you in a letter... I can't remember what I've told you, what I haven't, because I haven't made a tape for a while. I've got all your notes there, which I must look at right now too. Sunny had the problem where the kids came home real upset. They, you know, weren't allowed to take leave items on the bus anymore, but of course, that's ridiculous. The black children, if they couldn't take their football gear and stuff on the bus, just wouldn't be able to do these things because their parents can't run them to school 20-30 miles. So anyway, when she finally got hold of the head... she rang down at the National Bus Service. He had the guy fired, which was just... there's some poor bugger out of a job today. But he's not supposed to attack the children on any issue at all. I mean, parents can handle it, but you don't attack the kids on it; they just get upset.

The other thing that I called Miss Wooten about the other day was... I came home... every Thursday, we get a newsletter from the school, and there is a thing called NAPP, which is the... I think it must be the Northside Association of Paranoid Parents Society or something, but it's something to do with the Northside Parents, and they were saying... I must read this thing, and it was about the children being bused. And there is some talk that they want to abandon the 50-50 ratios in the schools, in the city schools. They want to abandon that, you see, and I thought, "Oh, we're not going to bring the black kids up to school here." And that this was a big letter in the Atlanta Journal, which is the evening paper, which we don't get anyway. And to the letter to the editor. And they... school wanted us and the association thing to write letters to the editor saying, you know, what we felt. Well, I really wasn't sure what I felt because I didn't quite understand the whole thing. So I called her Friday and said, "You know, where did the school stand on it?" Because I wanted to support the school, and I think of... that I had missed out, you know, the sort of earlier years of all this. And I had quite a long talk with her, and she said, "You know, what's so frustrating is that the South has suffered from what she calls 'bad media' for years about how bad the schools are. You know, on and on, that if anything ever good happens, nobody ever writes that up. They just give them a hard time about everything." And she was quite proud of that article, which I think I might have sent you recently, where at least Jackson was mentioned, which when you consider how many schools there are in the state of Georgia... the areas there were... that was a pretty good thing because a pretty good write-up. Because after all, being a city school is always an incredible disadvantage. And of course, with the number of black children that go to the city schools and shortage of money... you know, these schools outside of the city have endless sources of income from just generous parents and help and so on and so forth. But when you're busing kids 30 miles, those parents, not because they're neglectful, they just cannot be at the school all the time doing things.

Well, I had completely misread this thing. And... want to do... she was telling me is stop the 50-50 ratio, but she said that doesn't mean that they won't be sending the black children to school here. That means they want to change the ratio from 80 to 20 or maybe 70 to 30. She said, "You know, whatever," because the black people claim that the schools in the Northside area are the best and that they have the best teachers and the best facilities and so on and so forth. Which, of course, as Ruthie... I called Ruth and she came over and we had a chat about this... is very likely true, but it's only because, of course, that the parents, you know, work a little harder on it and have a little more money, I'm sure, to come and go on. But anyway, so if that ratio should change, of course, the few children that we do have in the school, parents will take them out, and they'll be more 'white flight' as they call it here. And they'll either go to private schools, or they'll move outside of the city boundaries, which, of course, instantly means that there is probably exactly the opposite in the ratio of black children at the school. You know, the change from 10% of black to 90 of white, which is the other way around in the city. But of course, Jackson... the maximum that they can have in black children is 50-50, which suits fine now. I don't mind the children going to school with black children, but I certainly would feel uncomfortable if there were only 10% of white children and 90% of black. And then you have the ridiculous situation where they're busing a whole community to school in another area, and so you end up busing black kids to black schools in white areas, which obviously is ridiculous, gains absolutely nothing. So I have been constructing a letter to the newspaper about, you know, how much we have to gain from one another. Culture... I mean, it's very difficult to make any statement without sounding totally racial, and which is what it is, of course, but it's just pointless having more than 50% in the schools. And of course, the teachers would leave too because even the black teachers like the school because, of course, it does... you know, Jackson is the best school in the area, and it's quite a thing to be a teacher at that school, I'm sure. Certainly a lot nicer than some of the other schools. And what they need, of course, the only way to overcome this, as everybody here says, is to have integrated communities, not integrated schools, that does nothing. But integrated communities, which is a long way off. Maybe never. I mean, you know, nobody wants... I mean, we don't feel as racial as some that one can meet here. I mean, you can be talking to a perfectly sane person who will suddenly turn around and say something absolutely horrid about blacks. But you know, there's no way that you want to go buy a house in the middle of a black area and feel comfortable there. And the same for them. You know, it's only the very wealthy ones that have sort of got out of this and will move into an area like this. Fact, I had a funny thing... Rachael has a friend called Beth Stein. Her mother was at soccer with us on Saturday, and she had three black kids... I mean, were they black weather...? And I thought, "God, where'd she get those from?" And introduced me to them, and they're all in Rachael's and Maitland's class and stuff. Three of them go to Jackson. She said, "Oh, these are our new neighbors." And she said, "We're thrilled here." She said, "Beth has had no one her age to play with in the whole neighborhood hood, and these kids are her age, of course." And she said, "They're from Haiti." And they haven't lived in Haiti for a while, I gather, but anyway, they've been all over the place, but the father's a very, very professional surgeon of some kind, and the mother is also... they're both very highly educated people. And of course, they're just a delight. But Sandy Stein, the mother, was telling me that when they first bought the house, of course, the neighbour was up in arms about it because, of course, they were black. And she said, "This house ain't no drop in the bucket." She said, "This house was $200,000." And they just say, "Yeah, we'll take it." And this old woman that had been selling it and had it on the market for ages and couldn't sell it... finally when she sold it to them, of course, she was leaving, didn't care, but the neighbors were up in arms. But of course, the neighbors have all been absolutely delighted as to, you know, the standing of these people. They're very nice. They had full-time help. I mean, they're wealthy people and perfectly nice as well. And they... apparently there's been a little bit of feeling in the area, but... Oh, they all got... I thought they were blacks, well, like American blacks at first, but of course, they're not.

Well now, let me get my notes so that I can cover what I needed to off your letters and tapes first because there's been two tapes. This is tape one, which there is more to answer on than tape two, which was more chatty about Joan and Ed being and so on and so forth. I'll start with tape one. Oh, the first thing I had down here was competition Bay, and I wondered what if that was... thinking of Maitland immediately, but I was thinking of the competition one has to make a tape recording with Bay the bird. By God, that bird can make a racket sometimes. You're obviously used to it, and sometimes continue chatting on through, and you don't realize that there is serious competition between you and the bird. Anyway, I've got something about 'front not back', which I don't understand. Then I've got parish arrivals etc, that you mentioned were coming in the parcel, and I had mentioned things like pounds of butter and ice cream and so on and so forth. If I was joking, but it does sound exciting, and we shall open the parcel when it arrives, as we did when Joan's arrived recently, which was birthday presents. And then Pat Lyford bought some more presents for the kids from Joan when he arrived, which was a great opportunity, and we were able to send something back for Joan as well, which was real nice because, of course, men don't travel with a whole lot of stuff, so he didn't mind in the least taking some things back for Melanie. Anyway, so we look forward to the parcel arriving, and I will advise immediately when it does.

Carter, well, what I think too, I really do. I don't know. I haven't... the elections are really... but the kids are doing all kinds of stuff at school. They would take clippings, and Rachael's class have to read an autobiography about... a biography about a president, an older president. Rachael is reading one on Abraham Lincoln, which she's really enjoying, and she's read another one about his son Tad in the White House and how he ran through the White House with goats and garden hose and went right up into where his father was assassinated. But she's enjoying that. But Miss First, you know, honestly, that class is just... you know, that's the special class, and the kids in there are bright, and it's really quite funny. They have... they do all the extra things, you know, and they're doing this biography thing, and they're also obviously doing a lot of sort of American politics and stuff this particular session. And Miss First, who is so Southern and drops magnolias constantly, and she just loves her children, and she says things like, "I never compare my children, I love each child." And they all think she's quite mad, you know. Anyway, she says to the children, "Why..." Yeah, they've been discussing communism. They're real, you know, big on communism here. They teach everybody to be absolutely... well, obviously against everything. She says, "Why children? What kind of government do we have in this country?" And one of the kids apparently said, "Well, we've a good government." And the whole lot says, "We've a good government." She thinks that's just so funny. You know, that's the topic of the day. She thinks that they're brilliant to think like that. She... she runs them bananas. I mean, but you know, I don't really care... but she does get results, and she really stimulates those kids' points beyond a reasonable rationale, really, but she... It... as I said, very bright kids in the classes.

Last Saturday, I met a lady and Mr. Silverman, from obvious extraction, and she is... well, Beth Stein's mother was telling me she is a brilliant woman herself, and she has just taken her kids out of what they call Montessori schools here. I guess you've heard of Montessori schools? She said... and I said, "Oh, were they at Montessori school like finished? Was that the end of the road there or what?" And she said, "Oh, they could have continued to go there, but it was too small." And I said to her, "Well, I thought that was a funny comment. Most people are complaining about the sizes of the classes." She said, "Well, Joel," her oldest son, who was in Rachael's class and in the special class with Miss First as well, she said, "there was finally eight children between the age of 8 and 11 in his group." She said, "That's just not enough, you know? He wasn't getting to see the world." And she's very much against private schools, and I was interested to hear that. She said that Westminster, the headmaster at Westminster is a born-again, you know, Christian, and he's just a pain in the neck. And of course, the Jews don't like that. Nobody does. I mean, I might have mentioned we went to the opening of the stadium at Westminster recently. We got bloody ear-bashing. As soon as this man started to talk, I knew he had a Baptist-type voice, and the next thing he told us that he had gained... he had seen the light. And I thought, "My God," you know, if you'd said, "Well, I really went to maths and did real well in maths or something." But he started on about Jesus and all that, and I was furious. And this, of course, gets to them too, you know, very much so. But she also felt that there just was not a cross-section at a private school, which is interesting because these people... the people... and this kid's in class with Rachael here, and I were watching the soccer. It was her little boy playing in Maitland's team, and they were winning too, much to... And she said, "Oh, Rachael and Joel seemed to be getting along terribly well." They were over in the corner of the soccer field on the other side of the field. And she said, "They seem to have struck up quite a rapport." So there they are chatting away. Well, it turns out that Joel and Rachael are on egg-turning duty in Miss First's classroom. They're breeding chickens this term. So I guess we'll have chickens to go with the gerbils shortly. And they just get on so well. And I said to Rachael afterwards, "That's really nice, you know, Joel's such a nice friend." And because, you know, she's not really interested in boys or anything. She said, "Oh, he's just such a kind boy." And he's not... he wears glasses. And she said he dropped out of soccer last year. He just said that he was going to give something up, and he felt like it was soccer because he just, you know, he's not obviously... he's, you know, more of an intellectual type, and soccer wasn't for him. But she said, "What Joel can do well, Joel just slides through." But she said, "What Joel can't do well, Joel seems to make a real nightmare of." And she said, "He can read just like we could have... reading is fantastic." I said to Rachael later, "Is Joel a good reader?" She said, "Oh, he's just fantastic. He can just read anything, and he reads real well." And but his mother said to me that Joel and mathematics are another thing again. Joel thinks that three and three are somewhere around 7 or maybe 5, you know. And I had to laugh. He obviously... wonderful reading and stuff, but his maths are poor anyway. But she was a very nice person. I had a nice chat with her, and Rachael seems to have struck up quite a relationship with Joel, which is nice for her to have a little male friend.

Anyway, well, where was I? Back to your list of things. Louis Grizzard. Yes, well, he is a food... I haven't heard from him yet. I was seeing Patsy the other day, who every time I go there, she's got somebody new working there, and she has to tell them just where I'm from and who my father is and what an aviation consultant is and how her and Helen get on so well. And then, I think I mentioned to you about the murders of the blacks downtown. You know, there's all these little boys going missing. There's like 10... I think they've only found six. They've all been murdered, so one can assume that the others have been too. And things are very bad down there as far as that's concerned. They've formed all kinds of, you know, parents' things. The terribly sad thing about these children going missing was at first... obviously, now if one goes missing, there's all hell let loose. But at first, you know, I guess it's the same in New Zealand. If a kid goes missing, they're assumed to have run away from home. But you know, I don't believe that any kid under sort of 12 has... well, that even if they have run away, should not be searched for other than through the Missing Persons Bureau. And that is all they were doing. Just sending in, and there's only a couple of people working in that department. I mean, it's not the whole police force. But of course, now there's such a hue and cry about all this that, you know, any child that goes missing for more than half an hour, the whole bloody country's out looking for them. But at first, they were just being looked for through the Missing Persons Bureau. When they found that so many were being murdered, obviously, they started to realize because the blacks are a little like the Maoris; they'll end up at somebody's place and just spend the night and decide to stay on and all this sort of stuff. But now there's a bit more to it. Anyway.

But speaking of criminals, I went to Service Merchandise recently with Sunny. And that's one of those big wholesale outlet places. They have everything. And Sunny and I had just been talking about, you know, one's privacy and everything. And damn me if they had the whole thing ready, and then they wanted my fingerprint. And I said to Sunny, "Well, we're leaving it here." You know, I mean, here you are faced with... you've got all your stuff, and if you go to one of these wholesale places, I mean, you walk in there, you get a pad and a pen, and you have to write down all these code numbers, and then you have to wait in a great line to get the stuff, and oh, it's just a pain in the neck. And then, of course, when you finally get the pastry... just now to take your fingerprint... you're all sort of throwing your arms up in the air and saying, "Here, forget it." But you know, you've been through all that beforehand, and you just don't feel like doing that. So I had to have my fingerprints taken at Service Merchandise. Anyway, the garden sounds lovely at home, and you... I know you're enjoying the new house. Joan says it's absolutely beautiful, and that's... or without, and all the rest, so she wanted to write and tell me that right away. Well, it sounds like Stephen had a nasty accident with his tongue. Anyway, I guess it's all better now.

Anyway, the parcel is coming. Oh yes, you know, you've had our mail that we've sent parcels over too, and I've mentioned to you in a letter how Sunny and I spent the whole day on that Elman's business trying to get that... all the stuff and everything. And I hope, you know, David doesn't mind my sending the extra two things, but having spent that whole day at it and all the rest, and then having had the trouble with that and everything, I just thought, "Oh shoot, let's just get this whole thing away and, you know, get on with it." And since I'd already debited Visa and all that, you know, and the bills would be coming on through. So you know, I'm sorry if it costs more than... well, it's cost more than they wanted to spend probably, but in the long run, you know, it's not all that much more. It's the first part that was the main part.

You mentioned... I've got written down here 'parsnips and carrots'. And you mentioned somebody giving them to you, I think, because we just love parsnips and carrots. Parsnips are very rare here and very, very expensive. You don't see them all that often. And then I've got 20 degrees. 20 degrees is what? About 40... 70? Well, that's pretty warm, but you know, it's... we've got the heating on today, and it's just... well, it's down to 60 anyway. And David going to the doctor with the pens? Well, send on over half a dozen pens, Dad could do with them. Um... anyway, what else? I've got 'jewels and photos', and I don't know what else I wrote all this down so long ago. And you know, you write down notes, and then you can't think what the notes are about. Oh, Terry's daughter's left home, I gather. Well, you know, maybe it is for the best. I don't know, you know.

Rachael enjoyed the violin bit on the tape that Dad sent, and she's coming along real well. She practices all the time, and on Friday night, she didn't have a music stand, which, of course, the first couple of lessons and stuff, she didn't really need one. But she said to me... oh, I thought she was calling it a submarine too, and Rachael was 'good submarine'. She gets on the bus, it's 'sub...ine submarine' or something, but we call it submarine. Anyway, she said, "Oh, she's got a music stand from last year that she's selling, and she wants $5 for it." And I said, "Okay. Well, let's go have a look at it." Well, it was brand new, and they're $12, they're the folding ones. So Rachael bought it with her own money that she earns, you know, from Mrs. Dettrich across the road. And she was real thrilled with it. And her first reaction was that it was in such good condition that she'll be able to sell it for $6 if she wants to, maybe a year from now. Obviously, they take it for a year, and that's about up, but we'll see. She's real keen, and I had to laugh. Sunny and I were just in hysterics because Matthew's learning the viola, and you know, we have to... the teacher told them unless they were tapping their foot, they weren't playing the violin. You know, they have to tap a beat of four and half notes, quarter notes, and all that stuff. And they're only learning pizzicato at the moment. Once they have mastered pizzicato, they're finally allowed to put the bow in their hand. But she sits there with this ruddy music stand up and on her chair that I bought from Kimbrough's for five dollars. She taps the foot, but Sunny and I were just in hysterics while playing Scrabble the other night. And she... the funny thing is that they tap their foot, but they tap the foot to when they, you know, pick up the strings, which is just a hoot. I mean, you know, when they finally get it together and keep the foot tapping constantly, and the music comes off the tap rather than tapping to the music. Anyway, it's all fun.

Anyway, then I think there must have been more on that other tape, but I just can't think right now what it was. I might just get this one down. Wrong number? No genes live here anyway, so... I'll go through that. I might finish this now because I've got a meeting at school at 10 o'clock, and I must get on with this. And I'll play them through before the mailman comes and adds to them. Anyway, the next tape was mostly about Joan and Ed, as I said, and it sounded like you all had a great time together. Because Joan and I are funny, we haven't hardly corresponded this year, and then all of a sudden, we get birthday presents, I write back, then she wrote back, I made a tape to her, which she would have got, I worked out, just after she got home from Christchurch. And then, of course, Pat Lyford... more gifts, and we sent a whole lot of stuff back for Melanie, so it's really been quite funny. But something you mentioned while they were there was that you had the ad in the paper for the mower. You should have sold it for $200 by the sound of things. Anyway, the other business was the blood testing of the rest of the family. Of course, Rachael and Maitland were not tested at the time, so you know, if you would like them tested, that would be no problem. I can just get the pediatrician here to... you know, they've had blood tests, and they're due to have... I won't bother getting... they're meant to have annual checkups here, and you can't go to camp and stuff unless you've had one within a year. They had them just before you came last year to go to school, which they needed.

Whoops. Run out there. I don't know what I was saying. This is side two, still the 29th of September. Side two again. But should the kids need blood tests, well, it's no problem. They need another annual checkup, but since they're fit and healthy, I won't bother taking them along. And there's no use taking them when they get sick for a checkup; they won't do it then. But I'm not going to bother rushing... Such extensive checking here. You know, everybody's so goddamn scared about being sued. You know, there was an ad in the paper recently about... Oh god, it's slipped my mind... having babies by Caesarean. And oh, you know, years ago, about 10% or whatever the statistics was, about 10% of women had Caesars. Now it's almost the other way around. Well, number one, it's nine to five. Number two, the doctors are so scared of being sued that they are not prepared to take any risks. So there's all kinds of weird things going on. But you know, they can have a blood test real easy, so no big problem. Fact, we can get that done at the clinic, I think, which is free. Americans don't use that, but I'm quite happy to use it.

Anyway, Sunday the 7th of September, it was Father's Day. Really, we... you know, you'd think that I would know that, but it isn't the same time of the year here. It's a different month, and you know, with the way they celebrate everything, and that year, what would even... Grandparent Day? It's ridiculous. But happy Father's Day, Father, for the seventh of September. I always remember that that falls around David's birthday. I should have known, but we were thinking of you anyway. Arthur Allan Thomas has just become absolutely ridiculous, don't know. And I was pleased to hear that somebody was sticking up for the police department and saying that, you know, he hasn't been found innocent altogether, although, you know, a complete pardon did seem rather... a let out for the guy. I mean, you know, he could have been given what Patty Hearst got, just a shorter sentence, would it seem to me. I mean, nobody ever said Patty was innocent. And Arthur Allan Thomas, to me, that case has many similarities in that thing, I think. Although there are people that are for him, obviously believe that it does not. But if you believe that he was the only guy that could have done it, well, in that case, you know, shorten his sentence but not give him a pardon. And the word 'pardon', of course, has obviously created all kinds of problems. I thought that the joke of it all was that, you know, when I said to you about sending Frank Gill here because the guy's a pain in the neck, and to give him that nice new embassy and everything. And then the business about Muldoon and having a Biele on Social Credit getting it... well, I mean, that's just about as funny as Blighgate. Anyway, and you said Labour's just got nothing going for it. Well, it really hasn't for years, has it? I mean, since Kirk died, there really hasn't been anybody able to run the party. And I guess it's not just... you need more than one person after all, and they just obviously... there's not sufficient backbone to the party to keep it going anyway.

What else has been happening? Well, you know, the Atkins have been away, but lately, they went to England with Lewis, and Harry... was funny. Lewis was last seen standing in his pinstripe pants and tails. They didn't realize that they wore tails all day at Eton, and I said to them, "Well, you know, they probably still have fags." And Harry said, "Oh no, this is the first year that they're going to not have fags at Eton; they're going to try it out." Anyhow, so they took him off to Eton, and then they came back, and then they went away again to take Harry up to Phillips Academy at Andover. But it was funny, I said to Harry something about Eton and, you know, how they have said that it's only one year, you know, that one doesn't have to do a whole lot of work. It's a little bit like an American Field Service thing. You're not expected to get high grades or really work too hard; it's more of a social experience and so on and so forth. And we were joking... he'll come back with such a nice voice, and they're hoping that just a little bit rubs off, and it must help their grammar, these kids. I go over to a school like that, and of course, the kid in the next room will have a Lord's son and all that. And Harry... I said, well... he said, "Oh, you know, he wants to get to Harvard, so that's what it's all about." And I said, "Well, what's the problem? I mean, is there some problem in getting into Harvard?" And he said, "Oh yes." He said his SAT exams aren't high enough. They have this thing SAT, which is the, I suppose, equivalent to UE. And of course, if your marks aren't real good in that, you don't stand a lot of hope. Well, I mean, Harvard is the best, so you need to be doing pretty well to get and remain there and do well there. And his marks... he's won everything in Greek history and stuff, but I don't know, perhaps his grades just aren't high enough. And they're hoping that this will kind of give him an extra year because he would have gone to Harvard this year. This will give him an extra year to mature and catch up and maybe increase his grades.

It seems a long time ago, but Mrs. Elson's parents came through here, and we had not, in fact, met them. You know, they're the ones who... I did an itinerary thing... not an itinerary, but a little travel thing for. And they were fantastic people. Joan came over to meet us, and they were just so laid back and nice and happy, and you know, the Elsens go around with such long faces at times. And John and I said, "Well, you know, I guess they're probably not as wealthy, number one. Number two, they're probably, you know, enjoying what they've got." I know the Elsens seem to take life awfully seriously for people with such a lot of money, but I suppose that's why, you know, they have to. But oh, I sent you the clipping about the airport and how he's got a law case going at the moment because of the Constitution and Journal selling newspapers in honesty boxes. And I had to agree that it is not in the public interest for people to have to walk to the newsstands, although there are something like 16 at the airport. You know, it's much more convenient if you just want a goddamn newspaper to go by one out of an honesty box, and not everybody wants to buy an "I love Atlanta" coffee mug while they're there or buy a candy bar, although most Americans will buy a bar of candy. But you know, I think that even the mayor had said so. It'll be interesting... Marsha says you see Walter's company, a fast food kind of thing, made all these meals for the schools, and they also own National Buses, I think I told you that, which has been a hoo-ha over all the trouble over the buses because Maitland and Rachael think that Walter is personally responsible, and that one day he may even come out and be driving their bus. But they have a lot to do with this kind of thing too, concession stands and all that. And apparently, the Elsens have to pay the city council before they start 30% of their takings. I had told you less, I believe. And you know, that's a lot of money to have to front up with before you start making any yourself. The other thing is that it comes up for renewal all the time, and that is not in the too distant future. And although they very likely will not lose the concession, there is always the possibility that one might. And so one has to fight, I guess, for the best rights. And he was given... and that was the way the concession thing apparently reads, is that you have full rights to every... you say there kinds of things. And of course, the newspapers are a big part of it, but like bread or eggs and all that sort of stuff and dairies, the newspapers are just to attract people in. And of course, if that's taken away by honesty boxes, well then he's not going to get the people in his stores. But Sunny's friends were telling me, you know, that they work for Eastern, these girls that play bridge and that I go down and play trolley with since I can't play bridge... that every store at the new airport, they work out there, every store's having sales for the opening, you know, big bananas, 30% off out at the airport, every store except the Elsens, which is interesting.

Anyway, everybody's fit and well. Marsha's okay, except she's got a funny thing on her lip at the moment, which she's been to the skin specialist about. It's sort of a blister thing, and I was pleased she went because she's going to New Zealand in October or November. And it turned out when she got there that this thing was, you know, a little more serious than she had thought at first. She thought it was just a cold sore, but it's more than that. And the guy's had to freeze it off or something, and so, you know, it could take a little while to get rid of it. So I'm glad she went before she went on the trip. She's got a close friend from Wellington arriving this week, and so she's flat out. And Beverly took me down to the Davidson's Tennis Tournament at the Coliseum last week to watch a few games. We didn't see any wonderful games, but because it was midweek anyway, you know, the best games were at the weekend or something. But a lot of the girls have dropped out. It's the women's tournament, and I think Yvonne Goolagong... I can't remember what happened, strep throat or something, and Chris Evert got beaten. And so all in all... I didn't keep a great track of it, but somebody else won. I saw in this morning's paper it wasn't Yvonne or anybody, but it's real nice to watch the tennis at the Coliseum, except that day... now that was only last Wednesday... was as hot as hell, and my feet all became swollen and most uncomfortable. But Bev and I chatted the whole way through it.

You know, Shogun has just been on here, and I doubt that you've had that yet. But it's been, of course, you know, with the actors' strike, there has been very little new stuff. And one of the biggest problems, I suppose, is, you know, who killed JR? Well, I had never watched that program, but I know that there's been a lot of publicity about how English have just been taken to it. I don't know whether you get it, but anyway, the... you know, who killed JR? I mean, there's bumper stickers everywhere, "Who killed JR?" and oh, I mean, it's... The gap... but you know, that program has just built up to such a fever pitch, and then with the actors' strike, it hasn't been able to continue on. Although they wanted to keep everybody in suspense, of course, it's dragged out a whole lot longer to the point where nobody really cares who the hell killed JR. And you know, a lot of the impact has gone. I mean, they've had people down at the Omni, all the other stars, they've been interviewing them or having them on down at the Omni at big things, and everywhere you go, there's somebody from Dallas, isn't that called Dallas? Going to be there and all that stuff. But the arenfirst just gone out of it with having this great delay of not being able to produce the next series. But Shogun was finished before the actors' strike started, and consequently, that was advertised. And something else has happened on television here. I don't know what it is, but it's between ABC and CBS. But Johnny Carson has moved from Channel 2, which is CBS, I think, to ABC or one of the others. And he's now on Channel 11, 11 Alive, which is the local Atlanta station at night. And a lot of the programs have changed channels. And so one channel, CBS, is advertising that they're stable and that everything's still, you know, all your favorites are still with them and all that stuff. And 11 Alive are advertising that, you know, they've got all the best programs, and you don't have to turn over from boring other stuff to see Johnny and all that sort of thing. And there's a great hoo-ha going on. But anyway, they had Shogun, which just had the highest ratings. You know, everything goes on ratings here. And this Shogun was five nights for three hours. A lot of television in five consecutive nights. Well, of course, we don't have TV, but we do have this radio which has a television sound. I wanted to hear this thing. And funny... Ruthy and Georgia were reading the book last year, and I never did get around to getting it off them, but it was changing hands so fast, unless you were on the spot at the time, you didn't catch it. And they were raving about the book. And then this thing came on TV, so I was listening to it. Well, of course, you know, a great deal of it was in Japanese. Well, of course, if it had visual aids, it would have meant a whole lot more. And then all the sex scenes were absolutely silent, so I would say that I missed a great deal. But anyway, Beverly had watched minute by minute. She was just enthralled the whole thing. Five nights she sat and watched this thing, and the whole of America stopped, you know, to see it. Except me. And anyhow, she told me the whole lot going... she went from start to finish, quite a little... Beverly went through this whole story, and she had read the book also, and she said it's the first book, but she has ever read, 1600 pages, the first book she's ever finished the last page and turned straight back to the beginning to read it again. But I guess that it's because the feudal system in Japan was so complicated that when you got to the end, you kind of needed to check back and understand it a little bit better the second time. But I very rarely read a book twice because I always think there's so many more books to read, I haven't got time. I haven't... you know, there's so many books to read, I want to read more rather than the same one, although I hate getting to the, you know, four pages from the end of a really good book, you really don't want it to end anyway.

So that was Shogun, and that really, well, as I said, it was the only program that had been completed just prior to the strike that was worth a grain of salt, so they were pretty lucky to have that program. That channel boosted their ratings up considerably.

Well, having assured you that everybody was fit and well, the phone went yesterday morning at about 9:30, and this little pathetic voice said, "Mum, it's Rachael. I don't feel good." As Sunny said, "How many kids call your mum as if they need to tell you who's speaking?" Anyway, so I had this meeting at the school at 10 o'clock, so I said, "Well, wait there, and I'm coming down, and I'll come and get you." Well, I went down, went to the meeting at 10, and she lay in the sick bay, and I brought her home at 11. But oh, what a morning. I was nearly out of gas, so I had stopped at... there's a little country store near the school, which I always hate going into because they never have anything. It's the most ridiculous store in the whole world anyway. I called in there to get gas, and I was only going to buy a gallon or so because they're probably three times dearer than anybody else. Anyway, it's a weird store. They've just got one gas pump. And I get... the girl finally came out and unlocked it, and stolen... as I wasn't... I get the thing in the car, and it wouldn't go. So I pushed the little handle thing back, and of course, then I stopped it again. I had to go and get her again. She came out. "But it's not working properly, I don't think." Get the damn thing in the car. And all the gas pumps here now have... well, not all of them have been converted yet, so you always have to double... what it reads on the gas pump has to be doubled. And it slowly started to fill. It went... 12 cents... finally got up to 12 cents, which was 24 cents worth of gas, and absolutely petered out. It was out of gas. I couldn't believe it. It just seemed appropriate for this particular store. Well, that was that. There was no more gas. So the girl said... oh, the stupid woman came out at this point. So she said, "Oh well, that's 25... 24 cents." She said, "Oh, you owe a penny." And I said, "Oh, forget it." You know, I was in such a goddamn hurry, and it was almost 10 o'clock then. So I was off to school. When I got to the school, I found I had not put my petrol cap on, which infuriated me. Well then, I went to the meeting. I'm a room parent. This was a room parents' meeting. And I discovered that not only are we responsible for four parties during the year, this Halloween, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and the final end of year, we're responsible for all the field trips, of which there's usually about six. And the PTO meetings, providing the, you know, food and stuff. And then also, this is the main source of civil defense, and we have to run the telephoning and everything so that nobody rings the school and all that sort of stuff. I decided that that could almost be a full-time job in itself. But the girl did assure us that we were not expected to be at all the parties ourselves; it's up to us to organize the parents. But when I told them that I felt that we should use the civil defense system to ensure that it works all the time, we should use that even to ask for the cookies and such, someone told me that it does not work that way and nobody's ever home, they're all at work. So I decided in my little mind that I shall be ringing them at 11 o'clock at night because people do sleep at their houses and occasionally eat there, and I'm certainly not going to be ringing 30 parents in the classroom every time we need something. Anyway, so then I went and got Rachael, and I went back to the country store to check out if I could find my petrol cap. So I'm hunting around in the rain for that, and I went back into the store and said to the lady, "Has anybody dropped it in?" And she said, "No, but I've got gas now." But it was funny because I said to Rachael about the gas, and we looked at the tank, and it was still... it had this ridiculous 12 cents on. So I said, "Well look, I'll take another couple of dollars worth." I still was not going to fill up, only had $5 on me anyway. So I filled up $1.50, which, of course, is $3. And it just started to turn over to another penny, $1.51. I went in and gave her $5, and she had to use a calculator to work out what my change was, which intrigued me. And she said, "Have you got 2 pennies?" And I said... well, you know, she wanted me to pay... like the $1.51 being $3.02. And I said, "Well, I left a penny with you before." I was so mad. And she said, "What? Have you got one penny?" I was furious. I had to go out to the car, and I got the penny, and I came back. I said, "That hadn't even turned over one-to-one yet." And I stormed out the shop. Anyway, went and hunted for my petrol cap, which I couldn't find. It was pouring with rain, as I told you earlier. We've had so much rain. It rained all day Sunday and Monday... gosh, you know, it's raining a lot lately because it hasn't rained for so long. And it's still raining today, this is the third day, and it's been consistent, just steady rain. Anyway, so I finally got Rachael, got her home. But another thing that had happened at the school was Elena Greenberg, one of... she... one of her kids is in the special program, and we carpooled with her during the summer for that bounty program. She was just as happy as a clam. She had gone out to get in her car in the morning. Her husband was in New York, so he had one car out and at the airport. And she owns this place called The Cook Works at the Lenox Square and down at the Omni, and she opened another chain of stores called The Fortune Nut, which the kids just loved because when they were going to bounty with her, she'd drop... call in to see them and give them nuts and stuff. And she came out of the house, and a tree had fallen right through her new Honda. She was just... fit to be tied. And she said that they aren't going to... it wasn't totaled, as they call it here. They have decided to repair it, and the man has told her that it'll be at least two weeks before he can even get the roof. And so she really was very unhappy. The other thing was that she is not covered for a rental car being an Act of God. You know, somebody else... you were covered here for insurance on a rental, but not if it's your own fault or, for instance, in this case. So she was not too happy. And also, it's a brand new car with a sunshine roof and all that, you know, it'll never be the same. I'm sure she's going to be furious, and especially when her husband gets back. Anyway, they're not short of a bob.

So that was that. So then I brought Rachael home, but she wasn't really very ill. She had a pain in her tummy. I think she might have just had a little bit of a tummy problem, but she was okay, and she came home and did a lot of reading. She finished her biography on Abraham Lincoln, and we have started getting... I don't know if you... they advertise it in the National Geographic... this World Magazine, which is the National Geographic kids' one. And it's just super, and the kids just love it. And what Rachael does is, it refers to the main one for that month or the thing. They just had one on hurricanes in September, and so she went back and got the other article to read. She'd got so interested in it. It certainly stimulates, and it's a good magazine and well worth getting if you would get it for the children or, you know, David get it.

But the thing on National Geographic too, by the way, the mystery is solved. They are not turning up gratis; they are being paid for. By me. A bill went to Graham, and he paid it, and he just wrote the other day to say that he had. And so I said, "Well, that's fine," because the old boy loves them, so just keep them on going. That's fine. I don't know, I must have put Treetop Lane address or something when I ordered it because when we were in Washington, we wouldn't have had an address. So you know, that can just keep going. They're such nice magazines. So Rachael went back off to school today, and with Maitland, and they had... Maitland went skating last night. He skates Monday afternoons. We have a very busy week now. We have skating after school on Monday for Maitland. Tuesday night is soccer practice for Rachael. Wednesday night is gymnastics for Rachael and soccer for Maitland. Thursday night is choir practice for Rachael and then soccer practice. And then Friday night's another soccer practice for Maitland. And Saturday, of course, is sort of filled up with soccer games. Maitland scored in the very first game that they had and was just so proud of himself. They drew one each, and he got the only point that was going. Last week, they won four-love, but he did not score. And Rachael's team lost in the last 30 seconds of the game the first time. And in fact, had we been able to complain or something, the game had run over time, and they wouldn't have even scored, the other team, had they played at the proper time. But however, those little things don't sort of matter, and so they did lose one-love. But the second week, they drew last Saturday. Neither team scored, and they played real hard. I just wish they'd got a goal; they deserved to get one.

Oh, now, those little things that you want for the cassettes. I'll be sending the cassette in one this time, if you know... I'll keep sending them, but if anybody's going to Aussie, Radio Shack has them. And Radio Shack has stores in Australia, so you know, they could bring back a whole bunch for you. They're real convenient. And I'll continue to send the tapes in them so that you can use them for your printing things. I think what I'm sending is the right thing, those little plastic boxes. Hope, anyway.

Oh, in this morning's paper, I'll send you the clipping when I can cut it out tomorrow morning. I always have to cut out the next day, which is difficult because sometimes you forget little things. But there's a guy down in a university professor here, who has just spent three months in prison because he would not say how he had voted on a particular issue. A woman was... had gone to court over the fact that she had not got tenure at Georgia State University, and she reckoned it was because she was a woman. Anyway, they wanted to know how everyone had voted, and this professor would not say how he had voted. He reckons that the government is having far too much to do with the university and so on and so forth. But what has struck me in this morning's paper was he got out of prison at midnight last night. The case is not over, but he was charged with contempt of court, of course, and he could go for another 18 months to prison. And you know, everybody's up in arms about it. So he has mentioned... and his son was interviewed in this paper this morning, and he has said that he will leave the country if he should be charged with whatever it is that they're going to charge him with, and they're seriously looking up going to live in New Zealand, which is interesting. So you'd need to keep an eye on that. I'll send you any clippings, I'll, you know, cut this one out and then send any more on that score because I don't know what's going to happen. I was really surprised that they sent him to prison in the first place.

Well, it seems like Graham's got everything teed out in the house. There's some new tenants in there with the Navy department, and Graham and Betty were invited to... had done a supper party, lounge suit recently, and Graham said there were very favorable comments about the house, and they met all the hierarchy of naval headquarters in Wellington was apparently there, including the admiral. And one guy was just on his return to Bath, and Graham said he didn't make... that the showers in New Zealand were adequate. But apparently, a very good night was had by all. And they're very keen on the garden and have really got stuck in and said it's looking terrific. So they sound like good tenants, better than the Japanese, I gather. And things in that area seem to be okay. Graham went to India over Christmas time, perhaps sort of in January, and he didn't enjoy the trip, I didn't think, as much as he thought. Although he would have had a good time because he was at least well... you know, better opportunities than most because he was with an Indian guy whom he knows from Wellington. But he said that, you know, the heat and the poverty and everything just got to him, I think of that.

Well, heaven's above, one volunteers for one job and finds one gets involved in an awful lot more. I started on Thursdays, Meredith needs help with... doesn't it, you know. So she sends home a form, "What can we do and when can we do it?" And I said I'd help with field trips and stuff, but I said that I would help with the Thursday practice, which is 4:30 to quarter to 6. And I really wasn't very keen on going, but I went last Thursday, and I couldn't believe it, those kids are holy hell. And so I feel quite good about going now. When I've been a couple of weeks, I'm just going to root some of them out of there by the scruff of the neck. They're just naughty, really naughty. Rachael was well behaved when I was there. I don't know that it was just because of me either; I think she probably generally is. Some of the sixth graders in there are just absolute Sebastians. Anyway, so that's Thursday afternoons. And then I got a thing home from the school, "What could we do?" So I put down all the different things that I would be able to help with. Well, you know, I've become a room parent, which I now find is full civil defenses and all. And then a girl just called me because I'm doing the PE program, which is going to be... well, one of the, you know, volunteers there is a PE teacher, and she takes most of the classes, but all the classes are meant to have PE twice a week, which she cannot do. And so we do the balance, you know, that she can't handle. So I'm on with another girl on Mondays for the whole afternoon anyway. So I said I'd do that. Well then, the girl that's organising it all called me just now and said, "Oh, you know, Sharon, I wonder if you'd mind just coordinating the substitutes on the days that somebody might be sick or can't come or whatever." And I've got their numbers, and they're all willing to help and so on. And she said it would just be a matter of keeping it all together, you know, making that tidy, and it would relieve me of this little extra problem. I said, "Oh sure, that'll be fine." She said, "Oh, that's just wonderful, dirty dear." And then finally, the cruncher came. She said, "Well, that does automatically put you on the PTO board." No! That... oh my God! And she said, "You know, I hope you don't mind," and everything else. Not that I'll help. So here I am, fully fledged, organizing the whole volunteer PE program. And hopefully, it runs smoothly. I mean, provided people do turn up, it'll be okay, but if they start not turning up or anything, it'll turn into Bedlam. And I've got to go to PTO board meetings as well as PTO meetings, which the parents of the rooms have to provide supper for and all the rest of it and programme... they always have a programme. So I didn't know... one seems to get involved in so many different areas. A thing came home from school that Rachael could start Girl Scouts this year, and I thought, "No way, we just do not have room for Girl Scouts." I mean, Girl Scouts... she can just do that some other time. You know, she's so converted to music and everything else that choir really is a big undertaking because it's so regular, and she's got to really commit herself to that. It's every Sunday too, which means she does not get one day in bed if she has a nine o'clock soccer game. Well, you know, the weekend's shot too. So I think that she's got enough on her plate. But Meredith has changed the Sunday program slightly. The days they have folk mass... last year, they used to still practice before the folk mass, although the kids didn't sing in the folk mass. And this year, Meredith has wiped... she's got an extra quarter of an hour each Thursday in the practice that she didn't have before. And the kids don't have to go on the mornings of folk mass days. So we will not go on those days, and that means Rachael doesn't have to go. So does not go to Sunday school. She didn't like it, didn't want to go, and I see no point in forcing it. She's getting enough religion with just the choir. She knows the front through the prayer book and all that sort of stuff. She gets all the, you know, the gen. I just don't think, you know, they're real big into religion here. And although they're Episcopalians and they're not as bad as the Baptists, they're kind of, you know, they come on a bit stronger than they do at home. So I think that she's getting plenty of it for now.

I think this is Tuesday now, the 30th of September, by the way again. And I've been painting intermittently all day between calls and finishing this tape. And I'm still hoping to get it to the postman today. I've just done the second coat on the walls of the lounge, and I'm just retouching up all the skirting and trim. So it's starting to come on pretty nicely now. I can't wait to get the lounge finished. The dining room is done, but we have not done the floors yet. I have got the polyurethane for them, but you know, they're a terrible mess, paint and junk all over them. So when they're done, the place will seem clean. And with the sudden change in temperatures, which is going to come up again this week... but you know, it really has been a lot cooler. It really scares you into feeling winter's coming on, you know. So really want to get it done because then we can have better comfort and luxury. We're not going to use the fireplace, but it's a pokey little fireplace. But what I would like to do is buy some of those electric logs that they have here. You can get gas ones too, but that would mean getting it hooked up. But I thought some electric logs and a grate would be real cute and give us the feeling of a fireplace. The other thing is, you can keep your heating down a little lower all year... well, like all through the season. And just turn the fire on, and it makes you feel a little warmer in the evenings when we're sitting listening to the wireless.

Well, I think this tape's about over, so I'll say goodbye and hope all is well. And that all the presents both ways arrive. You've had a list of all mine. Take them off as they come.