Episode 10 - SVW Tapes - 19th February, 1981

...Half pounds of cocaine was confiscated last night, and five people were arrested. That raid took place at a motel off the perimeter in Smyrna. The names of those arrested are being held until a court appearance this afternoon. The street value of the coke estimated at $1 million. More arrests are expected.

The Terry Hill apartment complex at 3510 Buford Highway was hit by a big fire this morning. Dick Myers of the Atlanta Red Cross was there and tells news... "Eight apartments destroyed. There's about six others that have minor damage." "And a man's life was saved. The guy lived on the third floor; he had a hip cast on." *"Because of the fire, he could not get out of his apartment. The stairs were completely engulfed in flames. So just about the time he stuck his head out the window, the ladder truck arrived, and they got that ladder up and were able to get him out of the third-floor apartment."*Fire probes are looking for a cause of that blaze. There were no serious injuries.

Cobb County school officials have fired former South Cobb High School teacher Wayne Viscarando for alleged immoral conduct with students. The dismissal takes effect March 5. Viscarando had announced he'd be quitting March 6 anyway to run a private business. In a letter to Viscarando, acting Cobb Superintendent Jimmy Howard charges that the teacher had allowed students to come to his home and drink and smoke marijuana. Dennis? The cry, "How 'bout them dogs?" could become "How 'bout them legs?" A Playboy photographer is at the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, and he's there this week photographing the coeds. He's working on a layout for next September which will feature the girls of the Southeast football conference. And he says so far, response to the session has been very good, though it always seems to be. And I can never figure out it... "You were... minute... you... the circus last night? A little bit? I'm wearing my whistle... Mistress of Ceremonies... I got to get out there and say hello to everybody and get... say ladies and gentlemen..." "No, I really didn't. And I practiced that all day. I was really disappointed. But I'd like to say thanks to all the people down at the Omni circus." "I had a great time. I got my little whistle and a little certificate, and we really had a ball. It was great focus to get out and... In fact at 11, we are going to interview the man who calls himself the Phantom of the circus this year, Elvin Bell. He's the daredevil. Quite a character. If he's the phantom, just as well his radio because you can't see him. 10:41 WGST Midday. We go to the travel department now. It's Steve Birnbaum. He's taking a look at..."

Well, it's Thursday, the 19th of February, and I thought I'd just give you a little bit of the news. And if you'd like to go back on that, except for the ABC part about the... there was nothing but crime, everything was related to crime. I guess that's the way it is. There was nothing about the children, I must have missed that, but the missing children, that is. They've found... sending you the series... but they have found all but one body now, and there's 18 altogether, and that covers 18 months, so there's been about one a month. Just shattering. They also found yesterday the federal government aren't going to give them any help... what was that? But John says, you know, they all wanted independence from the federal government, and the first person they crawl to when they want money is the federal government, so that was probably expected. But Sammy Davis is coming here next month, I think, and going to do a show for $25 bucks and $100 a seat to raise money to help finance the whole thing. And he spoke to Maynard Jackson, that he might ask Frank Sinatra to come, and he said he'd no sooner called Frank, and Frank said, "Stop, stop, yes, I'll come." So Frank Sinatra's coming too, so they should do pretty well.

While we're on the film stars and the whole of Hollywood, because the whole of Hollywood is this whole country now with Reagan and... Box office... Burt Reynolds, you know, is so famous here. And this is a cute little story I thought, but he's going to do another film here shortly, and they're also having a fundraiser for him. Of course, he raises quite a lot of money around here since he comes from here. But Kent, that John works with at the office, he's quite a young guy, just got engaged, he's getting married to a school teacher shortly, and in June, I think. Her mother works at an office downtown somewhere, and this new movie that Burt Reynolds is going to make, they need the office building on Saturdays and Sundays to make this movie. Anyway, she was apparently the mediator as to organising when they had it and getting it all sewn up legally and everything. And when they'd finished the contract or whatever, these Hollywood guys or whoever they were said to her, what would she like? You know, they'd like to give her a present for all the work that she had done. And she said she didn't want anything; she would just like to meet Burt Reynolds. Well apparently, you know, she sort of forgot about it, and then just one day a couple of weeks ago, around the corner in her office, Burt Reynolds pokes his head around the corner and says, "Oh, hi Shirley, how you darling?" and rushes on and puts his arm around her and gives her a kiss. And all the girls in the office apparently just went swoon and nearly passed out. And he made out that he'd known her for years. And you know, I thought it was a really cute story. He'd been told what she'd wanted, and that was an earth right?

Well, it seems to be a lot of catching up to do. I've just played your tape back, and got offered... you know, I really hadn't replied to that properly from Christmas, that short seventh of December tape or whatever. So I just went over it to see if I'd missed anything because I really made the other tape last week or whatever without kind of going right through it. But anyway, what do we go back to? Oh, just an emergency call at the moment just to remind you that we are less than a quarter of Vegemite left. Can you believe that we have consumed an entire can of Vegemite in less than three months? Because we opened it before Christmas. I guess we got that about then, but it is nearly gone. I said to the kids this very morning, they didn't have... the last stuff... the Canadian stuff, as Aileen will tell you, it's kind of hard, and it doesn't taste as good, and it's stronger, but it's very expensive too. Well, I know it's expensive sending it from New Zealand to us, but it's like $2.50 a little one-ounce jar or something? It lasts no time at all. The kids just don't eat it like they do the can. It's wonderful. While we're on that, you might... if you would care to... John was over at Beverly's the other night with these New Zealand... Beverly's got cans and cans of honey he can... Beverly gets all the honey sent from New Zealand. She gets large cans, twice the size of the Vegemite one, sent. But maybe you could consider sending us... not too much because we don't really use that much honey, but it would be nice to have a can if you're sending it by sea and it doesn't cost too much then. Then the other day, my mouth watered, and Marsha had some people for dinner. We're funny here in Atlanta... and stuff. But she had some people for dinner Sunday night, and I said, "What'd you have?" And she said that she had bought back with her... unfortunately, she said she wished they came in cans or something, but she had bought that passionfruit pulp. That's something we don't have here, and my mouth just watered. She said, actually, you know, you said these things to people, but at the same time, you don't want to... she said she could have eaten the whole thing herself, you know, it's so good. And she just feels... she hopes that they appreciate it the way that... she's sure... knowing how far it's come and how much it's treasured by the Kiwis. But I had a funny experience with kiwifruit recently. You know, they're 69 cents each if they're large, and they're usually between 49 and 69 cents each. Well, I was having Sunny's bridge girls to dinner here a week or so ago, and I decided to have them for dinner. We don't normally make a big thing of it, but I had been to their places so many times and not, you know, had them back. So I decided to have them for dinner, and I made a... you know what? Food... Chinese thing... beef stroganoff for the main course. And first, we had cheese straws, which they all just demolished in next to no time. Then we had the main course, Chinese sort of thing, and then I made, of course, the usual pavlova. And cream has got so expensive here, I said to Marsha, "I did a real nasty thing." She said, "I don't know what you did." She said, "I tell them that we are using Cool Whip for cholesterol purposes." But cream, if you make a big pavlova, you can use a quart of cream because the cream doesn't whip up as much here, and it's $3 a quart we pay for it. So I use Cool Whip, and the cream also goes back to water real easy, so it doesn't keep, you know? So the Cool Whip stays real thick and good. So I used that. Course, I wanted to put kiwifruit on top of it. You know the price they are, you can cut... slice one real thin... but one of the stores here was advertising kiwifruit at 49 cents a pound. And I knew it was a printing error, but at the same time, thought, "See what happened." So I went down to... it was Colonial, and they have a lot of imported things. I get my Marmite there. And I went, and I said to the guy in the fruit department, "These... 49 cents a pound?" And he said, "Well," he said, "49 cents each." I said, "Well, your advertisement," which was delivered to my letterbox, it wasn't in the newspaper, it was just a thing that they put in your letterbox, "says 49 cents a pound." And he said, "Well, I guess it'll have to be," but he said, "I didn't like to make the decision." He said, "Would you mind asking the office... the store manager?" So I got 10 of them, and I went up to the counter, and the woman said, "Well, it really meant to be 49 cents a pound... but if you insist, I'll sell them to you 49 cents... I mean, if... 49 cents each, I'll sell them to you 49 cents a pound, but you know that it's a mistake." And I just stood there. I made no comment at all. I didn't say whether I would insist or not. And she rang them up, and of course, they only cost me a dollar ten for 10 of them. So that was an absolute bargain. But I felt like saying to her... they were getting soft, and I nearly said to her, "Well, look lady, you could better get 49 cents a pound than throwing them out, because you'll be throwing them out any day now." They were so soft. So I beat on them, but just put them laden over the top of the pavlova, and the girls were very impressed.

Well, that's enough on the food scene, but just, you know, to mention that Vegemite and maybe honey or passionfruit pulp, if you can find it. Right now, I'll go back and cover your old letter, and then we'll go on to other funds. Well, your tape started with telling me about the little duckies on the pond and how they come looking for you. I'm sure they do. They're so well... and I can just see them all plait-pussing up your drive, knocking at the door. Reminded me of the column that I'm sending you with Louis Grizzard and the Playboy interview with that minister, and he goes in as duck... well, what was his name? I don't know. Charlie Duck or something? There's an interview... that guy's caused quite a stir here with his interview in Playboy... Penthouse or whatever it was because... I mean, he must have known that if he didn't know what they were using it for... Charlie... well should... anyway.

Then you talked about Melanie coming to stay. Did she come? Because I guess they're all back at school now. And then I've mentioned at that same time Rachael Kay, who... Rachael's friend here, she's the kid with the artificial arm. And Rachael was telling me... I may have told you this, but she could have... what they used... the word 'fake' here, everything's fake. Fake nail or fake this... when they talk about Rachael Kay not having a fake hand, it really just sends me hysterics. But Rachael has just recently got a new arm, and I guess they have to change the size of it with her body growing and everything. She's a small child, but they've just got her a new arm. And Rachael said it was very expensive. I imagine over $1,000 or something. But she could have a fake hand made. This place where they go to get the arm, Rachael Kay was telling Rachael Waters that there's fake hands there, and she could have one. But I guess that she would really... I don't know whether it would be much more use... the hook probably is a better deal. It's a two-sided hook. I mean, she can grasp with it, or she can hook with it. Anyway, whether or not she'd be any better off with her hand... it would just look better, and maybe she'll get one when she's a little older and stops growing a bit.

David hiring and firing must be quite fun. I can't imagine David firing anybody, but good on him if he has to do... he has to do it. But I know what pains it must put him through. And I would say that if he's having to do the accounting, he should either say, "Okay, I'll go, you know, back to school at night and get an accounting degree," which might well be very handy to him as he gets older and can't fly and stuff, or just pay him for, you know, extra money. One or the other. The strikes in New Zealand... dear Marcisha came back and said she was just appalled because it was rather ironic that she should come back to the bus strike, which, of course, Walter is not directly related to, but this is with that company. And then you mentioned that guy that had the accident, that sounded just terrible. He'd be really awful, especially so young.

And I'm glad you enjoyed your Christmas gifts and the dates and that... they are cute. They really do have fantastic stuff here. Actually, I bought... I went to Belk's that after Christmas. That's a real cute store here next to the travel agency. And bought a whole lot of Christmas stuff. I didn't realize... I got back to work, and it came to $40 worth of stuff. And I thought, "Hell, I can't have bought that much." I buy my Christmas cards... see, they're all half price, and I buy really nice ones then for half price, and there's no worry with using them next year. But I got back to the office, and it was so expensive. I mean, having spent $40, and I couldn't believe I had... I went through and I checked it, and sure enough, it was $80-odd, you know, that I would have spent if they'd been full price. But I got a whole lot of, you know, Christmas decorations and things and ribbon and bits and pieces. Yeah, you mentioned that you felt reminiscent with the trip to New York, and I didn't see that guy in Chinatown, but I'm sure he's probably still there. But if you want to run... went to the movies last night to see Paul Newman in Fort Apache, the Bronx. And I think if you go and see that, you'll realize that... did you go to the Bronx when you were up there? But I came home, and I thought, "Hells bells," you just... when you've been to the Bronx or anywhere in the country, and then you see these movies about it, which we often do now, you know, where something's been filmed or whatever... many, many movies made here in Georgia. And the Bronx movie last night just really brought it back to life. It's a fairly violent movie, but it's pretty good. It's got a bit of everything: pimps and prostitutes and murder and goodness knows what and drugs and stuff. But it's very real. And it's that guy... the guy that plays the... the chief in the 41st precinct or whatever is... oh shoot, what's his name? He used to be on with Mary Tyler Moore, and he has his own show here. Ill... Lou Grant. And he's pretty good.

Television here is at the moment... all the best programs are on this particular month apparently. They use... as the rating time... that from the ratings now, they use for their advertising budgets and stuff like that. So we're getting the best stuff that television can provide, movies and stuff. East of Eden's just been on. The little write-up in the TV Weekly about that... it was very long, eight hours. The first three were action-packed, full of sex and violence, and but I felt like... there were three hours the first night, two hours the next, and three hours last night. The last night it really started to kind of... the first night had been so action-packed that the rest had seemed a little slow when the lady herself was out of it. She was the girl that's involved... it's not really in the last part very much, just a couple of times. And so that was pretty good though. And there's some terrific movies on. I mean, really new movies that have just had... Burt Reynolds' Hooper, which the kids only saw last year. And you know, the Home Box Office here... of course, we don't have cable television, but cable television is fantastic. They get the latest movies on. And like for people like you, you know, I think it costs Marsha and Walter or something nice, six or seven dollars a month to have cable television in their house. And well, they're moviegoers. So Marsha and Walter usually go to their local theater, which has seats for 99 cents, which is a hell of a good deal at the movies. But at the same time, if you're moviegoers, it costs me $3 last night. You only have to go to three movies a month, plus the fact that you just don't get out and go. And if they're on television, it's just terrific, the variety of stuff that there is. Plus cable television has much better news and coverage, world coverage of stuff, much, much better, I think.

It was too bright red or something. Everything she wears has to be brighter and better than anybody else's. I thought she even outshone Liz Taylor that day. Did you see Liz Taylor on television? I'm sure if you got any coverage... they, you know, went on to her. She was there. Of course, they were always talking about how fat she is. I mean, Johnny Carson's always... they're swinging off, you know, "They went to a restaurant, and Liz got there first," and sort of thing, "There was no food left." This sort of thing, like she eats like a pig. And she does apparently like her food, but heavens, I looked like that at her age... she doesn't look too bad. I don't know, she's still very beautiful, although that movie... the one about Entebbe, she was pretty plump in that, but she certainly didn't look that fat on TV the other day.

What else have we here? Oh yeah, those Christmas things. I could send you a few little Christmas decorations if you want them. You know, have you got a little tree that you put up or anything?

Well, that seemed to cover most of the anything I needed to answer in your tape. Oh, apart from, of course, Arthur Allan Thomas. Oh, I liked the... I think the thing that killed me was that Muldoon may have well given them a pardon, but he's only about to take a certain amount. If any cheque arrived on his desk, it would go back into the treasury. I thought that really was very clever and typical of Muldoon's domineering ways. But heaven's above, what do they want? I mean, Lord above, it's unprecedented. And I mean, that I think even that case would sort of hit here. And that sort of thing goes on here.

Well, I guess next thing, we'll go on to the hostages, which was a very long and drawn-out saga. I was pleased that, you know, Carter had a hell of a time in the last few weeks, etcetera. And there's been articles about how humiliating the whole election was. I do not see it like that. I just feel like if you're in politics, that you win one year and you'll lose the next. It's very typical of the mood of people right now that these sudden landslides are coming because the people are unsettled, the economy is not good. I mean, there's all kinds of world problems, and they just... they're desperately looking for an answer. And they're not going to find politicians, mind you, but they sort of feel like they might be able to because these politicians make such wonderful dream plans, which, of course, they never come to fruition. But that's beside the point as far as they're concerned. But finally, the hostages came home. And I just felt like their problem's going to begin when they got here. One of them broke his leg skiing recently, which I don't know whether you read there, just last week, I think. But you know, there have been many people that have suffered during wars and stuff. And the Vietnam Vets are really getting their noses put out of joint now over this thing, I believe. And I think Louis Grizzard covered that pretty well, how I feel. He always seems to be able to put what I think into words in his column the other day that I've sent you. That's very much the feeling. But you know, this country just loves hearts and flowers, and the yellow ribbon thing was just amazing. I mean, how many yellow ribbons there were, etcetera, etcetera. It was just... you know, they get carried away and all this sort of reuniting of the country and all this sort of junk, you know? They just get very, very carried away. That's all been very good for Reagan, I believe. But I felt like the last minute that Carter still was seen, and he deserved to. I mean, he didn't do it deliberately, but they kept him hanging on there till the last minute, which they should never have done. But you weren't dealing with rational people. And you know, it was nice that Carter went out on such a high note. You know, he is a very sort of emotional person, and you know, he was on television with tears in his eyes just saying that this was the happiest day of his life. And I think he's genuine. There's one thing about Carter, he may not have done a lot of good, he may not have done a lot of anything, but I just feel like he was genuine. The country was in a state of shock after Nixon. They wanted someone clean and to whitewash the whole thing, and they got somebody like that. He may not have been strong and had a lot of things that weren't good about him, but it's a hell of a job to take on. And you know, he's been very well received back here. Of course, people have made a fuss of him, and I think that's nice. Poor old... what's his wife's name? Yeah. Jimmy and... dear, my mind's gone blank. But anyway, Mrs. Carter has just been into hospital here in Atlanta and had her eyes done again, which, of course, has been headline news. Poor woman can't have plastic surgery without it being thrown across the country, and you know, just to tighten her eyes over. But she'd had it done once before when he was governor of Georgia, I gather. Anyway. But he'll find himself a little job. I believe he'd been offered a job at Georgia Tech. I thought I heard on the news yesterday, anyway. So they had their big shindig down in Plains the night he came back, a big barbecue and everything, and he managed to get to that. It was raining the entire time, and they had fried chicken and the works, and thousands of people went. Everybody in the state of Georgia was invited, the entire population was invited to go. And it was just in the streets of Plains, which may well be the last big thing that Plains ever sees because Plains is just one little hick town really, hick town. And you know, they interviewed the shopkeepers down there and people near Brother Billy's gas station and all the rest of it. And they're so Southern, and they... "Can we... Jimmy get back? Gonna feel nice with Jimmy back with us," you know, and all the stuff.

Anyway. Well, on other things, Reagan made big tax cuts yesterday. Apparently earning under $40,000 a year, you will accumulate over the next four years $1,500 that you wouldn't have had. And he hasn't given any concession to those earning over that at this stage. I guess they'll get it... he's trying to make, you know, amends or whatever, or make himself look good. I do... Sunny and I've been playing Scrabble as usual. And I was having a long stretch of winning there for like three months, I was ahead. And we started to keep a tally of how we were going. We would... we kept a running score for points, you know, and I was $5 up just about a month ago, and I had been that way for quite a while. She hadn't won a game in a while, and every time she did, she just would get down a little, and then I'd go back up again. And anyway, then all of a sudden, the tides turned, and I haven't been winning at cards either when I played with the girls. I've been losing week after week. But anyway, all of a sudden, Sunny starts winning, and she's now up to $4.50, which means I've lost about $10 over the last few weeks. Well, the other night, she came up to play Scrabble, and I think I had the best word that I've ever, ever had: 'equinox' on a triple letter score. I mean, get that woman! And Sunny just was absolutely mind-boggled. But unfortunately, I got that word very early in the game, and she beat me by 20 points. I was furious the next morning. I called her, and I said, "I have one question to ask: how does a woman beat somebody with a word like 'equinox' on a triple letter score?" And she said, "Work hard!" So anyway. But we have now taken to Rummikub as well. And I thought I might send you a game of Rummikub if you'd be interested. I thought... this is a game with... you mean over? I'll explain in case you don't. It's got big tiles. They're about the size of a matchbox, a little smaller. And I thought maybe Dad could handle... even if you use something to hold them, but they're big, sort of like dominoes, and they're numbered one through 13 instead of Queen and Jack and Ace. And it's a super game for the children to play. You might like to have it at your house for the grandkids to play. And you know, it's fun for adults too. Sunny and Maitland got hooked on it, and they can't wait for the kids to go to bed so they can play without the kids because it's painstaking with the children. And we've started playing this; it's really good.

Well, here we are on side two. Anyway, the Rummikub all started... Miss First was playing it with the children in the classroom, and then Sunny got one. Now we've got one. We're going bananas on the game. Anyway. What else are we...? I've told you that gas is $1.40 a gallon. And I mentioned the East of Eden earlier, but I was going to say East of Eden was on, and the first night was really... very... well, I had to have a notice, you thing, too, that it was parental guidance which might be necessary because of the language and stuff on the movie. Well, I took P.E. the next day, and the kids are just lining up outside their class to go out into the playground. And then I heard them talking once, "Did you see East of Eden last night?" Well, I just about died. I mean, number one, it didn't start till 8, it went on till 11. And one of these fourth graders had seen it? Anyway.

What else has been happening? Oh, P.E.'s been fun. Last week... this is at school... blacks are hypochondriacs. I mean, they've always got a headache or an ache in foot or toe or stomach or something's always wrong with them. They're never really entirely right. And anyway, on Monday, I took P.E... I've changed from Fridays to Mondays again. So Monday, I took P.E., and we had the soccer game. And two kids hurt themselves. Well, three... one survived, and the other two were just on the point of, you know, hospitalization. You feel like saying, "Oh, get up and get going," but there's always that chance that they've broken their arm because, you know, Matthew was just sitting in class when Sunny went to get him the day he broke his arm. It's sort of hard to know. And so I sent them up to Miss Wooten to be repaired and doctored, as they call it here. So anyway, finally, this class was just so rambunctious the day that I just decided that we were going in early. And I lined them all up and whistled them on. And as I got up to the school, I went through the door, and Miss First comes along fluttering her eyelashes. Well, you know, we've got this play going called Tom Sawyer. And Rachael has a part in it. She hasn't got a large part, and she's in the last act thing. And she, of course, was going through all the things that she's going to need for props. And she said that she needed a picket fence. Well, Rachael immediately volunteered a picket fence. So I know where this one like in our front yard. And I'll ask my daddy if I can bring some. Well, she comes home last Thursday... And she says, "Can she have a piece of picket fence?" And John goes out and has a look, and it's pretty beat up anyway. It's been there for 100 years. It was... Bev and Jack... "Where can I take a piece of the picket fence to school?" Well, okay. So John chops off in the middle. They're out there in the dark chopping up this fence. They chop off about 7 foot of fence at a point where they could, you know. Well, she said, "I need it tomorrow." And I said, "Rachael, Miss First has only just finished auditions for this play. And as much as we all like Miss First, she does not need the picket fence tomorrow. The play is not going to be on until the end of the year. And there is, you know, even Miss First will understand the logistics of getting that fence to school. It simply does not fit in the car." "Oh, okay, but she really needs it too." I said, "Well, you'll just have to explain to Miss First that we'd love to provide the picket fence, but she can't have it today." Okay, says Rachael. On Sunday, John gets the Toyota, and Rachael and him go to the school with the picket fence. And they put it way up by a door up round the back, you know, near the school. Well, on Monday morning, Rachael runs into school, and she rushes into Miss First, "We've got the picket fence, Miss First!" And here too... "Well, Rachael, there it is! Yes, exactly! Well, we need it! Wonderful!" Rachael's very excited, thrilled that she has pleased Miss First. Well, then Miss First goes back to class and takes her students. And Rachael goes to class at 11 o'clock. Rachael had to go to Miss First's class for her own, you know, lesson. And she runs out to see if the fence is there, and it's gone. And Miss First was going to send some boys out to bring it in. Well, Rachael goes into class, and she said to Miss First, "Have you brought the fence in?" Miss First, Mr. St says, "Why no, Rachael, why?" And Rachael said, "Well, it's not there." Well, Miss First flutters the eyelashes, flies into... out the door, and sure enough, it's gone. Well, she just turned that school into pandemonium that it had gone. So she goes down to see Mr. Little, who's the black guy that cleans the cafeteria and, you know, generally does things round the place, change light bulbs and God knows what. And Mr. Little had taken the fence. And he had pulled it apart. And he had thrown it in the dumpster. Whoo! Betty First saw red. A mad woman. And she just did her stack, and she ordered him to get it out of that dumpster and get it back together. And he wouldn't do it. I think he knows there's conflict anyway. So she went and told Wooten, who then had to come and tell Mr. Little to do it. And of course, if Thomas Wooten tells him, he had to do it. And Rachael, when I got to school, "Oh, guess what, guess what?" She couldn't wait to tell me. Well, when I came in the door, Betty First... I run into her, and she said, "You'll never guess what! The beautiful picket..." "Why," I just... "the perfect, beautiful... what to say?" And she said, "What you believe that?" She stands with her hands on her hips. "You know what I mean?" she says. "You know what I mean?" What she meant was she believed that Mr. Little, which was a possibility, of course. And she said, "You watch. It'll turn up tomorrow. It'll be there, or won't be, you... a..." Well, she was just hostile. And I told her, you know, I'd had all these kids hurt themselves in the class, and I said, "These black kids are hypochondriacs." And she said, "Well, you know, I'm dark as white... I'm a widow," as she's told me. "I don't have..." What does she say? "My husband used to say..." "...you know, these happy-go-lucky black people." "Well, it ain't true. They're all sick, have all got something wrong with them." And she's batting the eyelashes, and oh, she's just a hoot of a woman.

Well, anyway, I went down and saw... Phelps, the teacher, said, "Hell, it's going to..." She could hear it starting above, and she said, "Well, the fence...?" There went out and saw it was in pieces in the dumpster out, and he's... it back? God knows who's going to get it back together. Must have taken... pulled the damn thing apart. It's an awful mess, but it was still two rows... the pickets sort of nailed to those. Anyway, the funny thing is, of course, he left... I mean, we left it on his porch, which was sort of out of the... well, not in an area where things are being chucked out. He said he'd only left a note, wouldn't have thrown it away. But he didn't know what it was, and he just thought it was rubbish and that people left it there for him to throw out. And Phelps said to me, "And threw it later were still telling him to get rid of it." Oh dear, I don't know what's gonna happen. And she's just so distraught about the whole thing. I guess... I gather they're trying to get the first act of the play ready for the parent-teacher meeting in about a week or two, I guess they'll need it for that. Dear, dear, what a fuss anyway. So that's school.

I might have told you this anyway. So we go to the library, and we asked the black librarian to give us the names of some interesting black people. So she gave us the name of two or three. We went away and really took the first books we could find. And Rachael did George Washington Carver, who was, I guess, an agricultural scientist, and he discovered peanut butter, which was very helpful to the South just after the war, and cotton and everything when things were so devastated here. He died young and tragically, and she did him. And she came home, and she said to me, "I thought..." She told me everyone would be doing Muhammad Ali. She said, "Everybody's doing..." And I said, "George Washington Carver?" "Yes." She said, "Everybody's doing him," because I didn't know any... anyway. And Maitland did Dr. Charles Drew, who was very involved with plasma during the war, but he lost his job because... with Red Cross because he didn't believe that black and white blood should be segregated. And I was telling BJ at work about, you know, how fascinating that was to us, and I mean, that was Second World War, and you know, like, I guess that was about 1945. She said, "My dear, I'll have you know black and white blood was segregated here till 1959." Which isn't so long ago. And she said, "In fact, I'm sure there's still people that want to make sure it's come from..." So anyway, which is funny. Anyhow, they did their projects, and both got excellent, so they put a lot of time into them.

Rachael's had an enormous assignment. She had to do a title and had objectives and a hypothesis on a state. Each child got selected a state. Hers was Oklahoma, which turned out to be quite interesting. And I was very pleased with what she turned in. They had four... within that, they had four very large assignments to be completed by suit... It was an overall project, but they had to do a map of the area and on a big poster and they had to write about it and the reasons why... Oh, that's right. Oklahoma is kind of, you know, as far as people are concerned, sort of uninteresting. And her title was, which is the question, "Is Oklahoma as interesting as the other 49 states?" And her hypothesis was that she was going to prove that it was. And then she came to the conclusion that definitely it was just as interesting and had some things, you know, much more interesting than other states. I think one of the things we found, having not been to Oklahoma, it's one of the only states we haven't been to, was that they have a canal system there right through the city, lots of canals and barges, just like they do in Europe. And, of course, they used a great deal, and lots of railways. And even Maitland said, "Oh, you know, I know why they have railways... to get all the elephants... the corn as high as an elephant's eye right to the marketplace." So, you know, it was quite interesting for all of us. And also, Oklahoma was a state where many of the Indians were pushed out to during the time when they pushed them off the land.

So other than that, oh, she's on Saturday at the Arts... Fine Arts School, you know, we're enjoying that. The violin's coming along well, and the teacher we have for theory is just fantastic, Lynn Thompson. But he's getting a little tired of the, you know, attendance rate of some of the black children, etc. And they have a problem because they've got... Crimm? Crimm being the head of education for Atlanta, has provided the money for this class. And Northside High School is the area that we come into. There's three or four on Saturday in different parts of the town. But this one is our area, and that's the largest. Northside High School have an enormous arts... fine arts section, which is part of Georgia State University. And shortly, they're planning to have... for it to be that the Georgia State kids will actually go there for their music and stuff. And this guy that we have is fantastic. And the art and drama, they have people from the Alliance Theatre. I mean, they've got the cream of people to teach these kids. Of course, you know, the girls like Mary's, they just simply take it with a grain of salt. I think if they charged them just something, it would help. But because it's totally free, they can take 500 kids on a Saturday, and the attendance rate has dropped to 250. And it's sad that it can't be maintained. It... that it's just ridiculous because the teachers get disheartened, you know. But anyway, he's just fantastic with them now. They're going to have a great big performance at the end of the year where they'll do all their little things. And he said since the theory class can't really show anybody what they're to do, he is going to ask them to write a melody, and he will do the bass and sort of fill it out a bit, and he will then get it played for them so that the parents can see. Well, Rachael's just... she can't get to pianos often enough. Big house, Beverly's... she played for an hour the other night. She's made up the song, and she's got a little friend at school, April Jackson, and they've been... the music teacher there lets them use her piano anytime they have a few minutes. And they're going down there, and they're going to compose something together. And oh, she's really enjoying it because she can write music now, and you know, she understands it. So they should come up with something pretty good, I think. She'll just die when she sees what he'll do with it when he, you know, spices it up and fixes up mistakes. It'll make it into quite a nice tune. She won't believe what it's going to sound like in the end, I think. So she's really enjoying that.

And Maitland's doing... what does he do? He has swimming on Monday and Wednesday. He's repeating a four-week course at us, and he's repeating a course. He's in the Shark group, they call them sharks. And he's just got to do backstroke last thing. But they have made the courses much harder since when Rachael did them. They've changed them a little. And he was fine with shark. He swims better than most of the children, except because he's only 7, and most of the kids in that class are 10. And so he's smaller than they are. But he had to repeat it because he had not mastered the butterfly stroke, which he'd only started that course. And he's just not strong enough at it. But this time, this four weeks, he's really doing a whole lot better. And I could never do that butterfly stroke. It's real hard to get yourself out of the water. I never ever did do it. But you know, really enjoying that. And he has... he has to wear goggles because his eyes are very sensitive, and the chlorine affects them badly. I mean, it affects Rachael's too, but his, for some reason, they're affected a lot worse. Then oh, he's just nuts about his karate class, and he's very interested in that and enjoying it.

Rachael has gymnastics on Wednesday afternoons. She only goes one day a week because, well, just between you and me, there's one thing Rachael isn't, it's a gymnast. She's too tall. She's just simply too big to be, you know, sort of supple enough. She's just not got that, you know, the kind of physique that they tend to have. But the kid loves it, so what can you do with a kid that loves it? You got to let her do it. And she's now getting her own... what do they call it? You know, routine altogether on the bars. So she's real happy about it, and it's good exercise for her, and even if that's all it is, she's enjoying it, so I feel like, you know, it's worth keeping it up.

What else have they been doing? They've been to the movies. They went to see 'Every Which Way But Loose' with Clint Eastwood. They're into Clint Eastwood movies now. They're into rock music, something unbelievable. The Maitland singing 'Nine to Five', it's the only way to do it, with Dolly Parton. And she's become an absolute superstar since that movie. She is incredible. They have her interviewed on television quite often. She's just worked and worked and worked. She's got... she came from a very poor family, of course, and she's just got a stamina and a way with her. She really is... overdone as she looks and everything on the boob, got which are a source of, you know, fun all the time. She's just done extremely well. And now that she's into movies, and she's about to make a movie with Burt Reynolds, she's going to be a mighty superstar, I would say. They say the movies... we... I haven't seen it yet. What other movie was there? Oh yeah, talking of her being a country singer, or she was, she's sort of pop now, but have you... if you get a chance to see The Coal Miner's Daughter, I think you'd enjoy that. It was a good movie. Well, what other movies are there that are apparently pretty good? Well, of course, there was Dad's all-time favourite, Mary Tyler Moore, has gotten into the awards this year, I see, with her movie Ordinary People, in which she plays the part of a mother with a son that wants to commit suicide. And of course, you'll know that her own son did at the same time of the movie, which is rather tragic. She's really had a hard life, that woman.

Well, of course, it's just been Valentine's Day, and we made Belgian biscuits by the mile. I think we made in the end... well, because you're joining two together, which always... there's a pain... we made 160 twice and gave them away to people and all their teachers and stuff. And the kids enjoyed that. And Mrs. Curley and Bev and Jack had the New Zealanders staying at the time, so I gave Beverly a whole lot. She said they were demolished in no time. I gave Marsha four. She said, "Not too many." Gave Marsha four the first night she got them. Maitland and Walter from the kids, you know, they give Valentine's... Maitland had given Walter a Valentine's from "Little Chief to Big Chief," which was cute. And anyway, you know, Rachael gives them to Meredith, the choir teacher, and all that stuff. Anyway, that apparently Walter from Marsha... she was dividing her four cookies out over two nights, two each a night. Well, the first night she gave Walter one with a cup of tea, and he said, "Did you eat my other one?" And she said, "No, I didn't." Said, "Where is it? Where is it?" And she said, "Well, you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow night. You're not to eat both at once." She can spare them out... they have one a night. He said... heavens, apparently couldn't wait for the next night to get his other cookie. I must make some more, but they tend not to... I don't like to send Marsha too much cake and stuff because they eat out a lot, and you know, they go to the theatre all the time. In fact, I must speak to her today. They went to see Jekyll and Hyde last night at the Alliance Theatre, but they're always going to the symphony or the theatre or some damn thing, and of course, they eat out. Well, so she tends never to have desserts at home because they visit people a lot too. So I don't like to give them too many cookies, but Bev and Jack... Beverly just loves cakes. She's always baking cakes. Hates to cook a meal but loves to bake cakes.

Well, these New Zealanders turned up. Loris and Merv Wishart from Blenheim. He's the lawyer. He's got four daughters, two of which I think live in Wellington. One's just got a law degree, and she's married, I think. And the youngest one's married, and the two in the middle... I don't know where they are, but there are two or three of them live in Wellington. And they arrived, oh, I guess a week or so ago anyway. Bev and Jack honestly took them to five basketball games that John was in. You know, then went to two in one day. And Marsha and I were just in hysterics. I mean, hell, who wants to come all the way... if they'd taken them to the Omni to see a game of some kind, that would have been, you know, a treat. Although the circus is on at the moment, except for the one night the circus had to give up the soccer. But so there's no sport on there right now. But taking them to the Omni would have been sort of a treat. But to sit on those hard... the old school soccer... school basketball games is hardly, you know, international adventure anyway. But that's Bev and Jack's life, you know? And they took them to Westminster how many nights at different things, but that's all they do. Well, finally on... what did they do? On the Sunday, they sent them on a bus tour of, you know, Stone Mountain and all that. And I think that was probably the best thing. It gave Beverly a moment free, and it also let them sort of do their thing. And then John... they got back to the hotel where they picked them up at three, and John went and picked them up, walked them back here, and we had afternoon tea. And then they went for what... run the garden here, you know, the big house. And there... And of course, he's laughing and carrying on... it was just shambles. And then, of course, we're set to a time factor with that. We've got to be at the game at the school at 8:30 or something. But anyway, it was great fun. We went to this game. Maitland... or John was working at the concession stand, so Maitland felt that that in itself was enough that he was entitled to have some money to spend because we usually don't let them have popcorn and stuff at these games. Well, I gave him a dollar. Well, he apparently... how I heard about this... I mean, I knew he was having a good time, but the next day, Sunny was outside, and Matthew and Maitland were up the tree. And Maitland said to Matthew, "Oh Matthew, I went to a basketball game on Saturday night. Oh man, it was fun! And I had two Cokes!" Had two Cokes! "And my mother gave me a dollar." Came home with like 80 cents or something because when we were leaving the game, Jack had said to him, "Maitland, look on the ground, you'll find some money." And sure enough, he looked straight down, there's 10 cents. And then I looked over, and I said, "Hey, there on there's a quarter!" He had all this money on the ground. That had been the highlight of his night, altogether. Whether or not he'd watched the game... they watched the cheerleaders, who just awful, jumping around and doing the splits and things. But it was a good game. Westminster won, of course, so that always makes Beverly and Jack happy. And we had... very extremely nice people. And they were sort of girls, really. They're heading off to South America. They'd packed all their baggage off home from here, and they were... or they're going to pick it up now as they were heading off to South America with, you know, nothing more than a knapsack. And you know, they're really having a great trip.

So that was that. Oh, do you remember when you were here? We took you to that horrible fast food restaurant, you know, we told you how well they had done? It wasn't like McDonald's or anything. It was this privately owned one called The Varsity. Well, I can't remember if we took you to The Varsity downtown or the... no, we didn't. We took you to The Varsity Junior because remember I had...? That's right, it was The Varsity Junior, which... it's the father and son. The father owned the one downtown, and the son owned that one we went to. Well, the son, whose name is Gordy, their name is Gordy Jr. He is... Well, recently, he was at a Steak 'n Shake, another fast food joint, having breakfast one morning, and the police were called because... riot or some damn thing, you know, someone was creating a disturbance. And it was the guy, and he was drunk. And he went out into the parking lot, and the cops turned up, and he pulls out a gun, and they shot him dead. They just don't ask questions. You just don't pull a gun around here. They just shot this guy down. He's dead. It's just been, you know, quite a shock to them. It happened right just along the street here, you know, out in this area. Which... dear, I do... you just don't, you know, do anything suspicious in front of the cops, or you really do risk your life.

Well, Susie called the other day, and she said, "Oh hi Sharon." She's got a real sort of hand... voice? And she's always perky and happy. "Hi Sharon, how are you?" you know. She... and they have just been to Rio de Janeiro for 10 days for a holiday, although Eddie was telling John the other day he's just exhausted. They've had a lot of people staying, you know, been sort of busy and... you know, even going to Rio was tiring. But she said, "Oh, we brought the children back a present from Rio. You know, do you think that they'd be able to pop over for a minute?" And I said, "I'm sure they'd be delighted." She'd... "Make sure they put on warm jackets," you know. And she really... they're just so cute with the kids. And you know, they've got no kids at home now, and they rattle around in that house like two bloody peas. It's just the fair... the maid has to stay over now if Eddie's out of town. And it just makes me laugh because the maid lives above there, you know, the cars there. And Susie's room's at the very other end of the house, and the maid is, you know, got to be 65. What the hell the pair of them would do if anything happened anyway. But I guess it feels... certainly wouldn't feel better than being there by yourself because even John said it's a little frightening. And when you... you know, the thing is if something does happen, well, you just don't know. So anyway. The kids went over, and they bought Maitland back a beautiful kite, red and black, which is the Atlanta Falcons' color. And Rachael, a jade heart, which... and it was right on Valentine's, it was just a couple of days before. And it's a jade... piece of jade in the shape of a heart, and then the gold just sits around the edge of that and has a little thing. And so she had a nice gold chain, and we put it on. It's just precious. And as it happens, you know, special stones for us, you know, amethyst and just few stones from the area. And they gave them all their leftover Brazilian money too. So the kids were just thrilled. And they took over to them a whole lot of Valentine hearts, and apparently Eddie took them aside, and he said, "Oh Maitland," he said, "I'm going to eat all these for my supper." He said, "I'm going to eat the whole heart." The kids just laughed; they thought it was funny because he sort of tends to, you know, forget that he's a father too. And he's really quite a nice guy. It's just a little like Howard Hughes, you know, he's real sort of fairly quiet. They're not big jet-set types.

Anyway, I must start telling you a few other things because this tape's going to run out. Patsy, I mean, Patsy is just unreal. I'm home today. I have decided that I am not working five days a week. Well, number one, I don't really think Patsy can afford it. But I was getting to the stage that on a Friday, I was doing the accounts, and if the computer went out or anything, I was there too late. You know, I'd have to get John home, and then I'd have to go back, that sort of thing. And so I told her I'd go in on Tuesdays and Fridays. I'll do the ATC report on Tuesdays, and I'll do the billing on Friday for her. And that'll help her out. Anyway, she's just a mess. I mean, that office... she's a mess. I mean, every day there's a crisis, and she just seems that she can take her mind off one crisis by finding another one that's either more important or more pressing or whatever. But you know, one day they're about to take her car off because her payments... she's three months behind in the car payments. Or it's always something, or she's $10,000 short for ATC, or just God knows, somewhere or another the money comes in, but that money shouldn't be going to where she puts it most times. And there's other people she should be giving it to. She's just hopeless. You'd never organize her. As much as Dad might say I can, I'm afraid you cannot organize someone that... somebody has got so far behind with capital. She needs capital pumped in. And two clothes that I had never seen before, so anyway.

One else is great and importance here. I sit with my Vegemite toast and a cup of coffee, and it tastes so good. You've just got no... when you taste it, it's just a hit. Anyway. The other thing I made last night was some jello. We get frozen raspberries here. I would say fresh ones when you do, are out of price, and it's a ridiculous price, like $5 a little half punnet. But the frozen ones aren't bad. They're $1.50, I mean, or something for 10 ounces. So I made frozen raspberries and put them into Jell-O, and it's jelly, and just beautiful. Anyway, I must fly because this is running out. I've sent this computerised too. Now that's just for me. Don't... you know, there's no financial family bit going on with that. I just... it was so inexpensive, and I just wanted you to have one at home. It's fun. Maitland loves it. But David... I reckon David's sort of, you know, sort of pulls radios apart and stuff. I think he'd like that sort of thing. And maybe you'd like to give it to him for a present because he could have it with the kids too. But Maitland's real good at it. He can score 10 in a basketball game next to no time. You know, it's all worked out, and there's three games with it, and there's a halftime show which always sends Maitland into hysterics. So it should be quite fun. I think you'll enjoy it. So I hope you do.

Just love Dad's printed paper. But where is WAI O H I K I? Wai O Hiki? Never heard of it. Where's that? But it's great. Just love it, really do. You know, it's looking terrific. And you know, if that's only a rough one, well, I think it's gonna be just great. And I wish you every success with it. I know it's going to go well. Bye y'all. I'm going to run out.