Episode 12 - SVW Tapes - 20th May, 1981

Well hi y'all, this is an extra tape. I haven't heard back from you yet, and I only sent you one maybe a week ago now, but I realized that there were quite a lot of things that I hadn't covered, and lots of pieces like, you know, odd mail that you've sent, etc. So I thought I'd make another tape because after this week, we might be pretty busy for a little while. It's the 20th of May today, Thursday... Thursday night, about 10 o'clock for a week. And so I thought I'd get another tape off to you.

Well, to cover my list of things that I'd forgotten about, you know, to mention maybe in the last tape, and that was your kettle looks super. I'm sure Dad is able to make a nice cup of tea with that. It really is a nice kettle, isn't it? Dad's foot... the saline... the... Patsy was saying that the doctor said to bathe that once a day, and Marsha's sister who's a nurse, you know, they all agreed that it would be saline baths that I suppose he's putting Epsom salts into.

The fact that you're getting Johnny Carson now is interesting, and I can understand that they would not find him at all funny. And isn't it a little bit political or sort of on our front for New Zealand, or what? Are they cutting it all? Is it coming across as is here? I don't know, sometimes, you know, I mean, I think the interviewing of the guests is fun, and that's something that you would all enjoy seeing these people sort of up front, but you know, all his jokes and that to us, of course, are nightly, and they are relevant, but they might be a little bit sort of outdated by the time you get them, etc. I'm not sure on that. Of course, Carol Burnett, you've seen the trial, and but I read in the paper the other day that there had been an appeal, and she had agreed to only take half of what the original amount was. I think she was going to get over a million dollars; it's going to be half that now. And then I've got the... Dad had three ones? Two in the... I think it was two in the bonus bonds and one in the golden kiwi? And I had thought the world... third time lucky, but maybe fourth time lucky for the bugger. And it was nice to know that you're all keeping in touch with all your American friends and that they're all traveling, you know, and doing their trips still. And I thought also that I'd better get this off because you'll be heading off to Aussie, and I can't remember now what dates that is, but you said that you're going to stay in the Cross in Sydney, which I think is fun too, and you know, enjoy that for a day or two before you go to wherever you're going. I guess it's to the beach or to a quieter spot than in the big city anyway.

You were saying that Maitland can eat! Can he eat! When we have fish, he just loves fish. He eats... treats? Is it fish and hamburgers? He's growing fast. He's sort of a short little guy, little red-headed stranger we call him, and he's really enjoying his life. He's quite cute. He's done, you know, much better at school this year. I think he's more settled and got all his little friends and stuff. He seems pretty happy. Miss Bell enjoys him, and he wants to have Miss P. Jones next year, that was Rachael's teacher in the third grade. And she likes him; she really thinks he's a bit of all right. All the black teachers all kind of like him, I guess because he's so fair. That he's hoping to get her, and he's fully said to me, you know, "She likes me," he knows. So I guess it'll be good if he got her.

And you know, you were going up to the police training college opening, and I was thinking of you. Well, when I had your letter, you would have been up there, and I guess you had a good time seeing all your old friends. And hope the weather was good in Wellington. I didn't know whether it was wise for you to go out and visit the Rose Cottage at number 40 or not. Dad had been very critical of what they'd done to his garden, I should imagine. Anyway, I hope it was looking in ship shape. Anyone that would have bought that house would not have had a lot to do to keep it looking pretty good since the groundwork had all been done.

Have you had... did I just tell you that I had sent Bounce, or had you received it? I sent two packets with two of those dispenser things, and I decided to send it all to you so that you could disperse as you felt those that needed it, you know? And if Dorothy doesn't ever dry her clothes, I don't suppose there's much point in her having that. I didn't realize that. And then you went on to say that May, although has been a sad month in the family, has been a happy month for you. It really is. I mean, we've had a lot of births, and after all, now we've got the gerbils, five little babies born in May. So... anyway, then you mentioned too that David was not really too happy in his job or whatever, and that he, you know, felt like his job was on the line. I know he must be very concerned, but I'm sure that he'll find something else. And John's argument to it was... I said, "Well, David's, you know, concerned that his job's on the line because all these farmers are forming co-ops and stuff." And John just said, "Well, why don't he join the co-ops?" So maybe that's... I mean, we don't know anything about the situation down there, but maybe that is a possibility. After all, David's got so much more experience than probably most people in the country. It seems ridiculous that he would be out of a job. So hopefully, you know, it'll all sort itself out. And it seems to me... and I mean, I can't get really an overall picture, but because it's only what you mentioned just from time to time, but he's really never been entirely happy with this new crowd, has he? However, I hope that, you know... it seems probably a shame that James Aviation will obviously be able to see their way through a sort of a recession or whatever it is with the topdressing. But at the same time, he really wasn't all that happy with them. They hadn't given him the best of treatment, I shouldn't think. Anyway, I'm sure he'll find something, and he could always go into business or whatever. I mean, him and...? He could go into business, maybe that would be something that they would like to do.

I'm sure the police college was pretty good, wasn't it? Seeing it all open and having been planned for so long and never having got round... or been a lot happening here with the police, of course. You can hardly compare the police here with the police in New Zealand. But no, one of the problems with this murder investigation is that the bodies are found all over the place, of course, and although it's in a particular area, I mean, I think I might have sent you at one stage when they were doing those five articles, which, of course, was only... I think we were under 20 at that stage had been murdered. They're in a sort of a vicinity, but those vicinities are divided into counties. We all live in counties, and each county has its own damn police force. And then there's the state, and then there's the federal, of course, and FBI and the GBI or whatever they call themselves. So you've got so many different police forces arguing the toss, and you know, it seems to me that they are not as cooperative with one another as they might be. Consequently, people are uninformed and/or as informed as maybe they should be. Then, of course, now we've got the big hoo-ha about bringing the guy over from England that finally got the Yorkshire Ripper. And I think I've cut out a clipping for you where somebody says, well, we should be spending our money on other things. And apparently, he's up on charges of some damn thing anyway, and what can he do? And it turned out that it was just an ordinary cop that found him. And the plainclothes cops here are not getting sufficient information. And it seems like everybody's running around in circles. I would think that there has been a bit of laxness really because it did take a heap of murders before they finally formed the task force and all that sort of stuff. And parents had to really spell it out to them before they'd finally believe it. And of course, there's a lot of feeling that if it were white kids in Ashford Dunwoody, which is where my friend Vicki lives, there'd be all hell let loose. And I guess that's probably very true, you know? They've... There's an article in the paper tonight, someone complaining that... oh, I know what it was I was reading. A girl that's standing for the Socialist Work Party for mayor. She's the only political candidate, supposedly. And she's made this a big thing, this murder thing. She reckons that the mothers have been criticized as being uncaring and that they didn't love their children and didn't take care of them. Of course, they're all poverty-stricken. That they were all homosexuals, the children, which is a pretty gross thing to say about 10-year-olds. That the police haven't done, you know, what they should have done. They've been very critical of the people; they wouldn't take any notice of them and finally were forced into admitting that it was some kind of crazy person out on the loose. The whole thing's pretty disastrous. And in the midst of all this, our police... what... he's not called the commissioner here, but the head of police for Atlanta, Chief... Chief George Napper, I think his name is. He has applied for a job in Berkeley in California, and he wants to get that job. And the funny thing is, people are saying he's opting out of the murder case because he's sort of embarrassed. It's sort of like resigning because the Berkeley job is much, much smaller. It's, I think, a police force like a quarter of the size of Atlanta. Atlanta has a huge police force. But he does come from there, and he apparently would like to be back in California. So consequently, there's several guys in line for the job, and there's, of course, a lot of politics going on at the moment as to who's going to get it. And there's this guy Bell, who's a very good-looking guy that's been in a lot of trouble over the years. He's deputy at the moment, and I've sent you a few clippings. He's in trouble because he used police equipment or something for Sharky's Machine, the new movie that Reynolds is making here in town. And anyway, the article explained a bit to you. But he's a good-looking guy, and he's apparently very popular, and it seems that George Napper particularly does not want him to get the job. So there's all kinds of problems going on. But it seems like also that Napper is not going to get the job in California, although he was down to a short list of 10 out of, you know, like 100 applicants or 10 that were suitable, and he's a good possibility. But there's a bit of arguing going on now in California, so whether he'll get the job or not, one does not know.

Well. In one of your letters, you had written in quote "point of time". I think that the quote that drives us all bananas is "at this point in time," Mother. That I had survived. I just want to mention that small thing. While the Air New Zealand disaster really is just a fiasco rather than a disaster now, isn't it? You know, I can see that there is... there was lack in communication getting the computer updated and all that sort of stuff, and that's fair enough, that's a Hollywood argument. But as you said, they should never even... the old computer, whatever, shouldn't have been at 2,000 feet. So it's hard to know who the hell judged the thing, or you know, who was there... the group that finally make the decision on a thing like that. I can't understand it, and I'm sure everybody's sort of feeling real bent out of shape over it.

Cannon Lowndes? Stealing a bag of tobacco or something, wasn't it, from the aisle? And I think... is that Bob Lowe that writes in, I think, the Women's Weekly in the newspaper every week? Isn't that...? He's quite famous. Is that the guy? I guess since you mentioned it, it is. I just didn't know whether Cannon was his title or not.

Then we go on to Dorothy's cake. Made us all very hungry because Americans just... John, you know, being a big sweet tooth, says Americans sure can't make cake. They have stuff called angel food, which is white cake and absolutely tasteless, absolutely tasteless, and it's just awful. That's what they all seem to like most. Although we had a little luncheon the other day for Angie getting married, and one of the girls had made a rum cake which had pecans and stuff on top, and I must admit it wasn't so dry as they usually are, and I did have a bit of taste because they never put real cream in them or anything anyway. Talking about Angela's wedding, she finally got married on Saturday. With all this palaver, she had Friday off. She came to work after midday; she was in a bad mood. So she wore her little Mickey... you know, those wee pixie sun hats we all wear with Mickey Mouse on. Mother said, "I can't believe, Angela, that you were going out looking like that." And she said, "Well, you might as well act out your mood," and she was in a bad mood, so she had Mickey Mouse on her head. Then she wasn't about to take him off. She's in the hair... And I... you know, she just wasn't ready for getting married the next day. But apparently, she looked really glamorous on the day, and everything went off very well. But she was telling me they had... I said, "Oh, what was...?" They were talking about her cake because Patsy had gone to the wedding, they were all invited, but I didn't go. And she said something about someone was talking about the cake and how good the cake was. And I thought it was probably angel food cake. I said, "Well, what was the cake like?" And she said, "Well, the groom's cake..." And I said, "The groom's cake?" And they said, "Oh yes, she had a cake for the groom and a cake for the bride." Groom's cake was chocolate cake. I said, "God save me!" And the bride's cake was some other damn thing, I don't know what it was, but they're all very horrible looking. They usually put gory colors and stuff on them. Then I said here, and she... "Never have anything but fruitcake for a wedding cake." And they said, "What? Fruitcake?" And I said, "Yes, but you've never tasted a decent fruitcake anyway," I said. Then you have marzipan iced, marzipan and plastic icing, plastic icing. I said... they all said... then one of them said, "All fruitcake is definitely the groom's cake." And I said, "I'm sorry, it is not. What it is, the cake. And the top tier is for the christening too, by the way." So they don't know what a decent damn wedding cake is. But these weird things... all the intricate details. I think I might have told you that the rehearsal dinner the night before was costing $2,000. I mean, it's just ridiculous the expense that they go to. Anyway, we had been listening to the tape of the wedding all week, and her brother writes music, he's a songwriter, and he plays the guitar, and he really is very good. He's got a future, that's for sure. He played, and they had lots of people singing and that. It's the Church of Christ, and so no booze at the wedding, but anyway, they had all these people singing, and they had this woman singing something that... oh, I said, "Angie, you didn't tell me they had this." And it was 'Sunrise, Sunset'. And I thought, "Oh, that was just lovely to have that at a wedding." I said, "I bet your mother just bawled her little eyes out." Anyway, so she went... wedding went off okay. Oh, that's right, the only hitch to all that was that the father-in-law, the groom's father, his mother had died like about a year ago, but the father on the Sunday night when they got back from Lake Lanier, which is where they went for the one-night honeymoon that they had, informed them all... he didn't even tell them, but when they got back, they heard that he had gone for urgent prostate gland surgery. And he hadn't told them; he wanted the wedding to be over and because they'd... upset them a great deal. So finally, she had Monday off as well, and he's coming through real well. He's fine apparently.

Well, you'd mentioned that you were thinking about Maitland on his birthday and did he have a little couple of friends over for tea or something. Well, did he have a party, or did he have a party is what we should say. I think I've probably told you a bit about it in the last tape about the kosher things and the all-beef hot dogs and all that stuff, but he had a great time. He really didn't. Of course, that was the night the MET was here. And then last Sunday was...? Sunday? Saturday? This is this coming Saturday, whatever the date will be, the 23rd or 4th or something, is the final day of soccer, and everybody has these little parties for the kids afterwards. So John decided to have his team... Rachael's team won last Sunday... that was Saturday the week before. So after soccer last Saturday, all the girls came back here to swim. Well, you wouldn't believe it, but you know, all of April was as hot as hell, and this month's really been quite cool for this time of year. And you know, Americans don't swim till after this weekend, Memorial Day on Monday. So because... we got Monday off... that is the day the pools open, and nobody swims before that. And of course, we do. And of course, last Saturday was really quite cool, I mean, really quite cool. And but the girls still wanted to go swimming. They all went swimming, and they got in, and they all got cold, and then they got out. And we gave them hot dogs and potato chips and... when we had all ice creams and junk, you know? And then they played soccer on the lawn, and they all... were away, so we had the big lawn to play soccer on and baseball, and they all ran around, went bananas, and they got warm again. And then they went back, and they were perfectly happy to do it and was fine. But when they all got there, we had to cart them all over here. They were also excited; they were still in their soccer costumes at that stage. They all ripped those off and got in the pool. And some of them are just hard cases. But of course, when it comes time to leave, finally there was just Rachael and another little girl that was staying the night with us, and they only had one sock between them because all the costumes being the same, and they all had their right shirts because they have their names on, but their pants are all pretty much of a muchness. They may have had a bit of a problem finding all those, but then Rachael had one sock, and the other little girl had none at all. So we've been searching for socks all... this little girl, Sarah, whose mother's English, father's from Southern Alabama, and she's a real, real English... it's really quite a hoot. Sarah is just sort of in the middle there, and she's been brought up with two older brothers, and she's an absolute tomboy. And she's also, of course, not only got an American accent but takes her mother off all the time in her English accent, which is pretty cute. Called her mother Engelbert Humperdinck the other day. She's got five socks! So we had found two, and then we still had one more to find them when somebody else had four socks, so we realized we'd lost even more than that. I mean, it was just a mess because, of course, they never wore their full uniform home.

Anyway, so that went off well. We had this kid stay the night who is in the team, and she's a funny little girl. She's quite a cute kid, but she's obviously terribly insecure. And the week before, she had invited John to go to one of her school plays or whatever, something that was on at school, you know, thing the parents go to. And no one had ever asked him to do that, anything like that before, so he thought, "Well," you know, he didn't quite know what to do. He thought, "Well, hell, what the heck, I'll go." So he goes, and he meets the father... the mother and father are divorced... so he meets the father. And she goes to a little school at Vinings, which is just out... Cobb? It's a very, very small school, just a little old house, and they only have like about 10 kids in the class. But she apparently had a great deal of trouble at the school she was going to. One year, at the end of the year, he said she couldn't even read. So they took her out and put her in this school, and she's just done remarkably well this year. And they're now going to... they live in the Jackson school area, they live almost behind the school. They're going to take her out now and put her into Jackson because she, you know, she's kind of caught up with the kids now. But she's the same age as Rachael, and she's only in second grade, so she's certainly a long way behind Rachael being the fourth going into fifth. So anyway, she stayed the night. Well, she was all right, you know, but she was very demanding. And like, when you know... if there's one thing an American child can do, that is they can make... from the age of 18 months old on, they can make their own hot dog, you know, mustard, ketchup, the whole lot. This kid kept saying, "Mr. Waters, Mr. Waters," constantly, "Mr. Waters, Mr. Waters." I mean, she hadn't hurt her toe or hurt her hand or... and you'd love to see the scratch; you'd need a magnifying glass to see it. Just attention all the time. "Mr. Waters, will you fix me..." Everyone fixes things, you know? "Will you fix me a hot dog? I want ketchup and mustard." And most of the kids don't want you to do it because they all want the right amount of mustard and the right amount of ketchup and all... And she was just so demanding. Well, anyway, she stayed the night.

We stayed up at the house, and it was funny. I said, "Well..." I went... and we got some fabulous tenderloin steak out of the freezer, all vacuum-packed stuff, you know, and we all ate. Well, I said, "Well, I know what I'm going to do tonight. I'm going to watch television. It'll be just so nice to just sit down." And there's so many TVs over there, everybody can watch the one they want to. "I'm going to sit down and watch a movie." I love the old movies, and of course, this on Ted Turner's television, you know, 17, the super channel. He has old movies all the time. And I watched a really fabulous movie. It was Charles Boyer and... I can't think who it was... was... what was it called? 'Don't Come Tomorrow' or something like that. And he's from Romania or wherever, and he was hanging out in Mexico wanting to get into America. And he's waiting for the quota, you know, they had a quota system then. And finally, he meets this American school teacher, and he marries her simply to... because he had heard that that's how he could. But of course, he actually does fall in love with her, and it all works out pretty well in the end. But it was sort of interesting. There they were just across the border at this hotel. One point, there's a woman... all these people are waiting just to get in. And this woman's about to have her baby, of course. And she goes up to the gate of the... where you cross the border and says that she's just talked to... well, she does pass the... the immigration officer on her way there. And she tells the guys at the gate that he said that's all right for her to go and sit in his office and wait for him to come back because when he comes back, they said, "Did you see this woman yet?" And he said, "No." You know, "What? She doing here?" And they said, "Oh, she said that you could wait... she could wait in your office to see you." Of course, they go in, there's a baby crying, and she's had the baby! So the guard said, "Quick, let's get her back across the border," you know. And the immigration officer says... says, "No, we can't move them back across. That child's an American citizen." So she's finally got in. It was really a very cute movie. And Sunny hasn't happened to... watched it too, and she said, "Oh, wasn't it good? They just don't make movies like that anymore." It was funny, I didn't know whether I told you in the last tape, but Rachael and I watched the movie the other Sunday called... who was it...? Can't think... wasn't... it was either Cary Grant or Rock Hudson, one of those guys. And... oh, who's the woman? And... dear oh dear, just stopped my mind... her... well, it was called 'An Affair to Remember'. It was in America, and they met on a cruise coming over from Europe, and they wanted to get married. And she become... she... they were going to get married six months later or something other, and she has an accident, and he never knows why. And it was really sad at the end. And Rachael was watching it with me, and she started to cry, and she said, "Oh dear," you know. And I said, "Well, never mind, Rach dear, but old movies, they're all like that." And she said, "But they're so sad." And I said, "I know, Nana and I used to watch them on Sunday, and we'd all be crying and losing him. But... there would all be red-eyed." God, those movies are really good though, they're on all the time, and I really enjoy them.

But anyway, getting back to this kid. So she stays the night. Of course, the kids wanted to watch television too. I think they were watching CHiPs or one of those weird things. And you know, they don't get to watch TV at all, so they quite enjoy... night... it's like going out to the movies. But this kid didn't want to; she was a hyper kid. And she just wandered around all the time. I couldn't sort of do much with her. Anyway, the next day, Rachael... I took Rach to church in the morning, and we got all organised, and we decided we'd go out to Stone Mountain for the day. There was a rodeo on. Unfortunately, we went to the right one. It was the world championships. So we kind of saw a bit of everything and probably the best that we would probably ever see... ever see too. So never having been to a rodeo... Well, honestly... well, you know what Stone Mountain's like. There are a zillion and one things to do out there anyway. Well, it cost you $2.50 to get your car in the gate, and it costs us $15 to go to the rodeo. And you know, that's... you don't get a whole lot more than that. There's no popcorn, ice creams, Cokes, and all the junk, and that's endless, and we just don't do it. So we had taken a picnic lunch with us. All been fed and watered, there's plenty of iced water when we sat. Rachael kept saying, "Oh, this is where we were with Nana and Grandad. We sat... where were with you when we went to the Daisy Festival...? We saw the clogging and the band and everything." We sat on the other side from there. And of course, you remember they were running down getting water that day, and you know, that was all they needed. Well, this kid said, "Oh gee, can we go ride the horses? Can we roller skate? Can we do this? Can we do that?" And at first, I thought, well, you know, I was sort of polite, "No, we're going to do this, sort of going to do that." After a while, I'd say, "No, we can't, you know, we're not here for that." And finally... then the rodeo was terrific, you know, Matt really got excited coming through with Old Glory. You know, every time Old Glory came through, you all have to stand up. And then we had to sing 'Oh Say Can You See' and oh Lord, it took... patriotic. But they crowned Miss Georgia Rodeo or something. And these guys win a huge amount of dollars. They win... oh, you know, into the millions on the circuit. It was just amazing how much money there was to win. If it was real sad too, because some of them would come in and break the gate or something, you know, break before the animal. And so, of course, just straight out disqualified, and that was the only opportunity they got. And I guess, you know, they were pretty brassed off. But they were riding those great big steers and bulls. But what I didn't realize was that they give the bull an electric shock before the poor sucker comes out of the gate, which is a bit tough, you know? Well, anyway, so we had a nice time at the rodeo. And what... Mother, I was telling you about the little girl and how much she wanted. But you know, American kids just sort of get that... that's part of going out. That's not only is it $15 to get in, you spend another five or six dollars just on absolute junk, you know? And they hardly need it. As you know, they never stop eating these things anyway, you know? That sort of stuff's not cheap anyway. That's all another thing. So we had a really good day out there.

What's happened this week? Well, Sunny and I played Scrabble last night, and that woman whipped me on... needless to say, I was out five bucks. We play a penny a point at the end, you know, and I'd been up $5 for quite a while, and it was really getting to her. She was just getting such rotten letters all the time. Anyway, she's finally onto a winning streak, and then we got down to about zilch. And then last night, she came over to have a game, and we had three in the end. I wouldn't let her go home. I said, "No, we're gonna play another one." That was... must have been 12 o'clock when we started the third game. I shouldn't have started. I'd lost two, you know? When you're on a losing streak, you just don't get them. I'd thrown in twice a challenge to once... and oh Lord. So anyway, she won $2.35 off me last... just one night. So anyway, I was talking to her today, and she's not... I said to her... I was just talking to her on the phone a little while ago. I said, "Well, I'm going to go and make a tape to my mother. I'll just tell her that Sunny is not a well woman." She said, "No, you tell your mother that I'm not a well woman, but I'm a champion." So anyway, that's... so Sunny, but she just isn't feeling good today. She has a sore throat and feels a little bit flu-ey, so not a good time of the year to feel that way with the weather so pretty anyway.

So earlier in the week, I sent you... and I know I just went to the trouble of writing out... Marsha had given me the history of the legend of the dogwood tree here, and I thought I'll try and squeeze this on this card, which I did, and it... all so that it all fitted onto a postcard of a dogwood. And you know, I didn't do it in biro; I did it in a felt pen. And I'll bet that sucker gets wet. I just know it's going to be sitting in your letterbox the one day you go out in the rain, hits it or something, and it'll melt. So if it does, I'll do it again and send it. It's quite a cute little story Rachel liked and you wanted... the hammer?

Anyway, well, Rachel did... they performed Mary Poppins this week, and she was all very excited. She went off in the Oxford cloth shirt and her hair all down and all... they were allowed to wear makeup, which, of course, she did. Rachael Kenner didn't wear any, and I said, "Well..." because I wondered if it was because of, you know, the church and that she... don't... sisters wear makeup, but she just chose not to wear any. I said, "Well, didn't the other kids wear makeup?" She said, "Oh, all the blacks did. They love makeup." And I said, "Well, were you... there any white kid that wore makeup?" And she said, "Oh, no." I know she wasn't, but I don't know that they really had to wear makeup. But Meredith was going to wear... "And I've got the longest eyelashes in class," and "The most moles too." Rachel has an abundance of moles now. Where she's got all the moles from, I don't know. Black ones and dark ones, they're all over. I mean, when the doctor examined her, he said, "Rachael, you've got moles in places that some people haven't even got places." I mean, she really is covered. And I'm trying to be very careful with them because, you know, I don't want them getting knocked or anything. But she has a great number, but Schwieger was on the nose, but on the face, but the rest of her body's just covered in moles. Anyway.

Well, so what day was it, mostly...? Thursday? It must have been Tuesday. They went to Holy Innocents to perform Mary Poppins. Well, as you can imagine, Miss First was her usual giggling little self, and how gorgeous all her perfect children were. And oh, just digressing just for a moment, I told her that all our gerbils were just fine. There wasn't any runts, and they were all perfect. And she looked at me with a blank expression. "Well, you didn't expect what? There would be from my stock?" "I mean, my stock's just like my children." I mean, one feels that you should never say certain things to Miss First. How foolish of you to think that anything could possibly go wrong with her breed. She's just a hoot. She gives those kids rather an overabundance of confidence, I believe. But she certainly does things for Matthew. Matthew is in third grade but fourth grade CAT test because his reading level is so high. He reads higher than Rachael does, and he scored 12.6 in his reading, which is extremely high. I'd say probably then... know with a bit in the school because he's two grades... than some of the kids, but certainly extremely high.

I'm also sending all the clippings of the CAT tests from Jackson. I haven't had the results of our children yet, but Jackson are 2% higher than they were last year overall. So you know, they've done pretty well anyway. Getting back to going to Holy Innocents with Mary Poppins. So we're all ready and all geared up. Rachael was just in the chorus without... she sang all the songs and everything. Came home in the afternoon, and I said, "Well, well, did you have a good day?" Had to go... "She was terrible! Terrible!" And I said, "What do you mean terrible?" She... "This terrible thing happened." And I said, "What?" And she... she was terribly upset about it. I said, "What happened?" She said, "Well, first of all, Miss First didn't think we were gonna have enough drivers. So she called a whole lot of other people. And then we had too many. So she had to send the people home." And I said, "Well, it's better to have too many at the last moment than too few because they can't get people at 9 o'clock." "Oh, that was the first thing." And then they all got there, and everybody was nervous. And, you know, all the rest of it, putting on the big production. Of course, putting it on at another school, not on their home ground, they were just a little uneasy about the whole thing. Well. The middle of the play when the... she said, "Well, you know when the chimney sweeps come in?" "Well." Three chimney sweeps forgot to come. And Miss Gleason said... went and told everybody. And I said, "Well..." She... she went and said, "Oh, I think somebody's forgotten to come out." And she says, "Chimney sweeps!" and everybody knew. And I said, "Well, she had to get them out there somehow." They were apparently... and Rachael's telling... they were playing out backstage. So the chimney sweeps forgot to come. Well, that was one little thing. I said, "Well Rachael, you don't realize, but nobody even notices that." And she said, "Well, we were embarrassed. We were in front of the whole school." But that wasn't all. What else? Nothing could have been worse, surely? "Well, you know, Will Farr..." Will is very, very talented. He's an extremely good reader, which goes generally with the acting, remembering their lines and everything. She said, "And you know, Will...? He likes everything to be just perfect." Well, he's one of... his first children after all. One speaks for itself. And he just hates anything to go wrong or be wrong or not quite right. "And do you know what happened? He had to sing the solo." I can't think... I guess it was the chimney sweep solo or something. "And he had to sing the solo like... well, Miss Gleason was playing the piano, and he started on the second verse instead of the first." And I said, "So?" Thank... holding my breath, hoping that he continued to sing the second verse. No! He stopped! And he just went bright red, and he put his head in his hands. And Miss Gleason thought... that she didn't realize what verse was on because she... or Rachael said she didn't know all the words, but I'm sure she just was playing away, doesn't think too much about what verse they're on. She thought that he just had stage fright and completely forgotten all his words. So she started to play again, singing the words, but she was singing the second verse. And of course, that really threw him, and he just was just absolutely... fit to be tied. Well, they were horribly embarrassed. When I went to great length to explain to her that they must not say anything to Will. Well, apparently just ran away after the show to his mother and hasn't been seen since. Oh, I mean, he was taken back to the school or something, but was just horrified and terribly upset and disturbed about it. And his mother's real nice; she's on the board. They've got four kids that have been through the school, and you know, they're just real nice people. I'm sure she soothed him down a bit, but he was just mortified. And anyway, I said, "Well, I hope you all just assure Will it really doesn't matter, nobody would notice." And of course, it wouldn't have mattered if the Viet Nam vet gums and damn red in the face had just continued on. But I guess he did not just, you know... Sunny said that's what comes with experience. And we were explaining to her that even on Broadway they do things like that, and people forget their words and all sorts of things, and you must laugh at anybody else because it can just as easily happen to you dear, you know, really. Oh, she said was just embarrassing, the whole of Holy Innocents was watching us, and oh dear. So I guess they were all bent out of shape.

Well, anyway, Meredith sent home the program for the 28th. That's Thursday week today. We're all heading to Sea Island. And you know, we were having... the sports day was meant to go on the 28th. That I knew when I asked Mrs. Wooten what day she wanted to have the sports day, that that was the very day that I would not be able to be there because I wanted to go to Sea Island with Rachael. But I wasn't absolutely certain that I was going to Sea Island because they can only take 50 people, and she did have other chaperones. And then they were taking Father Bob, and there are certain people that have to go. And naturally, they want to take as many kids as they can, their first priority. Of course, they take the number of, you know, chaperones they need anyway. But since Father Bob was going, and that was one extra chaperone, so I wasn't sure. And I mentioned to the girl that I do PE with on Monday, I said, "Well, you know, I hadn't told Meredith, but I said I may not be able to be here that day, so I'm going to do all the organizing that I can to help and, you know, just opt out because it's not gonna make a whole lot difference." John said, "Hell look, if we weren't even here, the show would go on." I'm good about it, you know, thing. And I think, well, he's quite right. So anyway, I... so I mentioned it to Jen too, the girl that I do... do it with. And then she tells Jenna Fell, the PE teacher, who next thing... I got a message, "Oh, we're changing the day, we're changing the day!" I said, "Well, don't do that. Please don't do that." I hoping really I would be able to be happy to have missed it. But oh no! So she gets to Miss Wooten, and they all... "Oh no, no, no! We changed the day!" So they've changed the damn day, made it the second of June, which is the... guess the following Tuesday. So I thought all this for me, and I really wasn't sure that I was going. Well, anyway, I've got my notice today, I am going. And we've got the whole itinerary and everything. I'm going to send you a copy of it. And in the meantime, then Miss Wooten apparently said they'd be better because all the kids are doing plays all week. There's plays every single day. And damn me if today Rachael suddenly twigs her play is 28th. Now we have to be at the church at 11:30 to leave at 12:00. And their play has to be done twice in the morning, this is Tom Sawyer, on that morning. Well, her part in the play is the very, very last scene, almost the last... and the last. So I don't know, I've got to go and see First in the morning and tell her this tale of woe because we have to be out of that school by 25 past to leave, or I'm going to be late. And I don't want to be because Meredith, you know, tries... she's very organized, and I don't want to be a problem to her. So I know we'll go and sort that out. And Rachael was getting all her wardrobe ready tonight for Tom Sawyer. She said, "I can't think..." She's Widow Douglas or something. I can't think of the woman's name. And she has to have an old-fashioned dress. Well, we had nothing, of course. So she finally found an old dress of Ruthy's which is sort of got long sleeves and a wide frill around the bottom, and it's sort of bluey grey, and it ties around the middle, and that doesn't look too bad. And I said, "Now Rachael, here is the perfect opportunity for white leather gloves." So she got out Clara's gloves, and she wouldn't rock in on them. And she'd got on these hideous high-heeled shoes of mine that looked terrible. And I knew she wanted to wear them to the play. And I said, "Rachael..." She wanted to go down and show Sunny if the dress looked suitable. So she was off down to see Sunny. I said, "When you get down there, you explain to Sunny that you are not going to be wearing those shoes in the play." Sunny and I were laughing later, we were saying, "Well, if she thinks Will Farr embarrassed himself, she was sure embarrassed herself a lot more if she trips over those stupid shoes in the middle of the play." So she goes down to Sunny. She said, "Mummy says I have to have a shawl." And Sunny goes into the treasure trove box, she calls it, pulls out her grandmother's shawl, exactly what we needed. And it was cream or whitey cream, which Sunny then turned round... she said when Rachael arrived, she wasn't a little keen on those gloves. And I bet wasn't she? She said, "Well, my mother says that these are the sort of gloves a widow would wear in Tom Sawyer." And Sunny said, "Yes," thinking they're hideous as hell, and went away to her treasure trove. And when she comes out with the shawl, she said, "Well, Rachael, would you believe this? The shawl is gonna match those gloves perfectly." And she said Rachael was just so much happier about the gloves then. So she's got her wardrobe. And we'll do her hair up in a bun, and John's gonna make her some little, you know, wire-rimmed glasses to wear, you know, just out of wire.

Anyway, so that's that on the go. We head for Sea Island on the Thursday noon, not Sea Island, St Simons, I'm sorry, which is much further south. And then we will... we're staying at the Epworth by the Sea. Epworth on the seaside or something it's called. It's the Methodist retreat. And apparently, there are these beautiful grounds and fabulous facilities, and they're providing all our meals, and so it'll be really good. And we're going over to Cumberland Island for the day. And all I have to pay for is the gas, which will cost me, I guess, about $30-40 to go out there and back. It's a six-hour drive each way. And it was $50 for Rachael to go. So it's a really good deal. And since John took the children down there when I was in St. Louis, I really want to see Cumberland Island because I may not get another chance to do it, and you always want to go somewhere different. So it's really going to be good. And we come back on the Sunday, which I guess will be the first of June or something. Not... it'll be the 31st, I ended up anyhow. And then after that... school finishes on the 5th, and then we're going to have Rachael's party on the 6th. And from there on then, we start on the Chastain Park concerts, which are going to be good this year. There's 15 of them this year. All sorts of exciting people are coming to town. So... and as usual, Rachael wants to see the ladies sing, and she said all the ladies always sing on Wednesday nights, and we only get tickets for us on Wednesdays and them on... both all of us on Fridays. I really should get them Wednesday too because it doesn't really matter if they have late nights in the holidays, except they will be going to their summer camp, but that at least starts at nine instead of the usual eight o'clock to school. And... anyway, damn me if all the six women that are singing... Dottie West, who sings with Kenny Rogers, she's on Wednesday night. All the women are on Wednesday night. So I might just see if I can get an extra couple of seats Wednesday nights for her to come because she really does like to see them. But unfortunately, Wednesday nights used to be at 8:30 and Friday nights at nine. See, they start kind of late, and you know, Maitland used to get pretty tired if it wasn't something that was fascinating to him. He would be sort of almost asleep by the time the end of the performance came. And you know, when you're spending so much money, you hardly take the kids there to sleep. Although the difference between taking them and leaving them at home with a paid babysitter is almost, you know, you might as well take them, and they might as well be getting the culture.

So speaking of culture, you've been sending... and I've got more to send you of Louis Grizzard's trip to Europe there. Oh, everybody around here since we're sending... you forget... get some culture! But we don't seem to be getting very far. I mean, that man's just crazy. One of the articles I'm sending you is talking about the naked statues in Rome, and I really think they're just hilarious. I had one other thing on my list of notes, and you know how you make these notes, and then you think, "What the hell is that all about?" And it was 'red lady', and I've suddenly realized that it's the First Lady and wearing red again. And yes, certainly, Rachael agrees with you on that. She doesn't want to see her in bright red. She's always in the brightest colour she could have outshone everybody else. But you've got to give Reagan the credit, and the damn Pope too for that matter. All these assassinations lately, and they're all flying through, you know? It's just amazing. If it was just any one of us, would probably be in bed for six months getting over the shock of it. But they're just amazing when you consider the responsibilities that, well, the Pope and the President have, that they're back to work before you know it. It's just amazing. And I guess it's just been very fortunate. Well, they wouldn't be in those jobs if they weren't in perfect health really. They wouldn't be able to handle them. But you know, the fact that they're both very fit and healthy obviously makes a lot of difference, and they've both done remarkably well. American women that were... weren't quite so lucky, I gather. But you know, one of Louis's columns is about terrorism that's sort of haunting the world. And you tend to sort of think that there's so much going on your own city with all these murders and things, but you know, so much with Ireland... and he was mentioning bomb scares. And see, we don't hear much of all that. Well, it's all in the news every day, but I mean, your headlines tend to be more local, I guess. But you've got to read right deep into the newspapers to catch all that. We got a thing in the paper... oh, there's a big new thing on about gun control. And you know, the Rifle Association here, their little motto is that "Guns don't kill people; people do." You know, they're real organised. But there's a thing I'm going to send to you about the gun control crowd have sent wanting donations recently. And I'm sort of tempted to send them some money because I think that they're on the right track if they could get rid of these what they call Saturday night specials, which are like $40. That is what most people are being killed with. And that's what Hinckley and the other... Hinckley used anyway because that was an American... I don't know what the guy killed the Pope with... or shot the Pope with. But Hinckley was using one of these cheapo guns. And they claim that if they could get rid of these cheap guns... they're what people buy to shoot other people because anybody that's really interested in gun collecting, they spend hundreds, and they're not buying guns to shoot people with. And I don't, you know, see any harm in people having guns and collections and stuff. They're a little bit overboard about it here. A man and his dog's got a gun. I mean, even Kent, you know, John's work... carries a gun in his car. Well, can you imagine having a damn gun in your car? I mean, it's just unbelievable anyway. But this crowd... and I see Maynard Jackson's one of the people that's on it, and so's Martin Luther King Senior for the local here. But they're trying to get up some money because this Rifle Association's extremely wealthy, and they're very political, and trying to compete with them... I'm tempted to send them something, but this little article that they sent with their advertisement to try and raise funds was very interesting.

Oh, I know what we had last night. We went to the school PE... picnic? We... it started at 6 o'clock. What was funny? Sally and I were both short of money this week, and we were laughing. She said, "If I don't get some money today, I just don't know what we're going to eat." So she was telling Lane about it the night... must have been Tuesday night. I said, "Why aren't you having a good dinner tonight, Sunny?" And she said, "Chicken and corn." And I said, "So are we!" So the next day we were talking, and Lane said, "Why aren't you girls sitting together on the picnic?" Because we were taking our own food. You could buy Kentucky Fried Chicken, and they had a meal planned, you know? It was just Kentucky Fried at the thing, and they were giving away free Coke, and there were free ice creams for the kids, and there was a cake stall so you could buy cake, which people were buying and just... they were cutting up large cakes and selling it by the piece for dessert. Oh, anyway. So really. He said, "Why didn't we get together on our picnic?" Because that's what we'd done last year. And but both of us had sort of felt we didn't really have enough money to go buy anything, you know, exotic for a picnic together. So she called me, and she was having to make some stuff for the cake stall. And she said, "I'd better get my act together. I'm not gonna have the brownies made." And I said... I said, "What are you making?" Because I said I didn't like buying things from cake stalls, but if I know who's made it, I'll buy it. I said, "What are you making?" She said, "Well, the packet of brownie mix that I'm using..." I said, "Oh, forget it. I don't want it." But anyway, because she makes real good brownies on her own recipe, but she was just using a cake mix for the school anyway. So I said, "Well Sunny, just..." She said, "What are you having for the picnic?" And I said, "Leftover chicken." I said, "What are you having?" She said, "Leftover chicken." So what we did in the end... we got those little... I don't know whether we had them home, but here we have these little cane plates that you put a paper plate inside, which really makes it nice for a paper plate outdoors. The damn things don't fold up on you, you know, and they're real cute outside. And I said, "Right, I'm just gonna put... make up a French bread roll and put the chicken salad and all that in there, mayonnaise for those that do and those that don't, and just a few grapes." And I made some stuffed eggs, and we had a little napkin and a cup. And when I'd made a cake... I just made a pound cake with pecans and cinnamon and stuff on top and cut a piece of cake out, individually wrapped everything. And I just put it all on the plate. I said, "That way, don't have to mess putting it all together at the picnic. I just give them all a plate, and they've already got their pre-orders. One has tomatoes, one doesn't, and one hasn't... mayonnaise, and one doesn't. I'm just gonna throw that sucker at them, and they've got it." She said, "Man, that's a great idea!" I said, "Well, let me send you down some cane plates." So I sent them down to her. And then they... I forgot to take a rug to the picnic. So they all arrived, and we all got our picnic plates out, and we dished them all out, and we really did pretty well for two women that hadn't been going to the grocery store and cashed a check anyway.

So we all got to the picnic. It started at six, and the weather was once again a little cool. You know, we had... like I had a sweatshirt on, you know, and Rachael had a sweater on. She's always usually hot, but... and they were so excited to see the kids because usually, see, they didn't play in the school grounds after school and that like they do in New Zealand. So they were going to get to play with the kids. Everybody was there. It was just as crowded as it could be. And we all sat out under the trees with our either Kentucky Fried or whatever. And... ceremony for the fifth graders is their graduation, you know, and they all get a certificate, and they're leaving, you see, to go to Sutton. And what did we... did we had... I had to go into the kitchen and give out ice creams for an hour. And they had a fancy dress? It was a Western night. They had horses there and ponies and a popcorn machine. And you know, it was really very cute. And the kids all dressed up in Western gear. And Maitland wore a ten-gallon hat, and he wanted a mustache. He had a mustache, which unfortunately, by the time the judging came, his mustache had been washed off, and they didn't have it any longer. It just looked like a dirty mark, you know, and part of his face. And anyway, it was unfortunate because they'd all thought it was Western that they had to dress up as Western. The kid that won it had a regular, you know, really fancy bought suit. Well, hell, you can't compete with that when you're dressed in your Western gear. And he won, which is a bit unfair because I think if they said it was Western, it should have been Western. He was dressed as a dog, you know, a collar and a furry suit and the whole bit. And which, you know, looks cute, but it's not very imaginative, and you know, it's been made or bought, you know, somewhere. Anyway. So then we had that, and then they played baseball. And it was great last year. It rained on picnic night, and it was just a fiasco. We had the whole thing inside. You know, all those kids and their parents and the noise and the clamoring. And last night, I thought, "Lord, if it rained tonight..." The weather just didn't look bright. And you know, it's so unusual for that to happen. Anyway, the weather was fine, and it was just a little cool, which is probably nice because if it's too hot, you know, when they're out playing baseball... well, you know, it just made all the difference with having those fifth graders outside the... fourth and fifth graders. They don't even want to stop to eat; they just want to play baseball. They're very into it. I mean, they played rough. Some of the black kids come dressed up like they're ready to be professionals at any moment. You know, they've got all their gear on. And you don't mess with the rules when they're all playing. And so we watched... there were two baseball games going, so we watched that. And the fathers were all involved, and that was nice. And they had sack races, and they had bubble gum competitions, and yeah, it was really fun. And we all just sat out under the trees, and the teachers mingled and chatted, and it was really very nice. And it was from six to eight. At ten past eight, a sprinkle of rain... and never actually did rain, but I just felt a few sprinkles of rain. I thought, "Well, thank goodness, so we just got it over in the nick of time." But it was a very nice evening; everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

Well, Walter and Marcisha are going down to St. Simons this weekend for two or three days, and I think they'll leave tomorrow anyway. So Marsha's aunt in England died the other day. So on Monday, must have been, she said, "You wouldn't believe it." She'd called her sister so many times, had just been so... I'd hate to have her telephone bill this month, there calls to Aussie and stuff. And so she decided that since they weren't going to be able to go to the funeral or anything anyway, and her sister had just left, and she just called her to say that she'd arrived home safely. She thought, "Well, I'll send her a cable." Well, she sent her a cable at half past four, and the sister called back at something like half past six. She couldn't believe it, just couldn't believe her. What's that? Correct?

Well, I've been busy at work. I did a trip for a guy today. Him and his wife were going from Lynchburg, Virginia, and they're going up to DC National Airport at Washington DC, flying to Las Vegas for a conference, Liberty Baptist Church. We have a big account from the Liberty Baptist Church in Virginia. And what the heck they have a conference in Las Vegas for, I wouldn't know. One has suspicions about these... all these religious people. Anyway, he's taking his wife, so I had to get them down there on cheap fares. And there's so many hundred fares in this country, and it's really very tricky because, you know, that's the whole thing. An airline is in the fortunate position, for instance, Delta... they only have to deal with Delta fares; they're not going to sell anybody else's, so they don't care. But we have to compete, and we have to give the people the best price. I mean, if you don't, next thing they come back, they... "How...? I got flown on Piedmont for half..." you know. They have a 50% discount. What these people don't realize is they're called Hoch fares, they mean Hoch... you've... it's got to have at least one stopover. Now, businessmen's not interested in that class. There's only certain flights, you know, and there's all these Y819 fares to Chicago and New York and all the stuff, Boeing plan certain flights, and of course, they only reserve so many seats at that fare. It's very complicated, and inevitably the times don't suit or something. But if a person comes back to you afterwards complaining that you didn't give it to them, they always say, "Oh yeah, I wouldn't have minded doing this, that, and the other thing." But if it always happens ahead of time, "Oh no, it doesn't suit," and they're always prepared to pay full fare. I mean, the reductions are fantastic, and they're well worth it, but they don't always suit a businessman. And of course, they don't apply to a first-class fare anyway, and most of the businessmen do fly first class. But anyway, this computer is just great now. For instance, today, I wanted to find out what the diabetic meal would be on board. And so I find out, you know, we'll flight there and everything and look up the menu for that... Damn... you know, that damn thing tells me that they have grapefruit and lettuce and the other thing for breakfast, and so so on and so... lunch, and how many calories are in, and how many... in the case of a diabetic, how many carbohydrates, and oh, it was just amazing. And then this man going to Vegas, you know, I got them booked, and he was staying at the Tropicana, which... he said, "Well now, I've never been to Las Vegas, can you send me a bit of information?" I was sending out his tickets, so I got him a whole lot of junk on Lake Mead and Hoover Dam and different things out of Vegas, which I thought maybe wouldn't trust a religious person a little more. I'm sure if he really religious, he'll have had Vegas after five days and all those casinos and everything. So then I thought, "Well, I better give them the up-to-date show list." And we have show lists sent to us from Vegas. Vegas... probably Vegas or Florida have the biggest publicity stunt going that anybody could possibly have. The stuff that comes in from those two places is just phenomenal, just phenomenal. I mean, even from New York, we don't get as much as coming from there. I mean, that's the only business. And so, of course, especially Vegas, there's been a fortune on advertising, and it's mostly just hotels, casinos. Florida's more tours and things. But anyway, I got them a whole lot of junk together, and then I have this show list, which is shows that are on in Vegas. Course, there's always so many. And I don't know what date it had on it, it was reasonably recent, but it was like March, I think. He's going on the 1st of June, so really, it was pretty outdated. So I pull up... put into my little computer, put 'G' for genie slash briefing, 'B' flash 'SHO' for shows, slash 'L' for Las Vegas, and up flies every hotel with every show, who's singing, what dates they're there, and I just printed that. So yeah, I did that today. And oh, Patsy's in a mad panic. ATC are on about... she's forever messing her ATC payments. So mean, they can certainly put you out of business, and they will eventually, I would say. Although that woman is remarkable, just remarkable in some respects, you know, was coming up... she's just as crazy as ever, and one wonders if you'll be in business another week. But this tape's about to run out. So love you all and happy days. I don't know what it must be about... Queen's Birthday weekend, mustn't it, coming up.