Episode 14 - SVW Tapes - 26th June, 1981

*"...9... local news updates coming up and a look at weather. WGST meteorologist Joe Zona. Dennis Doler is here on the sports desk. He has an update for us in just about five minutes. Now, let's get a world news update. Tom Crosby is standing by in Washington at 3 o'clock. Good morning from Atlanta's news station. Supervisors filled in for thousands of striking Detroit City workers, and negotiators from the city and the striking unions worked late into the night trying to reach a settlement. Mayor Coleman Young maintains the city is absolutely broke and called on the strikers not to try and bring the government of the nation's third largest city to its knees. Strikers say he could find the money, and Paul Dickerson of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says the mayor is probably worried about the upcoming Republican convention in that city. 'There's no doubt, I think the convention will help with the timing of it being only two weeks away.' 'Hopefully, they won't make us stay out for the four... two weeks.' 'I understand for each day we stay out, taking the... forth a nickel in our increase?' So that may be Coleman's... And the nation's copper industry stands still as 39,000 workers walked off the job, and city lawyers in New York went to court to try and stop the Thursday walkout by police, firefighters, and other uniform city employees. The Senate approved a compromise Tuesday night that scraps a proposed 25,000 man cut in the all-volunteer army and approved spending $91 million on a replacement for the aging B-52 bomber. There's a new study out that... it's the most comprehensive study of the views of Vietnam veterans. It finds 30% of those who fought would refuse to fight if asked again. President Carter makes it official... signs a bill ordering 19 and 20-year-old men to register for the military draft later this month. I'm Tom Crosby in Washington. Good morning, it's 3:01. I'm Mike Lawing, WGST, where Atlanta's news station. And our metro weather... meteorologist Joe Zona on the WGST weather center: mostly clear tonight. Warmer temperatures in the upper 60s to near 70. Partly sunny and more humid days ahead. Slight chance of an afternoon or evening thundershower and a high temperature in the low to mid-90s. Mostly clear this evening, low temperature 70 to 75, and partly to mostly sunny and humid on Thursday. It'll be... high temperature around 90 or so. Fair skies and 77 at Hartsfield Airport now, 74 degrees downtown. Yesterday's high temperature, 90 degrees, no rain during the past 24 hours. Our relative humidity, 67%. The winds are from the south-southeast at 8 miles an hour. The barometer steady at 30.11. Now, here's what's happening at 3:0... In metro Atlanta, DeKalb police have identified the man wounded in a convenience store robbery attempt last night. He's identified as 34-year-old Charles Robins of an unknown address. Robins is in critical condition at Northside Hospital this morning with gunshot wounds received when he allegedly attempted an armed robbery at the Magic Market store, 1366 Dresden Drive, about 9 o'clock last night. Police tell WGST Robins allegedly entered the store demanding money, waving a weapon in the air. He took a swing at the clerk. The store clerk produced a weapon of his own and shot the would-be robber. Robins will be charged with criminal intent to commit armed robbery. The store... our store clerk's name is being withheld pending a further investigation. Police have filed no charges against the clerk. Nearly one and a half billion dollars is up for grabs as the nation gears up to find suitable synthetic fuel by 1990. Georgia Tech research engineer Dr. Steve Bomar says his school is after some of that money. 'We generally try to stay aware of the government's plans, the kinds of things they want to do, and then we write a technical proposal that proposes a body of work and tells them what we think it's going to cost and so forth. And then if we're fortunate, they will accept our proposal and give us a contract, and we get underway with the work.'Nearly $25 billion is earmarked for the search for a practical synthetic fuel. Georgia Tech is already involved in such research. The goal of the new program is to provide the equivalent of two million barrels a day of synthetic fuel by 1990. Police Officer T.R. Gober's friends and relatives, including police from around the metro area, bid their friend Bon farewell in a packed chapel yesterday. Gober was killed in the line of duty on Saturday night while investigating a burglary in progress. The major candidates running for Senator Herman Talmadge's job indicated broad general agreement yesterday with the US Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on federal funding of Medicaid abortions. Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller, former Fulton judge Norman Underwood, and Congressman Dawson Mathis all said they would support the Hyde amendment in future federal budgets. An aide to Talmadge also said the senior Georgia Senator has voted consistently for the Hyde position. A 25-year-old man survived a fall of 200 to 300 feet in his truck in Tallulah Gorge yesterday. Habersham County officers identified the victim as John Vincherri of Chamblee. He's reported in serious condition in the Banks County Hospital at Commerce. Habersham deputy sheriff Ken Hightower says witnesses saw Vincherri's pickup truck go off a road running alongside the top of the gorge. The truck with Vincherri pinned in was found about noon yesterday by Habersham and Banks County rescue units. The injured man was pulled out of the truck and rushed to a hospital. Hightower says at the point where the truck started down the gorge, its side sloped. The vehicle was slowed by a small scrub pine and some other growth. As Hightower put it, 'If he'd missed one tree, he would have landed 400 to 500 feet further down into Tallulah Gorge.'

Hello, Nana and Grandad. The first day of... the day before my party, Marsha and Walter came for dinner. And we forgot to shut the door properly of the summer house. And... a raccoon came that night. And... poked his nose in the crack and then he opened the door. And Momma had bought the cake and the beans and everything for my party. And he ate up the cake. Yeah, too... pieces of sponge? Two cakes? A sponge cake and one fruit cake. And then Momma had to get Vicky... brought us back some more. Then... from my present... I got three bags. I got a Snoopy bag. Then I got a handbag. And I got one with wooden handles. It had things like 'lovable' and all those kind of words. And thank you for the shirt and the necklace. The shirt I wore when we went out to dinner, but I'm going to keep it for best. And the necklace I started wearing, but then when I had to go the movies and I couldn't get it on. I forgot about... Manhattan? I had 20 kids at my party. We had it at the pool. And there was one girl there couldn't swim, Ja... and she was the only black girl there, and she couldn't swim, and she went down the slide, and she started drowning, and my mum had to run in. She saw her from the bathroom. Jaitlin's mother couldn't swim. So Jaitlin's mother didn't know what they would do. So my mum jumped in with her clothes on and her shoes on. And they always are laughing. And my watch! It's been so fun to have a watch in class. From bounty IU, didn't it like? It's so fun without having to look at the school clock and you know what time it is all the time and when you're going home and when you're having lunch and when you're having all the different things. And the skates that mum bought me... I play with... with Maitland. And Mum got some for Maitland, so we skated for around a week. Six days? When... and then we stopped skating for a long time. We were skating up and down the streets, and we had skates on for breakfast, and we had skates on for dinner. And because of that, when it was dinner time, my brother, he was sitting up there, and they went to get up, and he skated in his chair, fell and he almost spilled the drink, his dinner and his drink all over the place. At my party, we had a lolly scramble, which nobody knew what it was, so we had to explain the whole thing to everybody there. And then they said, "Oh, candy scramble." And... so Jaitlin got around seven pieces of candy from a bagful that mum threw out. And so her mother kept five for her and gave away the rest to somebody. And... we played a game of soccer with the soccer ball with bare feet, and everyone's feet were hurt afterwards. Let's go. Mighty? At school, my principal wants us to read 47 books almost? Not 47, but almost 50 books. Exactly 51 books. And my brother has to read 20 books of the summer. And Mum bought me a reading lamp to do it with. And I read one book. You still got to read now, but that will help you. I got one book down, which was called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which... that was an exciting book. Now, I'm on Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, which isn't as exciting. I have Mrs. Frisby to do next. I've had the book for a week now. Not a week but a little over a week. Bounty is for the gifted program. It was the middle school. I'm studying human kindness now, which is... humanity? Which is what I didn't ask for, except for the first two weeks, they give you anything. You'll be lucky if you make it into what you chose for the first week. And we have been swimming a lot lately in the pool. And yesterday we went to Marietta to swim until 6 o'clock while Mum and Dad were... and then came home and had another dip in our pool. And now I've learnt to dive by jumping up real high on the end like Mum does, jackknife. And I don't have much else to tell you about. I've told you about swimming, the reading lamp, and Bounty. And... and... I hope it's not too cold down there in New Zealand, but it's been very hot here. And in Dallas, people are dying like flies because it's 118. It's just nice here if it is a little hot. And I wish it would get a little colder. And there's not much else I could tell you about it. Bye Nana and Grandad. I'm going to Bounty now. I love you.

Okay, well, there's Rachael. Now, you will notice how her speech has slowed down to a Southern drawl, but it was extremely slow this morning because she had just gotten out of bed. So she was a little slower than normal, but you'll notice a distinct change, I should think in this tape. The weather news that was on beforehand... well, that was just one lucky redneck, I would say, that was hanging on by the end of his rifle, probably, that was hanging on the back of a pickup truck.

Well, I started recording to you last evening, but I went through your tapes because I figured that I had missed a few things. One of the earlier tapes, you had mentioned the Christmas stockings; the children just loved them, they were terrific. Now, I've got a list of things here that I must cover. The Rachael party. And, of course, the raccoon. Old Alexander came out the next morning, and he said, "Oh, you got watch those coons." He said, "You make sure you clean up tonight and you lock that door." He said, "Those coons will be back tonight, and they'll bring their uncles and their cousins." And he said, "Those coons, they don't forget where they got food from."But Rachael had a lovely birthday party, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. And the drowning incident really did happen, but she was trying to save Jimmy Maitland when I dived in to get her. Rachael was spouting water when I saw her, and I thought she was drowning nowhere.

Anyway, the Emory clinic. I still have not gotten around to calling them. I don't know whether you're still getting bills. I must do that today. I know Elsie and Reg have gone to Australia by now, and I'm sure are enjoying hot weather again. I thoroughly enjoyed your letter about the Olympic Games. What a shambles, I told us. But I guess if we're going to have democratic countries, we can't stop giving the people visas. But I would say that the whole thing will come to an end. I doubt very much whether your teams will get away, do you really?

Mamad had the flu in that letter, which I was sorry to hear about. I hope that she's back on deck now. There's nothing worse. Actually, Marcisha has not been very well. She had strep throat and an infection, and goodness knows what. And she hasn't been too good at all. She's been sick for at least 10 days, but she should be coming right now, I should think.

Spike Milligan, yes, that must have been a really good show because he's not really known here. But at last, they have got to know Dudley Moore since '10' with Bo Derek came out. And so everybody's talking about Dudley Moore like he's just something new. I think we'll have to stop calling David the poo pilot, and we'll call him the aristocratic aviationist, seems more to the dashing clothes that he's now wearing I gather, and hot-footing around the countryside to meetings and so on. And I'm sure he's very happy with his new job, and congratulations.

Now, Mum, you gave us your list of 'Today in History'. We have a program on for your May list of what happens of May to our family. We have a radio station here in the mornings, 99.3, and there's two guys on there, and they have a thing every day, they have 'Today in History'. And they have a guy comes in, and his name is Professor Geriatric. So should you need a job, I'm sure that you could take over from Professor Geriatric at any time with your 'Today in History' listing.

I got the clippings about the air crash, and it really was probably all pretty much decided before we got that, that's what had happened. It's a terrible tragedy, and part of Air New Zealand is almost to the point of embarrassment, I think. That in New Zealand... it'll be interesting to know whether that... they actually do suffer from people flying on other airlines. Because I got the New Zealand Bulletin the other day, and I see that the American airlines are now going to be... to fly into Wellington and Christchurch. Consequently, Air New Zealand will be flying into more airports here also, but it'll be interesting to know whether people book with them or with somebody else instead.

Oh, by the way, the chicken was 39 cents a pound, not 29, but you can see that that is about all we eat. One gets chicken if it comes out of one's ears, and hamburger, of course. I can get hamburger for $1.29 a pound on very, very special, and it's not the best, what they call white hamburger, but you know, it's not too bad. I had a letter from Mary McGillicuddy recently. Mary McGillicuddy lives out at Paraparaumu, and she sent me the Kapiti News or whatever they used to call it, a sort of a Christmas edition or New Year summer edition thing. And it had a lot of news, all about the museum that that guy's put at... you know, the... I can't think what his name is, up at Paraparaumu, Tony... And he's opened that car museum at Paraparaumu now and so on. But every page it had "Goodbye Gold Coast, Welcome Kapiti" or something like that. Have they changed the name of the coast there?

You'll have had the children's examination papers by now, and well, I assume that they both did pretty well. We're pretty pleased with them. I had a letter from Rona the other day, jumping around a bit here... had a letter from Rona the other day, and she said in the last paragraph it was that she had just seen on television that tattooing of teeth had become very popular in the United States, that just everybody was getting their teeth tattooed. And I had to read that to Sunny next door, and Sunny said, "Why sure," you just heard Rona. But just everyone was having their teeth tattooed. And she said, in fact, you either have your teeth tattooed, or you go directly back to New Zealand. You have the choice.

All the Mimosa trees are out at the moment and looking very beautiful. They're all out across the... along the river. Actually, Susie's part of the river or the creek, you know, out front of the house, looks the prettiest right now. You mentioned the cost of movies. Movies here are $3.75 now, but we do have twilight sessions at 5:30 at some theatres, or your first matinee of the day will be half price for adults. Children are always the same, and they're always half price. So, you know, you can save it, but there... the clippings that you mentioned that like that you were all reading and that David had, were they the ones that I sent by sea, quite a little stack of them? I hope they were. If they were, they got there relatively quickly.

At the moment where... I think I definitely have made a tape to you since Margaret Sparrow was here, have I not? That was like just after my birthday. And you know, we obviously have received since Rachael's birthday present, and we have whacked through the $60 with the watch for Rachael and the skates and so on and so forth. We've been going to the Chastain, you know, concerts every week, and they've been just terrific, thoroughly enjoyable. We've had no rain-out so far, and the weather's been real good.

What have we got here? Oh, we had a real interesting evening a little while ago. The Fox Theatre, the old theatre downtown that has been restored, has been saved. You know, the "Save the Fox" thing going. And they have a summer film festival with all the old... golden oldies, you know, Gone with the Wind, Chicago and Oklahoma and Fiddler on the Roof and so on. They're about every two weeks, and they had one Saturday then one Monday night showing. They only charge $2.50, which is, you know, very inexpensive, but you don't get a seat; you just have to fight for where you sit. Well, we decided we just had to see Gone with the Wind. And I had seen it before, but John had not. So we got the tickets, and we bowled down, it started at 7:30, but we went down at 6:00 because the doors opened at quarter to 7:00 in order to get a decent seat. Well, it must have been 95 degrees outside, and we got down there at six, and we were in the foyer of the theatre, which is very large, and there were people shoulder to shoulder. I mean, we were just like sardines in a tin. And it had to be 120 degrees in that foyer. I mean, it was just unbelievable. Your hair was wet, your face was dropping, everything was dropping. And to add insult to injury, 11 Alive television news was there, just filming to see whether perhaps anybody passed out and died. You know, they like gory scenes on TV here. I think they were just sort of waiting for some... little walls to open... somebody be trampled to death. But some guy turned around to me, "How do you stay up so cold?" And I said, "Well, frankly, it's just dropping down my leg." But so we finally got... And I thought that the... until an evening there with that heat would have been that we got inside and found the air conditioning wasn't working, but one would have experienced what it was like to live in Atlanta in those days. But seeing Gone with the Wind there is really something else. The theatre itself is extremely old, and it's Egyptian sort of looking. And inside the theatre, there's a big stone wall around the edge of it, you know, and there's lights and things. And there's a sky, you know, like one of the theatres in New Zealand, I can't remember, in Auckland or somewhere, but the stars all over the roof. But what they had at this theatre when it was originally built, nobody knew for 40 years that there had been a thing put on it, the sun rises and sets. And no one had knew it was there, and somebody one day flicked the switch and discovered that they had this wondrous thing, and they had it on at night that we went. Well, they'd had it on the Saturday; we went on the Monday. First time since about 1935 or whatever. So everybody yahooed and roared. And they've got a... well, they don't yahoo and roar here, they "Yeehaw!" Which Maitland does extremely well. But we... they have a very large organ there, which comes up out of the floor, and they played their organ. And then they had to sing along with the words on the screen, which was a hoot. You know, the boys upstairs and the girls downstairs and all that stuff. And then they had the Pink Panther cartoon. And then they had the main movie, which was just terrific. And thoroughly enjoyed that. I don't know that I've told you about that before or not. But anyway, we didn't get out till after midnight. And I had a headache. I've been bawling... my eyes were stinging and goodness knows what. But wonderful. It was just tremendous to see a movie in Atlanta because they get... all the audience get real carried away, and they scream, "Bloody Yankees!" and you know, they really get quite excited. Because, you know, the Southerners believe that they're just regrouping, ready to fight back.

Well, wait Rachael, wait. Rachael has just walked in the door from Bounty. So I'll just get the kids some lunch, and then I'll get back to the... Well, this just has not seemed to be my day. I just don't seem to have to get it together. I had to carpool this morning and take the children down to Bounty, and then I went to the 'Y' and did my exercises and ran a couple of miles with Allison. And I got home, and I just couldn't seem to get it together. On the way down there this morning, I take Matthew from next door and a little boy called Aaron Greenberg. And Aaron, I think I mentioned before, is very good at math, and he does some... His father was the architect of the Elson's house. And of course, they're Jewish. And on the way down, I wasn't really noticing what they were talking about, and Rachael was reading something to me. And all of a sudden, the boys were in the back, and they were talking... Maitland was there, I was taking him to swimming lessons afterwards. He's been taking a course of swimming lessons. And they had been looking at some New Zealand money the other night, and he said to the boys... I heard him say, "Oh, do you know what New Zealand money looks like?" And Aaron replied to that was, "Well, what do we care?" you know, which wasn't... But I didn't worry about that. And Maitland's retaliation was, "What do we care about Jewish?" Well, I nearly died. I couldn't believe that he would have said such a thing. So... and I very nearly said, "Well, you know, we care a lot about Jewish," but I didn't. The way he said it, you know, I knew he didn't know what the heck he was talking about. But I thought, well, I'd leave it. So when they got out of the car, I talked to Maitland, and he really got quite upset about it and everything and was very sorry because he really is very fond of Aaron. Aaron's in his class in school, but he's in the gifted program. But I dwelt on the damn thing, and I got sort of all stewed up about it. So I decided that I would ring Aaron's mother, and she works. She's got a place called The Cook Works at Lenox Square and down in the Omni that sells cookies. And she has a dried fruit and nut store next to that. And they're typical Jewish; they earn very well. And I decided to call her and explain what had happened to see whether or not Aaron would have been upset by such a comment and that she could handle it whatever way she thought. I had thought about leaving it, but I thought, well, you know, she should be... she should find out that he'd said that or something. Here, I didn't know how Aaron feel anyway. So I called her, and she sort of seemed a little strange this morning. And finally, she just said, "Oh, heavens above that, just boys talk." And I said, "Well, I sort of felt that too," and explained that obviously Maitland did not appreciate... he was sort of retaliating against, you know, sort of a patriotism thing but did not realize what the Jewish... that it was a religion. You know? Anyway, she was perfectly happy about it. You know, she was very nice. Said, "Oh, don't worry," but she would speak to Aaron and so on. And if he was upset... she didn't think he would be. She said he was very thick-skinned. And I sort of said, "Well, you know, felt like in this country that he probably wouldn't have any problem with that anyway." And then she said, "Well, I had to get in touch with you anyway because I won't go to carpool on Monday." And said her father died last night. Well, I felt so awful landing this thing on her, and just the whole situation seemed to go from bad to worse. So I then volunteered any assistance that I could have and, you know, and I would be only too happy to take the children and so because she had to go to New York. Her mother has already died, and now it's her father. But oh, what a situation.

And then this afternoon, I got organized because we were going to Chastain tonight. We go Wednesdays and Fridays, and maybe we took the children over to the mansion because Susie and Ed are away with... the boys are back. And Harry was going out. So Ruth said she would babysit and just bring the kids over and put them up... you know, Lewis's bedroom to watch television. To get over there, get all organized, get up to Chastain... the one Wednesday that there is not a concert. So here I am back home again. I thought, well, there's one thing, I can get the damn tape finished. I just don't seem to get back to it.

I mentioned Marsha and Walter, by the way. Marsha gave Rachael a gorgeous manicure set for her birthday. It couldn't be a nicer present for a little girl of her age. And she said, "Well, I don't know whether she's ready for it." But she said Walter found it, and he just had to have it. And it's a leather one, and I mean, I had said to Rachael, "This will last you a lifetime." And she said, "What do you mean it'll last me a lifetime?" But it's just such a nice little manicure set that it really will be with her forever. It's pink, and it's beautiful. So that was that. What else did she get for her birthday? Everyone was just wonderful too. Of course, Beverly, you know, keeps giving us clothes. I mean, she keeps us in clothes. We never... we have not bought anything since we left New Zealand. But Beverly... she had us over on the afternoon one of the days near Rachael's birthday. They're out west at the moment on a tour, of course. And she had us over for afternoon tea and made chocolate chip cookies, and we all sat outside and watched Jack throw javelin and God knows what. And finally, went... got all... thought anyway. So that was Beverly and Jack there away. She finally... Beverly's always ulcerated. You never think she's going to get away. But Marsha's been going through this for years, and she said they'll get away, don't worry.

Anyway, I don't... I mentioned to you also that Rachael had a very nice church service last week where she got... to wear. And also, I want her to ring Meredith to tell her that she has got that beautiful cross. That really is very, very nice. We were thrilled with it, and she will be able to wear that to church also. Paua shell... they have abalone here, which is a similar sort of thing, but it's nowhere near as... far as paua shell is. And paua shell is something that always looks very nice set in silver anyway. But that particular service, I didn't... have I told you this? How to repeat, to repeat... the priest that day said that the jogging service would be starting for summer, and his nationally known jogging service. I nearly went up to him, said, "Well, it's internationally known because I told my mother, and I'm sure she's called her minister down there in New Zealand." And anyway, so... Oh gosh, well I have this English friend here, and we went on a picnic one day, and she had things like sausage rolls, and I just couldn't believe my little eyeballs. But also, one time you mentioned fish and chips, which sent us all into convulsions. Well, you mentioned that you'd seen the FA Cup on television. Well, we don't get the... well, I don't think we get the FA Cup here. But you know, we don't have television, so we're sort of just... we only watch it when we're up at the mansion. We find we don't do a whole lot when we're up at the mansion. We just take life real easy and have a great time. In the summer now that we're staying up there quite a lot, we tend to stay down in the summer house most of the time. And the other night, we had a big barbecue for 20 people last Saturday night. And I ended up just sleeping at the summer house with the children, and John went up to the mansion and slept the rest of the night. It was three in the morning, mind you, before he really went home. So he just went up with a few hours up there to make sure the alarm was okay and everything. And you know, we stay down at the pool the whole time. It's just wonderful. Oh dear.

That's just something I haven't noted here. Webster's dictionary... there was a big write-up in the paper, you may have read it, but in Webster's dictionary, they have made an enormous pooper. They had everything ready for printing and... well after the election, but the dictionaries ran out, so they put the printing ahead of time, and somebody forgot to change who the 40th president of the United States was, and they had down Reagan, which has been quite funny.

A few things that are happening here... you've probably read, I'm sure it's got to be in Time magazine or Newsweek, about a guy called Jack Potts, who was supposed to die... electric chair on... I mean, the guy's a downright murderer. He's just done some terrible things. He has... in the meantime, we've had day-to-day description of his rebirth into Catholicism. Then he decided at the very 11th hour that he did not want to die in the electric chair. At first, he had sacked his lawyers and everything and said that he wanted to die and, you know, to leave him alone. So finally, they said they would leave him alone, and they were going to electrocute him 4th June... June? And he then, at the very 11th hour, said that he didn't want to be. So then he said he wanted to live. So they gave him an appeal. And then that went on again. Then they set the date again for the... oh, next week sometime, I don't know, July something. And anyway, I was telling you about Jack Potts. And so then he said he wanted to die in... they didn't want any lawyers, but we've had this, you know, civil rights outfit fighting for his life that he doesn't want. And they're going to fight till the dying end. And they sure are. And then he decided all of a sudden again that he wanted to live again. So they gave him another stay of execution. And then this very week... I mean, I think... if I can damn... trouble with me reading the newspapers in the morning is that I can't cut them out until, of course, John's read them at night. And already, you know, I mean... alight when you've read the newspaper before them, it's in a mess. But if I start clipping it, he'll do his block, I'm sure. So I have to clip the next day. And I want to clip out something. But now his old... one of the reasons that he finally wanted to live again was that an ex-girlfriend had gotten in touch with him again and told him, you know, sort of restored his faith and everything. And anyhow, now this very week, she has decided that they want to get married. And the Catholic Church have said since he has turned to Catholicism, but there's going to be, you know, a lot of paperwork for the hierarchy. I don't know that they do have paperwork up in heaven, but I gather that maybe they send messages through computers. I have no idea how we get in touch with the Lord. But anyway, they said that they can't imagine... the only time that anyone has ever married in prison, and nobody's ever tried to marry when they've been on death row, but in prison is when they've left woman that I... and so on. And they have had the odd prisoner allowed to marry unwed mothers. But this guy now... and she has left her husband. Her mother was killed, if you would believe all this. Her mother was killed in a car accident. And so, she left her husband Monday. And he's throwing his weight around the newspaper, saying that he just loves the ground she walks on, and he wants to save his marriage, but he doesn't want to save his marriage at the expense of the other man being electrocuted, if you... I mean, we have long since forgotten what this man did or why he's in there. And they've even started interviewing the family now of the... the guard that was murdered. I mean, that family must be going through hell too. So now God knows, they think that it could take... now that he's had this final stay of execution, it could take two years. Now that he's got this marriage thing... you know, he has become a star over it. It is sickening, absolutely sickening. That jackpot... I really don't even want to talk about him.

And Wellington, you said David had mentioned Wellington was a mess at the moment. And I had had a photo of the old... where the ANZ used to be. The price of gas at home, you said, was $2.37. We're paying around $1.20. I use unleaded gasoline, and it's around $1.20, maybe $1.30 because our prices vary considerably from place to place. And that's self-service, while you pay another 10-15 cents for full service, which, of course, I never use. Something I thought you might be interested in was that, you know, the cottage is very small, of course, and we don't have any air conditioning. We do have central heating, which is gas. The stove is gas. We got electric light really, but we're using a fan most of the time now. But our electricity bill for the last two months has been $27 each month. But the same amount for two months. But it is minimum after all, so we don't have a whole lot of electricity. Well, mind you, the gas... the gas will be onto that. So the power bill... electricity is probably around $27 a month all year. But the gas right now is $7. So you know, I would think that even though this is very small cottage and nowhere near is the biggest, for instance, Treetop Lane, that that is our cost of our energy, which I think is still relatively inexpensive.

Now, oh, there's another big thing... the riots in Florida that you mentioned. Those four cops. Now, I don't know, I was not on the jury, and I don't know all the facts, of course. But those four cops fair beat that guy to death. I mean, it just seemed like they shouldn't have got off to me. It just... I'm sure you would have read about it in the international magazines. You know, it was definitely a racial thing. And but anyway, and it caused a great deal of trouble, but it seems to be back under control. I mean, there's so many things going on here with the Cubans, the Cubans rioting, if you please. And so... that one wonders really where it's all going to... oh God, we went to see the Kingston Trio last Wednesday night, and there was the little joke that I thought that Daddy wouldn't enjoy. They told many jokes; they were really quite funny. People around here were a little disappointed in them. A very, very full amphitheatre at Chastain to see them. There's a plane going over, I mean, making going... you'll be lucky to hear any of this. But they said that they were talking about someone that had just had an operation, the same one that Teddy Kennedy had just had. It was a charisma bypass operation.

I'm sure you've heard about Richard Pryor and the terrible thing that happened to him. We got sort of hourly reports as to just what he'd been doing, whether there was sloughing cocaine and burning up with ether or what. One will never know, I've just got no idea that he was amiss. But you know, that guy seems like he's going to live. And I would have thought that... at first, I thought, heavens, he'd been better off dead because not only does he have to cope with all those burns and things, but he's very famous here. I really didn't know him all that well, but he's got to cope with life mentally, which I would think will be even worse than what he's already had. And it was well known that he had had drug problems. Seen, in fact, an interview with Barbara Walters, whom I still cannot understand why is the most highly paid interviewer in the country, but she is, as we know. And he had discussed his drug problems. And I mean, he was on the hard stuff with her. He was very open about it and so on.

I'm just going back over my notes. Just to go back over to Rachael's party and that raccoon. I'll tell you, I was just so pleased. We had had Vicky, my friend Vicky's lovely girl, staying the night that night. And we were up at the house, and I cleaned up in the morning and other things around there. And I... because I can't let them go down to the pool, you know, until I'm ready. Anyway, about a few minutes before I went down, I said that they could go on down. While they went down, they came running back and said, "Oh, there's cake everywhere!" And I said, "What?" So I went down. Well, push... you can imagine the mess. I mean, that raccoon had fair been into... I had put shopping bags up on top of the refrigerator, was full, so I'd had to leave... like the stuff he ate was the sponge cake that I was going to make the cake out of, which was the soccer cake again, because a lot of the girls that came to the party were the soccer team. And I just joined all these horrible Kroger-bought sponges together. And they didn't make sponge like they do in New Zealand. And they call it pound cake, you know, and put them all together. And then I hadn't done it because I wouldn't have done it till the day. And had eaten that. But he only ate two-thirds or three-quarters of the fruitcake, so he obviously was fussy. But what worried me... down at the pool house, it's really nice. You know, there's a beautiful cane suite and beautiful coverings on everything that matches in the pool house and out around the pool. There's cushions for all the black furniture, which is just lovely. It's a real weird pool; it's a black pool, which everybody gets a bit of a shock at. But we're used to it now. I really like it; it's a bit different, like most of this house, a bit different. And this raccoon could have gone bananas. I mean, they've got... they've got lots of crystals down there, you know, natural from the ground and stuff on little stands, and just sort of an outdoorsy area. They've got two beautiful china, handmade fish, really big, a butterfly fish and porcupine fish or some damn thing, huge things that sit on the coffee table, great big coffee table. And there's interesting things in the room, but all sorts of little bits and pieces that one collects, you know, lots of plants and stuff. And they've got fossils and things that are in glass cases, that type of thing collected out there. Well, that raccoon could have just sent everything flying. I mean, he did no damage at all. He was the tidiest raccoon that's ever come to visit anybody. He really could have wrought the Ethel out, to say the least.

Mum, your printing's fantastic. I think they... maybe it's slow, but sure, it looks real nice. And, you know, you'll pick up your own little style after a while and sort of do things the way you find it quickest to do.

Well, now, what else have we been doing? John actually went down the Chattooga, which is the real river that Burt Reynolds goes down in the movie Deliverance. And they left at about four in the morning, and they got back about ten at night. Actually, I had Walter and Marsha for dinner that night, so he came back kind of at the end of that. But they did not have a lot of... we were staying at the house, and I wanted them to see it and stuff, so it was a convenient night. And... but he came back with just one little cut on his elbow. You know, I think they really thought they might meet up with some hillbillies and have the odd arrow in the back or something. But he had a really good time. It's quite a thrill. And what else have we been doing? We've had quite a lot of... been entertaining quite a bit because when they're out of town, we might as well make the most of it. We only entertain down at the pool. So... but you know, there's a dinner set for about 24... 24 place settings of everything. And there's a dishwasher and an ice maker and refrigerator and a gas stove and a gas barbecue outside. So it's really very convenient for barbecuing. And I can also just do the shopping and drive up to the summer house and put it all in; I don't even bother going up to the mansion at the moment. We've had quite a lot of people in really, and it's just been wonderful having the pool because, you know, the heat is terrific, but being able to cool off in the pool is great. And we've had barbecues at Vicky's house, and we've been out and about and what would be... Chastain and film festivals.

But last Saturday night, we had all these people on, you know, it was really a nice party, and but they didn't go till terribly late. Well, the next morning, I got up, and some more people came for lunch that day. Well, the children were swimming in the pool, and we were just about to sit down and eat, and the adults... and all of a sudden, it started to rain where... you know how those thunderstorms come over terribly suddenly here? Quite often, it usually goes dark, but this didn't really go dark. And then all of a sudden, the rain really came down. The children got terribly excited because the rain on the water... you know, all of a sudden, we just sort of thought, "Gosh," you know? And we said, "Come on, kids, get out of the pool!" Well, they were just getting out of the pool, and a big tree fell down right... and just didn't go into the pool, but fell down right beside it. Well, it really gave us all a fright. I thought it'd been struck by lightning. You know, that's why, of course, you always get out of a pool here because there was massive lightning, as you know. And anyway, the tree fell. Well, the kids all ran into the summer house, and Maitland was just absolutely beside himself. He was... "I didn't want to die yet! I didn't want to die yet!"And we started cuddling them, and I told them all to get under the couch because we just didn't know. And there came... it was not a tornado, but it was one gigantic thunderstorm, real freakish, you know, turbulence. It just happened so suddenly. And then it lasted all of about 15 seconds, as my friend that was here... one of the Roy Johnson's partners, Don and his wife were here. And she said, "My God, it was so quick." "I didn't even..." She was eating her dinner. "I didn't even miss a mouthful." It lasted about 15 seconds, 3 minutes the whole thing, I would say. Well, there was... you wouldn't believe it. I mean, there's three inches of pine cones all over the tennis court. The place is in a shambles. And there were several trees on the property, you know, not necessarily... we didn't lose any huge big trees that needed major, you know, work that John couldn't do. We did, although Charles arrived home and went bananas calling the three men and everything. But we went sightseeing in the afternoon. There was a tree right across Valley Road. So, of course, the alarm went off, and everything happened. And so we fixed all that up. And then, of course, you've got to watch the house because there was no power. There was no power way after midnight that night. We went down the road, and we were sightseeing. And this Jewish woman down the road who's just moved into a new house there, and she was out there... must have been about two that had happened. God, she was still out there at 9 o'clock at night. John said, "I think it's the best... you know, most exciting thing happened to her in a good while." And she was taking photographs for insurance because they can claim a loss on the property, you know, with income tax. Anyway, she was real excited, but it's quite funny. I've told you before about the house down the road that has 24-hour security and a big high brick wall and everything. And the man's name is Mr. Braswell. And just recently, it was only about two weeks ago, my friend Becky, her parents live in Miami, but they have a house in Highlands, which is a very elite area up in the mountains here. And they have a friend in Atlanta here who they come to visit. And she has a friend, have you still with me? She has a friend that lives next door to Mr. Braswell that has all the security. And when they moved in, she went over and, you know, with a pot of tea or whatever and said, "Well, welcome," and how nice it... have them in the neighbour and hoped they could be friends and everything. And Mr. Braswell turned round and said to her that he did not appreciate one bit her coming knocking at the door, and he would appreciate it if she never set foot on his property again. Well, she really had her peacock feathers knocked out of joint. And you know, most of the people on Valley Road are into politics, are fairly social, and they don't really tend to speak like that. So he obviously is a bit of a hermit man. Well, the funny thing was that the tree fell not far from his house, and this lady was out there. And she was, you know, rushing around with the camera and everything. And she said it was really funny because the power and everything went... this tree... you know, you know how tall oaks are? About 70 feet tall that went clean across the road, took letterboxes, everything. Fortunately, not a single soul was hurt. You know, hit the same area that had hit with that big tornado that took the roof off the Governor's mansion some years ago. And so people are, you know, weary of these things. Was so sudden... got out of it. Now there would have been nothing left, I'm telling you. It was just unbelievable the damage that it did. And it was just in a radius of just a couple of miles square. Must be just sort of where we're situated or something, the winds are there. Anyway, Mr. Braswell came down... this lady had...? We were talking to the Jewish lady. She had come out, and they were about to go somewhere, and so they had opened their garage door with the automatic, you know, thingamajig. And fortunately... and then when it rained, they thought, "Oh, I'd wait a minute." And so when it was all over, their cars were able to be got out, and they were able to go out. But Mr. Braswell's great big flash house up on the hill is so far from his big electric gates and stone walls and everything that he didn't have time to do there. And he came down in his car, and he apparently stood there for a fair half hour pressing on his button to make his remote control work, and it just wouldn't. And she said there was just the funniest thing. Here was Mr. Braswell, absolutely enclosed on his concrete castle and unable to get out. And he probably was still there. As far as I know, the power came back on very late in the evening.

But it was funny, the day before on the Saturday, I had been at the pool house, and the phone had gone, and a man said, "Mr. Robinson, the pilot here. Is Charles there?" And I said, "No, I didn't know... I doubt Paul... I going check and see if John's seen him." And I went down, and John said, "Oh yeah, Charles was just gone to the airport." And so I went back and told Mr. Robinson. He said, "Oh, I'm waiting for him." And when I told John that, he said, "Yeah, he saw... Ruth was trying to wrestle them around." "Come on, Charles, you're late! The plane's waiting for you!" you know. And he turned around, said to Charles, "They're waiting for me." You know, there was no doubt about who was waiting for who. Anyway, Charles was just unbelievable. He's 20? 21? He's the one that's at Harvard, and he's real stodgy. You know? Even little Harry said, "You know, there's no fun when Charles is home from school. But boy, he sticks into the books." And he wears glasses, and he's not very outdoorsy or anything. Well, he came home on the Sunday. They went to Memphis with the parents. It was Mr. Elson's parents, the ones that were in New Zealand. Their 45th wedding anniversary. They had an enormous party in Memphis, which apparently was just wonderful, Harry said. And the boys flew back in the private plane on the Sunday. And when Charles got home, he just flew into an absolute, you know... number one son had to take over command of the ship while Daddy was away. He rang Alexander four times, and he rang Ruth, and clearly panicked and carried on. And Ruth thought she was coming out to a major disaster because, you know, the way he was carrying on. He called the tree man. And Harry, you call Georgia Power on the other telephone line. You know, there's two phone lines. And Harry said, "Charles, a thousand people are going to be calling Georgia Power." "You call Georgia Power, tell them what's happened." And Harry said, you know, I said, "Was he...? He... is he paranoid, Harry?" And he said, "Oh," he said, "I don't know." He said, "He's just got no common sense." Anyway, well, he was dashing around the garden, taking a look at everything, and you know, really getting carried away. And John said, you know, he'd be able to get it all under control. It was messy, you know, there were pine cones everywhere. It had blown a lot of leaves around the summer house. It took me all day the next day cleaning it out and so on, and around the pool. Pool's full of lumps of trees and God knows what. But all the next day, Charles was rushing around the garden, you know, often in a shirt. And you'd think, you know, he didn't have a tie on, but he might as well have, his serious expression. So... anyway, Ruth came out later in the morning. She said to me, "Oh, that Charles, he's just a worrier." And I said, "Well Ruth, you know, he doesn't want John to touch anything." He told me in one breath that he didn't want anything touched till his mother came home. And you know, in the next breath, he's worried sick that it's not going to be organized very quickly because Charles, when he came home two weeks ago, he decided he's going to have a big party. Well, we got the invitation the other day. Not to it, just showing one, you know. John's offered to be barman. He said, "Which... like a barman?" And Charles... he was wandering around the garden with a pad and pen taking notes. And he's done this for two weeks. I mean, just absolutely paranoid. John said, "Charles, you like me to be barman?" "Oh yes, that'll be just... Mr. Walters, that'd be just super." So John said it's fine. And anyway, it's called an "Immense Party." And it's... six boys are involved, and they're all, you know, Goldsmith and Goldstone and Greenberg and so on. And they're all Harvard kids coming. And he's invited 200 people to it. Well, and this is going to be down in our garden, well... he is just so worried that this garden is not going to be back into order before then. And it's two weeks from now. And he was kept calling Alexander, "Do you think you and Mr. Waters can, you know, ever get that garden organized?" And the tree that's been chopped... the one that fell near the pool... well, it was really not a very strong tree, it wasn't a very large tree, but it had wisteria growing around it. And the wisteria had to be... the vine itself was like about two inches in diameter, so it was kind of holding the tree up. Well, John chopped it off where it broke, which was a little way up the tree, which made me think that it had been hit like by lightning, but we don't really know whether it was. And it still looks very pretty because the wisteria is growing around it, and it's still about 8 foot high. And it's... he left the leaves of the... the vine on there, so it really looks quite pretty, but it does leave a little bit of a gap between the pool and the house. And oh, he wants it chopped off at the base, which will just look awful. I mean, it looks really quite attractive the way it is. But oh, he's worrying about that. And John says, "Well, there's just no way that I am chopping another inch off that tree. It looks perfectly nice, and it could come away again, you know, the wisteria will..." Anyway. Anyhow, so then he didn't want anything touched because his mother might want insurance on it. But then at the same time, he wants it all back together again. Well, Ruth came out... she said, "That child!" She said to tell John to just go on with, you know, exactly what he would do. She said, "Just listen to him, and then when he's gone, just do what you want to do. You never worry about Charles. Mrs. Elson knows he's a worrier and that he's like that. So don't worry about it." But she said, "Oh, that boy!" She said, "That child!" She didn't... he did not want her to take Harry to something on, you know, Mrs...? Particular day, what was it, Monday? And she said, too... came out like her to say to Charles, "I'm going to the store now, Charles." When she got back, she'd told... she'd taken Harry. They sneak off, you know. He's sort of funny, aren't they? Anyhow, on the Sunday night, because the power was off and everything, and Ruth had... was going to be coming out on Sunday night to take care of the boys and get breakfast and dinner for them. And Charles had called her and said... all this had happened, not to come. And so she said there was no use of coming out without power, and she will not stay in the house by herself anyway, let alone without power. And so she didn't come Sunday night, and she came out really early Monday morning because she thought she had disasters to cope with. And anyhow, about 10 o'clock, just after our friends had gone, we were still down the pool, and we finally ran out of coldness down there. So we came back here because the power was on Onslow Circle. Actually, we lost a lovely tree out the front; it was uprooted. And in fact, we lost the willow tree over here, then on the other property, although the Rollins lost a lot of big ones. And so we came back over here, and the phone went about 10 minutes, and it was little Harry. And he said, "Oh, I'm going to stay the night at Chuck's house." He said, and he gave me Chuck's phone number, so I knew where he was, everything. And he said, "Now, Charles made me synchronise watches with him," he said, when we went out. He said at 5 o'clock or something, "and was synchronized watches to be home at 9:30." And he said, "I was there, but Charles did not turn up." And I said, "Oh." So John went over to babysit the house because, you know, the alarm had gone off, and there was no... no alarm. So you have to take good care of it, no instance. So John went over to babysit the house, and Charles didn't get home till after midnight. I mean, you know, I don't know what the heck he was thinking of. He's just away with the fairies. Anyway, so when he came home, he wanted to stay by himself in the house. So he stayed there, and John came on home. And anyway, then next... what was I going to say? Oh, well, anyway, Ruth comes out, and she said, "Oh boy, you know, he's just unbelievable. I really thought he was going to call London," because Susie and Ed left Memphis and flew to London. And she said, "I really thought he was going to call London." And you know, if he had described to her what he described to Ruth on the phone, Mrs. Elson would have probably flown home on the next plane. She'd have been so upset about her house. Anyway, but she finally persuaded him that it really was absolutely useless calling his mother, as they couldn't find her, that was... Anyway, she said, "That boy has never taken any interest in the garden whatsoever. She said this is Miss Susie's garden. Nobody else takes any interest. They're very indoorsy people, you know, they're just not outdoors types." Mr. Elson has a limp, and I don't know why, but he, you know, does have one, and so obviously is not terribly athletic and I guess has to spend most of his time making his next million. But anyway, she said, "But the only reason that Charles is out in this garden is because of his party." He has just got so uptight about the... I don't know if they'll ever get to it. I mean, you know, even I get into a flat spin the day of a party naturally, you know, with 200 people coming, you get into bits about it. But he's not... a month before? What's the point?

Anyway. But Susie and Ed, they left on Friday, and I was out by the pool, and Susie came out, and she said... oh, she was with an electrician that was fixing one of the floodlights had gone out, and they couldn't find where... that much power at that house, I tell you, I don't know how they find any damn fuse or why... takes them a while quite often. And this guy was trying to find where the floodlight was coming from anyway. And she said, "Oh, I just go and get you the itinerary." She said, "You all have a really enjoyable time with the pool and that while we are away." You know, the boys will be here during the week, but she said they'll be away. They're flying off to Savannah tomorrow, that's Thursday. And of course, Friday's the 4th of July, so that's a big day. And she said, "You just have a really nice time around the pool now." But you know, that's all pretty sweet of her to say. We would anyway, but you know, it's nice to say that. And anyway, she... "I'll just go and get you my itinerary because..." We sure... he's like to tell us where they're going and who they're going with and what they're doing in case somebody important calls anyway. She comes out and hands me the itinerary. I didn't really look at it too closely. And when I took another look again, going to visit the King of Morocco! I couldn't believe her! Audience and visit with the king! So it's actually some international Jewish or conscience... or some damn things. So they're meeting with Muslims and Arabs and God knows what. So I don't know what's going on. He's obviously very important in the American Jewish community here.

So anyway, all day Monday, consequently, was spent cleaning up. And you know, really, little Harry obviously hardly has any money because he said to me... Ruth came out and told me this too. And then later, it was something funny happened. And Harry had gone with Charles in the morning to get something, and they had to get parking. And Harry said, "I used all my money to pay for the parking." And Charles won't give me any money to get to the movies. And Harry likes to go to movies, his offensive movies. Ruth drives him down there. "And he won't give me any money to go the movies unless I worked in the garden this afternoon." Which really amused me, you know. And so Chris... Charles has never been known to lift a finger. I mean, you want to see it when those boys are out; their bedrooms are just a state, clothes everywhere. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Anyway. So Harry... we had the tractor, and he was tearing up and down picking up big pieces of tree and goodness knows what else. Anyway, today Ruth called me. She said, "Oh, could I go down to Buckhead?" I'm forgetting one of the cars. And I said, "Oh yes." She... "I'm taking Harry to the movies. I want you to bring back Mrs. Elson's car." Well, I get... she said, "Which car do you want to drive?" And I thought, "I don't care." She said, "Oh well, I'd rather you drive the other one." So we get to the Mercedes place. They've got the three Mercedes. One with a hard roof, a sport with a hard roof, and there's one sport, 280 SE, but it's very old. It's almost vintage, Joe would say. And it's convertible. And this was the one I had to pick up. And it's a black one. And so I get down there, and she said... she's all nervous about driving it. She said, "I'm not nervous of the car; I'm nervous of the person that owns it." Apparently, he just loves this car, and he will not part with it. And you know, he's real concerned about it. It's the one car that the boys do not generally use. However, they're away. So Louis has got... apparently got a heavy date tonight, so... Told Ruth brought to her house with a friend he's got staying from out of town. All got dressed, and I went to their room tonight because really, if the children... they had a babysitting, and then ended up coming back, and there was just a shambles. I couldn't believe it. There was just clothes everywhere. So I picked up... went to the Mercedes Place to pick it up, and I couldn't drive the damn thing! It was a Sportomatic, and I couldn't get it into gear. And a man came over to me, and he said... it was the boss. He said, "Oh, whose car is that?" And I said, "Oh, it's Mr. Elson's." And he said, "Oh, I thought so." And you know, I just sort of wondered if he was checking up on me because I was in my running shorts and everything. And Maitland was sitting up like the king in the front. Anyhow, he finally gave me a driving lesson. He said, "Oh," he said, "give my regards to Ed." He said, "You know, I want to buy this car off him, and he won't sell it to me." And that's the boss of the Mercedes place! So I guess that's something real special about this car. So I very carefully drive home. I didn't dare put it in the garage. Getting it through the courtyard was sufficient for me. I drove home as carefully as anything. Maitland said to me, "You're nervous?" I really was.

Something fun the kids did the other week was... I was trying to get rid of them so I could do a bit of painting, and they'd been driving me bonkers all morning. And you know, you always end up doing every damn thing for them. But they love to dress up, and so they were dressing up as clowns. And they look real cute. We're taking some photographs, and I'm going to get some copies for you, and we should have them fairly soon. And I have another stack of photos of the winter series and on through that I want to send to you, which I'm still getting around to getting reprints of. Anyway, dressed them up as clowns, baggy pants, and they had red plastic noses, and they had American hats, and they had flags, and they look really cute. And we made a big poster board for each side of Maitland. And John was working on the bridge, so he took him down to the Valley Road, and they had lemonade and fudge, and they had all little bags and ho hell. And they started selling. Well, that's a very busy road, you know, and of course, it's the most elite street in town pretty well. And the first person to come along was Mr. Rollins, cigar, that lives next door from the alarm place. And he said he would... had one little miserable glass of lemonade that was 10 cents, and he gave them 50 cents. John... if they got enormous tips from people. And two boys came running along the road, and they were saying, "Oh, we're so thirsty! We're so thirsty! Oh my goodness, I would just love some lemonade!" And then they said, "A mirage! A mirage! I see a mirage! Lemonade!" And the kids went into hysterics. But then when the kids came home, they said to me... said to me, "Guess who came by when we were down selling lemonade on Valley Road? King Faisal!" I mean, they're mixing in the right circles down there with their lemonade. But everyone just thinks they're so cute, you know, that they buy all the ruddy fudge and lemonade. They made $5 that day. Happier clams, they were.

Anyway, Maitland had not been... I don't know what was wrong with him. The heat... and getting tired maybe. But Rachael told me that he was dragging all day, just wasn't, you know, himself. He was dragging. Anyway, what else? Oh, another time, I don't know whether I told you, I was doing lunch for Susie, you know, and because I was working there while Ruth was in hospital and there. And she had all these ladies there from the Mental Health Association. There were 10 of them, and they were in the main lounge. And the children came over to see me, and they'd dressed up in their Halloween costumes. And they ran past the window of the lounge, much to my disgust. But Susie was just delighted. She came out to me, and she said, "Oh, the children were so cute! They came running past the window in their Halloween costumes!" I... on earth...? The ladies think you live on 10 acres, and you've got Halloween... you know, the...? Was... is the alien? And Rachael was Casper the damn ghost flying past the window? They must think it really is a haunted mansion.

Last Friday night, we went to see Theodore Bikel at Chastain Park. And we've been taking the children this year because, you know, $7.50 a ticket, and it's even cheap... that... every season tickets. And it's almost as expensive for us to get a babysitter, so we've been taking the children. Subtly introducing Rachael to the, you know, orchestra. So anyway, Rachael was really impressed with Theodore Bikel because, you know, he... he was... he was the fiddler... I can't think of his name... in Fiddler on the Roof. And it... but the Greek... and oh, he was apparently in The African Queen. I can't remember the part that he played in that. But anyway, he's obviously very famous. And he sang very well, and Rachael was very impressed with him. And, you know, she went down and got his autograph, which she is treasuring. And so I'm going to get her an autograph book because she should be able to get some pretty important autographs around here. You know, you never know when you're gonna meet up with somebody. And that's her really first famous autograph. And she was delighted. And when she came back to John, she had gone down at halftime first of all because she wanted to see who played the harp. And she went down... a man must have seen her standing there, and he lifted her up onto the stage, and the lady was practicing in the orchestra. And she came back, she showed me exactly how you play a harp and how you pluck the little strings. And she was really excited about that. And she wanted to go back and get her autograph. And I said, "Well, you know, you can get that next week because the same lady will be there." The orchestra's there every week. So she's going to do that on Friday night. It'll be 4th July, and the big concert. But after the show, she went down to get Theodore Bikel. And they finally got backstage. And when she came back, she was so excited. And I said, "Oh, Walter, does he looked like he does in the picture, Rachael?" And she said, "Yes, he does. But he was all wet!" Because, you know, Theodore Bikel was run over by a car in Hollywood 9 weeks ago. And he was singing in a wheelchair with his leg up in a cast. I mean, poor man, most uncomfortable. And he would have... it was hot anyway. And down on the stage, you couldn't see... hot because in the bowl of the amphitheatre must be real hot down there, sitting in a wheelchair with a cast, singing kind of Russian folk songs that he does. It, you know, it must have been just hell. Anyway, what else can I tell you? I finally found a hairstyle that I can use on Rachael, but it's, you know, we braided it, and she just looks like Bo Derek. I call her 'My 10 and a half'. And she looks really cute. It's really…