Episode 16 - SVW Tapes - 10th November, 1981

Well, hi y'all from Atlanta. This is November, Monday, November the 10th. And we're just back from New York. I was going to make this tape to you last Thursday. I got your tape last Thursday, and I was just sitting listening to it when the phone call came that gave us a weekend in New York, so it's all over now, seems like a long time ago after a day back here.

I'll start with your tape, which was recorded on October 26, Labour Day. We don't have Labour Day at the same time here. Stop on that, let me just check that everything's all working right. Oh, well, I've just got another cup of coffee, and I'm ready to go. I've got my list I'd written out Thursday night while I was listening to your tape. And it begins with the ladies in the car. That was a most unusual thing to happen, and especially whilst taking a rest, which was obviously disturbed by all those policemen wandering through the house and goodness knows what. And very upsetting, I'm sure, for the dear lady who'd just been dropped off by her friend. I took it that she had a heart attack or something at the wheel and didn't know what had happened sounds... Like, what was the result of the thing anyway? Most unusual, freakish thing to happen. Anyway, then you've got to Speak & Spell, which I say quietly in case the children are hearing/listening. I know that you'll be enjoying it and having a lot of fun with that. And parcel, parcel, parcel! I seem to have had a very exciting time today. We got the thing that the children have done, the... that book, which has just been a joy to the kids. They were just so excited. You just wouldn't know how excited they got about that thing. And what we were all impressed with was the amount of work that Tanya and Tasha and Stephen (I imagine Stephen had a hand in it too) had put into it. And we were just delighted with the whole thing because there was a big argument over whose class was going to see it first because it was going to school directly tomorrow. But I just thought that they did such a lovely job of that, and we were just thrilled with it. We were going to keep it for Christmas, and then we thought, "Oh heavens," John said, "there'll be plenty of things for Christmas. Let's get on and open it," which we did. And we were just delighted with the whole thing. But in the meantime, we'd had the paua shell parcel. And then we even had a parcel from Helen Rachael for Christmas, which didn't know about, you... And what else did we have? Another parcel came, did it, from you? Oh... lost track of things about... We haven't had the parcel that's coming yet, but we're waiting for it another day. We got Sunny to watch out over the weekend in case it should have arrived, but it didn't. And although I did sort of work out that that would be here middle of... end of November.

Then I go on to 'Beyond Reasonable Doubt'. Well, you know, I told you we had a cartload of Kiwis here a while ago, and Marion left with me some New Zealand Women's Weeklies, which covered that movie and the stars and so on in quite a lot of detail. And it just makes you sick, doesn't it really? The whole thing, it just... it's beyond reasonable understanding now, I think. It's just stupid.

The make short...? Well, we were thrilled, that's the other thing we got... you know, all the printed paper and everything and the photograph. It was terrific. We were really excited, and the photo is really good. We will have to put it in another frame if we don't want to have the... Hey writes a will...? A little thing at the top. But we're thrilled with that. It's great to have a photo of the whole family. Marsha enjoyed it, and everybody's seeing it.

Then we go into Elsie. Doesn't seem to be too good. She's having a run of it really, isn't she? She doesn't... it's, you know, what with passing out and one thing and another, she doesn't sound too bright. I hope things are looking happier for her, and I'm sure that a lot of it, there's long-term sort of stuff, you know, with Lois and everything. And it goes on and on. It sounds like with the children... that's very sad.

Oh, and you said something about a lot of tripe on the tape. I don't know what it was in relation to, but I had to laugh. I hadn't heard that for a long time, "a lot of tripe." And my friend... another saying I heard recently was... you know, my friend Teddy that's just had this operation. I called her, went down, I said, "I hope you're in bed, Teddy." And she said, "Oh no, I'm not comfortable in bed." She said, "I'm just in my dressing gown. I'm just lolling around,"which was something I hadn't heard for a long time either.

Then you've been doing all this work at the church. It must have... totally exhausted after all that. And sounds like the whole family's been involved with baking and goodness knows what, and Father and all. But oh good church work. I have been... well, we had the day... I had to organise the team to go to Six Flags. That was quite a day. I was pretty... my legs were a bit sore the next day after that. That's always a hair-raising day going to Six Flags, that's tiring.

And I noticed all you were saying about the candles in the church and how it had been reduced down to two. And then you said about the folk mass. Well, you know, the folk mass here, I think, helps in the church in the respect that you might... when discussing... obviously, Father would be the best one to put this forward at his church meeting, is that it encourages a younger choir group. So it gives them a middle lot. They've got Rachael's lot, who are all what? Up to 6th grade, which is... she's fourth now. So that must be up to 10 and 11. And then they've got the... the main choir. And then they've got the youth choir, who are a middle-of-the-road group, you know, and they play guitars, and it's sort of a little younger. And you know how popular that was? Now, I can't see why it would go down... wouldn't go down in New Zealand. The only thing is that the church is much more conservative at home. You know, they've got this sort of Episcopalian influence here where they get a little bit screechy and stuff. But then, of course, there's that wonderful homemade bread, which, of course, encourages everybody to take communion. But you know how they take it here, whether they've been confirmed or not, which Teddy, their English girl, just frowns upon totally. And I think she's right. I mean, if you're not confirmed, it seems pointless to be taking it. But the New Zealand and English churches are definitely more conservative than they are here, still, I think.

What do we got now? What is so wonderful is that ours was the right one. Oh yeah, I know, that must have been something about religion. And I've got something now... what was it that you said to be...? But anyway, I've put here that to be perfectly Christian about it, but it's so wonderful that ours is the right one, of course, to be perfectly... to be perfectly right, that ours is the right religion, considering that Christians do not form the major part of the world. I wonder sometimes about... of course, there's a Volkswagen Beetle. It's a Superbug, though. You know, there's the ordinary Volkswagen, then there's the one with the big fat wheels and sort of puffy outlets, and just a fatter looking version. That's the sort we've got. That's real cute.

And I hope you get the printing press that you were talking about. And the Burrs are in Moscow, which would be interesting. And nice that they should write to you. They've always been very thoughtful people, haven't they? I mean, it's sort of nice to get a postcard from someone like that when they're away when you know that they're busy, and you know what it's like when you're traveling. And I can't imagine, you know, how hard it is to find a post office in New Zealand. Can you imagine finding one in Moscow? I mean, that must be another thing again. You mentioned the fireplace. You know, I must have said something about getting these logs that burn. This, I don't think, is what you were talking about where you have, I guess, a bar heater with the rays and stuff. These are the logs that you put on a grate like a fire, but they either run with gas or electricity. And they literally, you know, burn, and they're logs. And you, you put an ordinary fire grate in the fireplace and all that stuff, and away you go, but you plug them in, or... Beverly's got that gorgeous one. I mean, she just never has to put logs on the fire. She's got logs, and they run by gas, and you can turn them off and on, which is great. I mean, they can put it on for half an hour, and you just don't do that, of course, with a real fire.

And Maitland's always has changed. He's matured a lot. And he's, oh, he's funny. You know, he's settled down more this year, although he's sitting on his own. That's proved to be the best place for him. And he's working away. But he's, you know, he... he definitely has matured a lot.

Tony and Elaine are building a house? Well, is it a nice house, a big house, a small house, a blue house, a greenhouse? I mean, what sort of house? And is Tony building it himself? I'm glad to hear that he is back within AC. I suppose he'll be doing the same sort of work that he used to. And I imagine with a manager and the taxi, he'll do alright, for sure.

A chiropractor is...? What I've got now? What is it that I wanted to know about a chiropractor? Something... I don't know. Gosh, it's terrible. You make these notes, and it's only a few days, but so much has happened since then, it's hard for me to remember.

The skull fracture with Terry's son. And is that the same kid that fell down the cliffs that they had trouble with at school recently?

Dad's writing a big story, but as I said before, I'll be watching the top 10 bestsellers for that to come out very soon. And when you say very warm, I wonder what you mean exactly by very warm? I mean, do you mean 105? Or do you mean a very nice, pleasant day of about 70? We had... it was 79 here today and 75, I believe, over the weekend, which is beautiful weather, but it is fall. You know that we left... We have this wild magnolia tree out front, the one that Maitland likes to climb. And it's very like a magnolia tree, an ordinary one. But this, I gather, I've been told is a wild magnolia. It has much sort of bigger leaves on it and sort of much less... or sort of wilder looking flowers. You know, it's definitely a magnolia; it's beautiful. When we went away, a lot of the leaves had started to fall, their huge, big leaves. And then today, we all... every single person that came home tonight commented, Maitland and Rachael separately and John, but there's only one leaf left on the tree. It really looks very bare. Maitland got a bit of a shock, I think, to see his tree without all its leaves on it, looks sort of funny.

Oh, and you mentioned all the lilies and indoor lilies I've got written here. You must have some indoor lilies. But I had to laugh, I know, you know, it's sort of still funny to me to have Christmas lilies at Easter, as of course we do here. But it'll be much nicer there now that he doesn't have anyone playing cricket in the backyard, knocking his lilies down. I remember as kids always having a problem with... we hit a lily, and who was going to get into trouble over it because we never told him. And I'm sure he never noticed that he'd lost, you know, a lily with 10 blooms on it, five packs of bloom. But, you know, having them here at Easter time is sort of funny, and I always... I still can't get used to that because they're really meant for Christmas time. And you miss the things. Of course, they have... I've just thought of the name of the thing they have here at Christmas is poinsettias everywhere. Everybody has masses of poinsettias, and they are beautiful, and they do relate to Christmas. And at last, you sort of put into perspective why the Christmas paper always has poinsettias on because we never had them at home. I don't suppose it's the time of the year, I guess? We have them in the middle of June or something there?

Anyway, so that pretty well very briefly covers your tape to us. I sometimes... you don't tell me what you've received, like, you know, I always... if you can, try and just note down when you received something, I don't know, even a big lot of clippings or something. And then you know whether the mail is getting through because I never know what... with what regularity I send it. But those... I imagine you got... you said you'd got the plastic boxes with the right ones. I imagine you got the tapes with that guy... What's his name? Oh god. I just can't think of anything tonight. Oh, the Marty...? Name? Same name. But I don't... I don't believe that that was that family anyway. But John...? Somebody rather. I suppose you've got that. Anyway, well, I'll start on what's been happening here. It's been all go, I can tell you.

The Elsons were out of town. They went Wednesday last week, and they don't come back until tomorrow night. And so we were taking care of the house anyway. Then I was... got your tape on Thursday, I'm sitting here listening to that and playing it through and stuff. And I guess the kids were just in bed. And this call comes from Letitia. Letitia? Letitia Schweitzer and Amos and John, her husband. They have four children. They've got two older ones and two young ones. The one has just gone off to college, so I guess he's about 18. The second child's about 16. He's stone deaf, totally deaf, absolutely. I think I told you about him one time when I was taking care of them, the kids. And I said to him to turn the hose off over at the swimming pool. And he rushed over to the tap in the meantime because I just wanted to put the nozzle on it, you know. And in the meantime, Maitland just said, "Oh no, look, I'll just bend it in half." And that stops the water while I put the nozzle on, which, of course, is a very bright thing to do. And but Scott, the one that's deaf, hadn't heard me, and he was tearing off across the garden to turn the hose off. And Maitland's yelling at him saying, "No, no, no, no, no, it's alright, Scott!" Of course, Scott didn't hear him when Maitland's tearing after him saying, "No, no, no." He was screaming, "No!" because Scott couldn't hear him. And Maitland couldn't sort of realize... he was sort of getting quite frantic. "No, no, no," he was screaming, I don't know, because Scott couldn't hear him. But anyway, Letitia's awfully patient with Scott. She's mild... she was a teacher when she had this child that was deaf. She went back and studied... No, I major... I imagine as they say here in... deaf speech or whatever the heck you major in for deaf people. And she... she is qualified that she could teach at the deaf school here in Atlanta. She doesn't because she has two other children now, but she also tutors in French. She's quite a bright bird. And I met her through the... the writers' group that I belonged to. Just so happened that her second lot of... she's kind of had a big gap, and I imagine after she had the deaf one. And then she's got a little girl who's in the grade one, she's a year behind Maitland, and a little kid called Wilson, who's about three anyway. And she happens to go to Jackson, and so I see her there quite often too. Anyway, she called Thursday night about 9 o'clock, and she said, "Well, I got two tickets to go to New York for the weekend, return. And," she said, "I'll have your kids. Now you can't turn that down." And I thought, "Oh my goodness!" I mean, when you first get hit with that... And John was at a dental conference Thursday night; he wasn't even home. I didn't know what time he'd be home. And I thought, well, I couldn't leave her in the lurch because these weren't her tickets; these were tickets a friend had rung her about. And I thought, well, I can't umm and ahh and say, "I'll let you know tomorrow," because that was... the tickets were for the next day. I thought, "Heavens!" I just said, "Yes, that's fine, of course, I'll take them." Whether or not John could go, I thought, "Heavens, even if he can't, I'll find somebody that can." We had a mass of things on at the weekend that I had to reorganise. And I... I had been going to go to work Thursday, I thought I'll go Friday. You know, the weather had been so nice, I'd been finishing painting the exterior, just finishing off the windows in the basement and stuff and the trim. And I thought, well, I'll paint while the weather's good and... I was going to go to work Friday. Well, this happened, and I thought, "Oh heavens." And so I finally today, Monday, I went to work out Bob's... Anyway, John got home at midnight, and I said to him, "Could you get somebody to coach soccer on Saturday and Friday night?" And he said, "Oh, I suppose I could, why?" And I said, "Well, we're going to New York for the weekend." Said, "Well sure, I could." So first things Friday morning, we teed everything up. And Rachael started this new course at the Northside High School, and I think I've told you that I meant to go to that. And so I wrote a note to that teacher, and I rang all these people to get the kids picked up from Letitia's for soccer. And Letitia said she'd take her to the thing... Northside High, no problem. And because they got a lot of kids, you know, it was no real problem. She's one of those people that always got six kids with her. And so I met her at the school. I had to go to P.E. Friday. I spent all Friday morning teeing everything up. And I called Patsy and said, "Could she get us a hotel in New York?" "Oh," she said, "yes, sure, you know, I'll be right... I'll do it, I'll do it," she said. And "I'll call you back." Well, I was on the phone all morning, and I rang Marsha and said to her that, you know, it was unfair for her to go off to New Zealand and leave me alone for two weeks, and so because of that, I was gonna head off to New York for the weekend. And she laughed and said that it was great. And she was leaving that afternoon about two. And I told Beverly, you know, I've left all our names and addresses and everything. I thought Beverly should know in case anything happened to us, leaving the kids and everything. And got... did a full itinerary for Letitia and spent the whole morning doing that. Then I went to P.E. And I left Letitia with Rachael. Maitland was going home with Chris Lyle, one of his friends, after school on the bus, and his mother was taking them to soccer. And her husband was going to take the soccer practice that night. And she dropped Maitland back to Letitia's. Had somebody jacked up for the games on Saturday and all the rest of it. Finally got everything teed up. Been on the phone all morning, so I thought I'd better call Patsy back. Call Patsy, and the girl says, "Sorry, Patsy's husband's had a car accident. She's had to shoot through." And I said, "Well, do you know anything about my booking?" And she said, "No, I'm sorry, I don't." So I said, "Well, I'll call you back about 3 or so." I called back at three. She... "I'm sorry, Patsy's not back." I said, "But is her husband alright?" She said, "I think he's okay, but she shall be back shortly." I said, "Well, I have to leave at 4." I said, "I'll call you at 4." Called at four, nothing, no Patsy. I thought that's typical. That doesn't really matter. I mean, we knew we could get a hotel somewhere in New York, but it would have been nice to know where we were going. She said, "Look, could you call me from the airport? Can I ask a favour? Could you call me from the airport?" And I said, "Sure." So I called from the airport, and she said, "Yep, you're staying at the Taft Hotel." Patsy's... because I could just see Patsy sitting at her desk with millions of papers. "I've got it here somewhere, I've got it here somewhere. I've got a code number for you... heavens above, you won't need it anyway. You won't need it. It'll be right. It'll be right," you know. "I've got it here somewhere. I think it's 42nd and 8th Avenue. Oh, it's look, it's the Taft Hotel. You won't have any trouble finding it." Oh my go, she's just a wacky woman.

So we get out to the airport, and of course, the whole thing was... these tickets, you know, it all boils down to being very complicated. That was like those tickets that you have where you nominate airports that you want to go to, but you don't know when you leave home what you're going to do. Well, these were some businessmen, and they had... they'd started their trip in Augusta. Was Augusta, Atlanta, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Atlanta, Newark, which is really in New Jersey. You know it, of course, it's not that far from New York. Back to Atlanta, and then on back to Augusta. Well, they hadn't used the Atlanta-Newark return, and then Augusta... Atlanta-Augusta. And it started like Friday night, left here quarter to six Friday night, and to fly back... Well, Letitia had told me on the phone about this. And of course, you can't change the names on the tickets. That's why they had no use; these tickets were being thrown away. So I... we had to go as... John was... what was his name? Roger Drake Draper. And I was Jean Bell. And Jean was G-E-N-E. So I was already to be a Genevieve. And because it was obviously a man. And anyway, we get out to the airport, so John floats up and just gets the bookings, and the sky... given us some ID just... because if they asked for ID... Sunny was telling me what they get for the people that work out there, like her girlfriends that work for Eastern. If they pick up credit cards or tickets like that that are being used by other people, so on and so forth, if they get $25 personally, personally. So it's a big incentive for them to pick up, you know, the wrong things. And so there is that chance, that slight chance that you might get picked up. But anyway, it's a very slim chance. They don't generally ask you for ID on an internal flight like that. And anyway, John goes and gets the tickets somewhere at the airport. We call Patsy. And then I rang Letitia, told her what hotel we were at, and so on. We're on the plane. And, of course, we had dinner on the plane. And we had a really nice time. We arrived in New York, and we got a bus into town and so on. And we had a fabulous time and just walked and walked. I just thought I could never walk another step. We went to the... we decided to go up to the Empire State Building this time because we hadn't done that last time; we'd gone up the World Trade Center, you know, which is much taller now, of course. Anyway, so we did the Empire State, and we did another trip on... we'd lost all our photographs, you know, from last time, so we did a lot of photographing. And we walked all over town everywhere in the morning. And then in the afternoon, we walked right down to the Battery and took the boat out to the... 3 o'clock boat out to the Liberty... Statue of Liberty. John rushed up that and took some photographs from up there. And we got back at about 4:30, which... you'd get dark then in New York about 5 now. So then we took the subway back to Times Square. And... Oh, that's right. In the afternoon, we walked down right through Little Italy and Chinatown. And we stopped and bought some Italian bread, you know, it was nice to have some decent bread. And we went to the shop that just sold cheese. This is in the Italian area. And they had the most enormous rounds of cheese and the queues! I mean, we had to take a number. We were number 21, and they were only up to about 7, I think, when we went in there. We waited, I don't know, three-quarters of an hour to be served. And obviously, once you got served, you bought a lot. There were people in there buying cheese, and cheese is a hell of a price here, you know. The cheapest cheese you can get is about $2.99 a pound. And they were buying dull lots of cheese, you know, and Parmesan and all that sort of... you know, real strong cheeses. So we bought some Swiss and some magnificent Brie, which was 60% buttermilk? I mean, it was just beautiful. We bought Brie and Swiss and some Algeria? And we bought some ham and salami and some bread, and we took all that with us, you know, because we decided we wouldn't eat in restaurants because we were eating on the plane the night before, and we were eating on the plane on the way back anyway. And then we walked on down, and we did the trip, as I said, and so on. And then we took the subway back to Times Square. We had thought that we might get some tickets to a show. Well, in the morning, we'd gone past... there's that ticket place, you know, in the middle of Times Square. And at 9 o'clock, there was a queue. I mean, it wasn't very long at that time, but that was that... the thing didn't open till midday. 12 o'clock it opened for the... that was for the matinees. There were three hours of people waiting. And we thought, "Well, hell," I mean, when you're only there for one really full day or two full days, that it was just pointless standing in queues a mile long. And, you know, the shows to go and see, Annie or Chorus Line or anything, was $27, the cheapest seat. So, you know, they're worth it. They're half price at that place, but unless you buy them off somebody outside of the show just at the last moment or something... anyway. So we decided we wouldn't wait that queue. We got off back off Times Square on the way back, and the queues were just wriggling all round and up and back and round. Well, I went up to a lady, and I said, "How long have you been waiting to get to here?" And she was still a long way from the ticket box. And she said, "I've been here an hour and a half," or some ridiculous thing. And I said, "What do you...?" "I..." And she said, "At this point, I'm going to see anything that's left." She said, "Go and have a look at the board up there." They had the board up, and they take down the shows as they fill, you know. Well, Chorus Line and all the big shows had gone. I mean, there were just all the real little shows left. Well, I just thought, "Help, I'm not standing in a queue for two hours." This was half past 5. The show didn't start after all at 8 o'clock, and they sold tickets till about 7. I wasn't gonna stand there for two hours to get tickets to just any old show. I mean, she'd stood there so long that she was prepared to sort of take anything, but I thought, "Gosh, couldn't we bother with that?" So we wandered round town and we went back to the hotel and ate our meat and salami and all that stuff. The hotel was really nice. I think it was French run. And very big hotel. I don't know whether you knew of it. It's right on 42nd and 8th Avenue, very convenient. It's right... so we were right over the road from a new show called 42nd Street. And we were very close to Ordinary People, the movie, and... What else? Annie and... oh well, we were right on Broadway, really. So that was terrific staying in a hotel, and it was $48 a night too, which is not bad, you know, for New York, as you know. So it was pretty good, really. It was a very nice room. We were about the 12th floor. And we just wandered around and just generally had a great time.

Saturday night, we went back out. Oh, that's right. We sort of hold up down on... it was on 42nd Street. You know, all the theatres are on 42nd Street. And you're really going into a pretty sort of black area. It seemed some pretty funny looking people around there. But it's pretty crowded, you know. It was just off Broadway. And all of a sudden, there were cops, sirens, and people running, and all these people suddenly ran across the street. And what had happened? One of the theatres that, you know, well, the picture theatres are on that street, some two guys had held up either the theatre or some guy in the bathroom. And I'm still not sure just exactly what happened, but I think he might have been in the bathroom. But then again, it could have been the ticket office. Two guys had held him up with a gun. They'd shot the gun off, and that was when the people scattered. And this guy tore up the road in his good suit, threw his good suit coat... tore it off and chased after these guys. And he had got one guy. What had happened? They locked one guy... that must have been the bathroom because they locked one guy in a toilet or some damn thing or locked him in somewhere, and he couldn't get out with the other one had... It was him that the man was chasing. Well, then all the cops arrived. There were... there was just a huge congestion, was cops everywhere. And they came from everywhere. I mean, two great patrol cars came... I mean, not patrol cars, big paddy wagons, you know, the big riot type ones that must hold 100 people. Two of those were there. And then finally, the people wouldn't move away, you see, because they were, you know, rubbernecking, and the police came on horses and scattered everybody. And there was all talk about what had happened and so on and so forth. But that was just another little New York type incident. And, you know, as John said, the police haven't got a hope. It's like a movie. I mean, it's almost a joke, you know, but the police get so little respect that, you know, it's awfully hard for them to be straight cops, I'm sure. So we got back to the hotel about midnight, I suppose, you know, what it's like down there on Broadway, it's all go. And we did some shopping and looked around and so on.

And the next day, on Sunday, we went to Radio City, which is the biggest theatre in the world. It's got 6,000 seats, but it's the shape or size of it or something. Plus, there are no pillars in the whole theatre, so everybody could see as well as anybody else. Huge big place it is. It's in the Rockefeller Center. And funnily enough, two years ago, when we were there, it wasn't being used. And was... that's where the Rockettes are. And they were going to close it down, but the Rockefellers, you know, decided to keep it going. I don't know whether they won't be able to afford to continue it because unless it's a really good show doing real well there, it's obviously not profitable. And they've spent millions on doing it up. And now they're running tours through it. Costs about four bucks a person to go through. But it really is quite an experience. You get to go on the stage. And you know what? Being on... they said, you know, they said, "We know you'd love to be on the stage and just have a look out, and you can say you've been on the stage." And what I decided about that was it's exactly as you think it'll be. You're looking out from the stage at all those seats. It's just as you imagine. Of course, there were no people there screaming for you, I don't suppose it's quite the same thrill. And you go through where the Rockettes all practice and stuff. And there was a Chinese acrobatic group there that day, or they've been there for the seasons. And that was really... what experience. It's just a magnificent building. Just fantastic. Everything in its recent... like, it's only been opened six months in this recent decoration of it. Everything has been copied as it was in the original building. And the funny thing was that the architect that built this theatre years ago was Mr. Roxy. And might have been was Roxy something. And that's where the name of the Roxy Theatres comes from. And do you know, the funny thing is that in this theatre, it's like a sort of a sound shell effect, you know, the acoustics are very good. But they apparently didn't work out right. It's got a very good sound system as well now, but the acoustics were supposed to work well, and they do across the room, but not out from the stage, which was unfortunate. And they just... I guess that long ago. But there's certainly some very modern features in the building, considering how old it is. And you know, it was very well designed. But this guy Roxy had a lot to do with it. And when I thought about it, this shell-shaped sort of atmosphere inside... all the... the roof is concaved over, and it's a completely just hanging ceiling, and all the lighting's hidden and everything, just magnificent. The Roxy Theatre in Wellington had that curve, remember? Over the front, the one they pulled down beside the old St. George, further the road from the St. George. It had that round shape, so I guess that was his big thing.

Anyway, so we did that. And then when we left there, we... oh, we went to the Rockefeller Center. You know, where the ice skating rink is out in the middle of town. Of course, it's getting cooler now; it wasn't colder. Well, this is side two, and I was saying you get the wind in New York, of course, that you don't get here. But it was pretty nice. It was pretty cool up on top of the Empire State Building and a little cool out on the boat. But it was, you know, really a very nice day. We had sun, and it was very nice. They had expected a few showers on Saturday; they didn't come. They came on Sunday afternoon, about 4. Anyway, so we went to Radio City, and then we did the Rockefeller Center. And then we just generally walked up and down Fifth Avenue and Central Park and... oh, you know how busy it is in New York. Everything's got so expensive. It's funny high, I noticed it now. I guess, too, that we were buying food. We didn't eat in any fancy restaurants or anything, but you know, a Coke... for a can of Coke, it was 50 cents. You can still buy them in Atlanta in a machine, which is always dearer than buying them in the store, for 40 cents. And they were 50, 55, I think John paid for one can of Coke. And we bought some orange juice, which here... half quart, which is, I don't know, about 65 cents, was 89 cents I paid in a deli. You know, these funny little delis they have here because there's no supermarket. They rip you off. You can't buy gasoline in New York much, and you can't get a tire changed. You have to go to New Jersey to do anything like that. But they know they've got you. That's not a thing you can do, so you've got to pay the price. But the orange juice that's 65 here was 90 cents one night I bought some, and another deli that we went to, it was $1.19. So they've just got you where they want you. And we bought some doughnuts at a cute little place that looked a little nicer than the normal Dunkin' Donuts or whatever. And we bought five things that were sort of doughnut type things, and that cost $4. So you know, they're almost a dollar piece, which is pretty pricey. But anyway, we bowled up to Central Park, and 'cause, you know what it's like with all the barbecues going on all the street corners and everything. But we met a guy, it was funny. He said to... we stopped to look at his cart. You know, had all these nuts and fruit and stuff on it. And cashew nuts, they've gone out of sight here as price goes. They're like four bucks... they're five bucks a pound, I think now, or more. If you buy them in a place like that, they're dearer, of course, than the farmer's market. But anyway, we were talking to him, and he said he knew someone from New Zealand.

Oh, I tell you who was on TV the other night up there, and that was the Split Enz that are from New Zealand originally. And we heard on the radio one night that they were here in America. And John called the radio station that had played this song. There's an Australian guy runs one of the radio stations here at night. We called him, and he said, "Oh no, it wasn't him that he spoke to," actually, but he is on that station. And they said, "Oh yes, that the Split Enz were really doing pretty well here." And he said, "Oh, I'll send you out their album." And he sent us out a free album. We got it the next day. And anyway, so they were on TV while we were in New York. They did a show on... oh... Dionne Warwick's show? Yeah, she wasn't the worst, wasn't she? Awful looking woman. And they were on that. They're not as kinky as they used to be back in New Zealand when they used to have all their hair cut off and all makeup. They weren't dressed like that. They were still a little odd, I must confess, but they... they're apparently doing pretty well. And anyway, we were saying... oh yeah, the... we were talking to the guy with this cart. And anyway, he said it was hard to make a living in New York. And the next thing, I said, "Oh 'cause they have licenses, you know, to sell that food on the street like that."Anyway, the next thing, he um... he's talking away to me, and the next thing he whips off with his cart and away he goes down the side street. The cops are coming! They're not allowed to stand right on Fifth Avenue; they've got to be on a side street. Well, of course, they're not going to sell anything on a side street; they want to be on Fifth Avenue. So they're moving all the damn time. That's a really cutthroat business. There was a little lady there with an umbrella with all these little brooches, handmade brooches all over, you know. And she picks up her umbrella, she's off like a rocket. She's haven't got enough money to pay the fine because they get fined like meters, you know, parking sort of tickets. Now, I didn't know how much it is, but they suddenly shot off real smartly. Some of them stay out there, so obviously, some have more priority than others. I don't know how it all works. It's big business.

Anyhow, so we just wandered around Central Park. It was beautiful. The leaves were all still changing. And we called our friends, you know, out at Brooklyn, and they... I had called them on the Friday, but they were busy with a big party on Friday night and Saturday night, and we didn't actually get to see them. But we spoke to them for quite a while on Sunday morning. And in the afternoon, we sort of wandered back down. We thought we were... oh my feet! I just thought I couldn't walk another step, you know, and hadn't really... pounding the pavements for two days was something I wasn't used to. Anyway, we decided to walk back down to the main bus terminal, you know, right on 42nd Street, and take the bus out to Newark Airport because that's quite a long way; it's over in New Jersey. And we thought we'd rather than mess with these tickets... you know, this business of having to go up, you know, show ID and everything if we had to, we'd get out there early and know that we were there. Well, we decided... it started to rain, and it got dark. It was dark at 3:30 in the afternoon because it... it gets dark up there about 5:00 because it got overcast and everything. It got dark real, real quick because once it started to rain, the people cleared the streets a little bit. Not so much to watch. So we thought, "Oh well, we'll just buzz down." We went down to the bus terminal, which is just unbelievable. You know, it's so bad, although there's a new Greyhound terminal there now. The whole thing's being replaced, but the Greyhound part is finished. But where we were getting an ordinary old bus, beat up old New York City bus, and that wasn't done, and boy, is it a mess. Anyhow, we get down there, and we ended up... I guess we got the 5 o'clock bus. Yeah, left at 5. And a girl in front of me said, "Oh gosh, you know, if I don't get on this bus..." There was quite a queue, and she thought she wasn't going to get on it. She said, "If I don't get on this one, I'm gonna be really tight, you know, to get my airplane." And I said, "Oh, I think we'll get on." Well, we did get on. Anyway. The trip takes about 45 minutes. So we get out to the airport. And the trip on the way in had taken less time, but on the way out, we had to stop at Newark Airport... it was just enormous. Not in three different places. International we stopped at first. Then there was some of the other airlines. And then the third stop was our airline line, we were on Delta. We got off. Fortunately, we got off at the right one. And anyway, we get in there. The man said our daughter's on there, and we get along there. And I said to John, "Oh let's..." We had no baggage, see. We only had hand baggage. So we really didn't need to check in where you arrive, where you check your baggage, and we only needed to go to the... to the gate. But I said, "I want to go to the bathroom." So I'll go there, and you buzz over without me being there, being my Jean B...? Oh... wandered off to the bathroom. "You just go and check us in." So he wanders over casual as you like, like, you know, 6 o'clock. Next thing, I'm in the damn bathroom sitting on the throne, and I hear "Sharon!" Carry out, "The plane's about to leave!" I couldn't believe it. I said, "Oh!" So I come tearing out of the bathroom, and there's a man with John. And he must have thought it was funny that my name was Sharon and John's was called Roger, and the plane's waiting for us. And we... look, I thought I couldn't walk another step, but God, when I heard that, I ran down that tarmac because if we missed that plane... we were on these special tickets, we would have been up the creek. You know what it's like if you missed those flights. Well, we tore down to the gate and miles away. And well, we were fortunate, it wasn't as far as it could have been. Get there, and the plane's left the doors open. And it had to be five past six by then. And the plane was meant to go 5:55. And what had happened on Friday night when I... Thursday night when I spoke to Letitia, I said, "Okay, what time?" She said, "Well, leaves at 6:00." And she said, "Coming back at 9:17." And then on the Friday morning, she said to me, "Listen, that it isn't six exactly, it's actually 5:47. So really, you know, you've got to be out there before 5:00 to get that plane, you know, to be absolutely accurate about it." And we never really discussed the flight coming back again. But she said she thought it was funny when I said, "Well, we're gonna be back so late." Well, what about the kids? It might be best if we just, you know... she had to go to school in the morning anyway. We thought, well, rather than wake them up and disturb the whole household, we'll leave them to it, and they can just go to school as usual. And she thought it was funny the next day when I'd said how late we were going to be back, but she didn't sort of think anything of it. Anyway, the 9:17 was this extra piece on the ticket from Atlanta to Augusta. And we just happened to be at the airport so early. I mean, we thought it left Newark at 9:17, and we just happened to be there at six. I mean, so easily, we could... we were gonna go to a movie. We had thought, "Well, we might take in a movie from 4 to 6," and then we'd still have time to be at the airport. This plane waited! Well, it worked out really well because we were just whisked onto the plane at the very last minute, didn't have to wait. Next thing, we had dinner in front of us. We couldn't believe it. And we were halfway home. I mean, it was just amazing. And, of course, it really worked out wonderfully well. We didn't have that great long wait. But I just today, even, I still cannot get over just how timely that was because, I mean, we could have still been walking from New York, I can tell you, because $158 single if you don't have a Super Saver. Would it cost us $300? And I guess there would have been nothing for it but to have paid it. And it would have been a very, very expensive weekend. And I still today cannot get over the luck of that. Anyway. So we got back here and... the house was... we had to start the big house. And I picked the kids up after school today. But, so, then when I'd called Patsy on the Thursday... Friday, asked her to get me the hotel booking, she said, "Oh Eark," she said, "you'll have $20 worth of transport to get to town." I thought, "Like hell! I'm not spending $20 getting into town!" She said, "Well don't get a cab, get into town then." They're too expensive outside that; they're cheap in town. I thought Mum and Dad's experience wasn't inexpensive, but however. And I thought, well, Patsy wouldn't walk, but I can. You know, we're quite happy to walk round New York because there's lots of things to see, you know. And that bus takes you, in fact, right into 42nd Street. And we usually hawk out the best deals. Go off the plane, and, of course, there was a local bus, but most people won't take it. You can get a courier bus for $9 into town each. But you can get the local, you know, New York City bus for $2.25. So, of course, we thought that, which was much more reasonable. And anyway. So I had... Rachael had wanted something down at the store too, at her...? Rachael Kenner are doing a project. They have to make up an imaginary country with an imaginary name and imaginary places and mountains and lakes and rivers and where that stuff is... project they're doing. And Rachael was coming over on Friday night for dinner, and they wanted all this stuff. And Rachael was buying... the Rachael Kenner's buying the felt-tip pens, and so Rachael Waters was buying the poster cards, you know, the big piece of cardboard to go on. They had their color worked down. And Rachael Kenner had looked in the newspaper, and they had them cheap at Reed's Drugstore just down here on the corner. So Maitland was at skating, and so I said to Rachael, "Well, let's go now, just half past 4, you know, and we'll pick them up at 5." Well, get down to Reed's, and I thought, "God, that's right next door to Patsy's travel agency." So then I'll just call in and tell Patsy a thing or two about how to get into New York and that the hotel was very nice and that you do not have to spend $20. The little things that I think travel agents should know because I often think that it's those little things that the tourist has trouble with, where the big things like the whole, you know, the great big airfare and all that, well, that's all kind of done for you, and there's not a lot of choice there. But the little things quite often people need to know, and I think travel agents often don't know these things and should. They haven't done them themselves. So I went almost done as a joke to tell her, you know, that she could, in fact, get into town for $2.25. And I said, "Oh, you know..." She was there, and her husband because... I... Did I have a husband there? Well, I said, "Oh Patsy, you know," and I'm busy telling her about this. And she said to me, "Doesn't sit down." And I said, "Okay." So I sat down, and she said, "Listen, you interested in earning a bit of money?" She said, "You been in travel?" I said, "Yes." She said, "You're interested in earning a bit of money? You know, no tax or anything?"And, of course, that's all I needed to hear because I have to do it that way. I couldn't have gone to her and asked to do that, but she was asking me, so that suited me fine. She said, "When do you want to work?" She said, "What hours do you want to do?" And I said, "Well, what do you mean?" She said, "Come on," she said, "I want you to come and work here." She said, "You can read her... you know, an air book on that computer, can't you?" And I said, "Sure." I bought a computer today. She said the phone's rung six times today. She... "What the hell do we need a computer for?" Which... she said, you know, "Any other time, it's flat out." And she said, "I said, 'Do it, do it, send me a computer'." So she's got this big fancy computer to do all her bookings through. And she has a computer for her accounts as well. She said, "Anything else you need to know about that," she said, "I can... you can learn in 3 minutes." And I said, "Well Patsy, I couldn't work Friday afternoon; I take P.E. at school. And I do work one day a week at Marietta doing the books for this guy." She said, "Do you do books?" And I said, "Yes." She said, "Ohhh, you're just a dream! You're just a dream!" she said. "You'll have to start here." She said, like, "When can you start?" I said, "Well..." She said, "What about tomorrow?" So I said, "Okay, Patsy." So I'm starting work tomorrow in the travel agency. I couldn't be happier. I'm just so delighted. And the thing is that you... I'd often thought about going back into travel, but you know, when you've been out of it for years, you can hardly go to a big travel agency and say, "Well, you know, give me a job." I mean, especially coming from New Zealand where they're not using computers, for sure, little travel agencies do here. So this will give me a great start and in finding out just how things operate here. And I guess back in New Zealand, of course, that they'll be, you know, further ahead here. That it should be a great experience. I don't know how it'll work out. I mean, it may not work out. She's such a mess, old Betsy, but... So anyway, I start there in the morning.

The funny thing was, Sunny had got to know her recently. She'd done this booking for Lane, and she'd been in and discovered that she lived at the same address, you know, almost as we do. And Patsy had asked who she is and all that. She said, "Oh, no, I don't know her really well." Anyhow, she plays bridge with her three times a day. And anyway, Sunny had, you know, having worked for an airline, she said to Patsy a while ago, "I often thought it'd be quite nice to work for Patsy, but I couldn't say, because I couldn't work full time. I didn't want to work full time. And I also, you know, I'm not supposed to be working, really." And but sort of the way it came up, it was just exactly how I wanted it. So anyway. And Sunny had said to her, "Well, you know, next year Amanda goes to school, and maybe I could, you know, keep me in mind." And I went home and said to Sunny, "Well, I'm sorry, Sunny, but I got your job." But she wasn't able to do it right now anyway. And there's no saying that maybe we could both, you know, work there almost with babysitting arrangements each. And the funny thing is it's so close to here. I mean, if you look at the map, it's right on that corner of Powers Ferry and Roswell Road. And that is just two streets away. And it will be quicker for me to walk than it would to go through that gigantic set of traffic lights that takes the longest in the world. And I think probably it'll be just better for me to walk. So I'm starting at 9 in the morning. And I'm just so excited about it, I can hardly sleep. Well, I can't sleep, that's why I'm up making the tape. So I just think it'll be fantastic. I called Beverly. She said, "Oh, everything seems to be going so well for you," you know? And she was so excited. And she'd been real excited about the trip to New York. And she said everything's just working out well. "Quite," she said, "in fact, I'm envious of the job. That's something that I'd like to do." Because, you know, they've been untralled for so long that she could do something like that. So, believe that or not, there's another story again.

Okay, well, down to some local sort of stuff. At 11 o'clock every night now, on the news or for tonight, we had Maynard Jackson came on, and he's standing in front of a table just laden with $100,000 in hard cash all laid over the table. And he said... says something like, "You know, let's stop this person killing our children. There's a reward." And, you know, "Just bring the police..." dirty... "And this is yours," kind of thing. That... it hasn't done a thing. They've had that reward going for weeks now. Or now, they've been trying to get the FBI in on the case, and there's been a whole hassle over that. They won't enter it easily. And I said to John, "That's ridiculous, they should." But he said, "Well, you know, they can't handle every... they're a special force. They're especially assigned for special projects. And it has to take a sort of an act of Parliament or whatever they do here to get the FBI to act on civil... sort of civil cases, I suppose you'd call them because otherwise, they'd call them into every, you know, heck murder and gun shooting around town." You have, you know? And I just... Gus has got to the point where it's a consideration. But they've already... what the people here were angry about was that the FBI have already stepped into the cases of the black killings in... what? Buffalo. But apparently, those people... their civil rights or something had been encroached, and that the people... I don't know what it is, whether it was the cutting out of the hearts or... they'd been killed in sort of public places or something. I... I can't... there was some slight sort of legal technicality which enabled the FBI to go in there quicker.

But at 11 o'clock every night now, it says there is a curfew in our city. Do you know where your children are? Do you know where your children are now? And every night, I say to myself, "Yes, I do. They're both soundly tucked in bed." You know? Can you imagine kids out even at that time of night? I mean, it's just ridiculous. Anyway, but they still have not found this maniac. And every weekend, they've been combing all the areas and... certainly cleaning the city up, which is a darn good thing. And... that... nothing's happened. So today, I think 6 or 10 detectives have arrived from all over the country, the biggest detectives in the country that have solved the biggest crimes and stuff, you know, and very well known, real Sherlocks have come to town today, and hopefully, we'll find something. God knows what. But last weekend, a strange thing was found. First of all, they found a handgun, although these children haven't generally been shot anyway. But they did find some clippings of the murdered children, which is an unusual thing to have found. Whether that'll help, I don't know, but it's a very serious business and most upsetting for everybody. You know, it's just... something has to happen. The terrible thing was I read in the paper the other week, in the Sunday paper, that there had been this sort of thing started somewhere else one other time some years ago in a city, and it's ended now, but they never did find the guy. And you know, so it's pretty... it would be terrible if they didn't find this person. So... but I hope that they will, of course.

Anyway, what else has think? Oh well, of course, there was the election. I don't think I spoke to you since the election, I'm sure I haven't. The funny thing... we had the TV up here for the election, well... Rach comes home armed with all kinds of things. Well, first of all, they've had just a hell of a lot on the election all year. They've been reading about presidents, they've done all kinds of projects. And it's, you know, big. But Miss First said to them, "Well children, you know, it's no use the day after the election, we won't be doing any more of it. It's all over for sort of four years. This is very important that we do it now while it's high priority, and everybody's excited about it and all that." And she's quite right. And so they're really pumping them full of this stuff. Well, Miss Allen, who's Rachael's teacher, told the whole class the other day... Rachael came home so proud of herself. She told the whole class that Rachael Waters knew more about this country than most of the kids in the class. Rachael had got everything right. She knew who the governor of Georgia was and what his name was. And do you know that some of the questions... they had the whole, you know, stack of questions, 100 questions or something about the country and so on. One of the questions was what city do you live in? And some of the kids lived in the city of Georgia, if you please! And some of the kids had said something like... it wouldn't take much, mind you, to know more than some of them. Some of the kids thought that France was a state of America! And all kinds of weird things like that. And the kids were just in hysterics about it. And they really do know a lot. And Rachael has taken her interest, and of course, she was just delighted because she knew the scope they had at the school. I sent it to you, which was very out, by the way, as you know now, with hindsight. As one says, Rachael liked Reagan. She had Reagan on the damn brain from the damn beginning, and she was determined he was going to win. And, course, he did. Well, the night of the election, we decided we're going to make S'mores. They were made out of graham crackers, and you have chocolate and marshmallows, and usually you do them over a barbecue, and you melt the marshmallows and stuff. But you can make them at home. And these were the cornflake type graham crackers. And we were gonna make those, and we had TV here and were going to have quite a night of it, you know. So it's about 7 o'clock, I suppose. And I'm out in the kitchen. We'd had dinner, and everything was cleared away, and I was making the S'mores, and Maitland's in here screaming out, "Mr. Carter's got 35! And Mr. Reagan's got 200 and something!" And I shout, "Maitland! Yeah, that can't be right! You've got it wrong! You know, kid doesn't understand this playing, you know, it's too big, he doesn't understand. He's just a kid," you know. Sure enough, of course, that little Maitland was quite right. He had it all together, and he knew exactly what he was talking about. And I couldn't believe it. I came in here, and they're showing everything, and all these damn computers they had now. We almost knew before it happened. You know, Johnny Carson's been making quips all week about, you know, how it's all over before the Californians have even had time to vote. And anyway, because the thing was too, Rachael came home with all these maps and things she had to fill in for school, and we were all going to sit around and, you know how you do, I always remember at home having the thing out of the newspaper and you tick off your seats as they come and go and stuff. And she had all the... she had... she knew a hell of a lot about it. She knew all the colleges, you know, that you have within the electorates and how many things they get. And it's winner takes all and all this stuff. And she knew the whole bit. Well, the teacher had said that they... but she hadn't said they had to, but she said that it'd be nice that they were able to stay up a little later tonight and watch this thing. And John was saying, "No, they're not staying up all damn night. They're not staying up. They won't know till... till in the morning what's going on. And they're just not going to stay up that late." And hell, the whole bloody thing was over 8 o'clock. It was very obvious. I mean, by 9, Carter had conceded defeat. And the poor Californians hadn't even finished voting. It was just ridiculous. I mean, it was dull, to be perfectly honest. I mean, as John said, he was... he didn't have to make a choice between either of the silly figures. But, you know, it was just over so damn quick. And 'cause poor Carter, I mean, he was just hammered. A friend of mine said to me the next day, was, "Get out, Guy, and get out just as fast as you can pack your bags." I mean, hell, it was just unbelievable, because he barely even won Georgia, which was just a hoot. I mean, hell, can't win your own state. But I couldn't believe he was defeated so badly. And of course, the fact of it is that none of the polls figured that either. Apparently, the nearest poll too, it was the Weekly Reader that the children get at school. It's a thing that... national thing that they all get every week. And... so things to do in... had run a poll with the school children, and the school children had come out apparently for Reagan and by a very large margin, as it happened to be. Anyway, so course right was delighted that Reagan won because she knew he was going to all along. I really didn't know that, but I just feel like we get a bias thinking of being in Georgia, you know, because he's more popular here. When we were in New York, they were... the friends that we called and stuff, they were just absolutely sick of Carter. And, you know, they would have voted for a bloody Mickey Mouse rather than Carter.

Anyway, so that was over. But of course, what... the only exciting thing about the election as far as I was concerned, because really, it wasn't that exciting night. I mean, other people were saying that they... Jack had got out for dinner and to some school thing thinking that he'd come home and start watching at 10 o'clock or whatever. And of course, they were already halfway through dinner, and the whole thing was over. And other people had parties, you know, they all get together and have a party. Of course, the parties hadn't even got started. People were coming till 9 and all that sort of thing, and the whole thing was over. It was really rather a let down as far as having a nice evening, you know, but fun guys. And but the wonderful thing that happened here, of course, was that about 8 o'clock, they interviewed Talmadge, 'cause, you know, they were voting for state senators too, and Talmadge said... was being very cautious. And he was fortunate that he was. And he said, "Oh, you know," they said, "Well, it looks like you're winning," because he was. He was way ahead about 8 and 9 o'clock in the evening. And he said, "No, well, I want to see the arithmetic. All I want to see is the arithmetic." So anyway, he wouldn't, you know, comment too much, which was very fortunate. Well, at 6 o'clock in the morning, I got up, and I started... got the kids off to school and everything. By 7, Mattingly, who's the Republican, was catching up fast. And by 8, he had almost caught up. By 9 o'clock, he was ahead. And by 10, he was way ahead. And then they discovered 20,000 votes that should have gone to him that had gone to Talmadge, which really knocked him out. Well, I think he's something like 25,000 ahead now. But here we are, what? A week later. And Talmadge still has not conceded defeat. He wants a recount and everything else. And, of course, he has to prove that there could be a big discrepancy somewhere to get it because it would be a major job to get that done again and recounted. So he does not automatically get a recount. And I mean, the guy's like 25,000 ahead, or maybe even more now. And I haven't heard yet... well, I haven't read a paper in days... whether or not he's going to get a recount, but he may not. And I'm just glad to see him go. The guy's a damn crook. He should just go hide. And you know, one of the Billy jokes was just hilarious. There were two Billy jokes the days after the election. One had Miss Lillian, you know, the Carter's mother, sitting on a rocking chair, you know, real Southern rocking chair. And she had Jimmy Carter on her knee in diapers, you know, a little sailor suit. And he was crying. And outside of the window was Teddy Kennedy. And he was holding his behind; he had had a bat on the behind. And he was holding his behind, and he was crying. And Reagan was standing in the doorway with a bat in his hand, looking very ferocious, you know, beat the hell out of everybody. And Miss Lillian's busy saying, "Well, now you know how Teddy felt."And then the other one was that Talmadge... you know, the...? And overcoat with all his money? And the other one had Talmadge rustling through his overcoat for another 25,000 votes, but he couldn't find them. Which I thought was just a hoot anyway. But I think they're damn lucky to be got rid of him because this will be it for him. They said to him... they make mad statements here. One statement that annoyed me was that it was humiliating for Carter to be beaten by so much. But I don't sort of see it as a humiliation. I mean, I know it must hurt, but that's politics. You know, they accept that. I sort of feel like, quite honestly, I don't think anyone should be president for eight years unless they're hell of a good... they'd have to be real good. 'Cause this is too big a country, and there's got too many problems for anyone to be worried about it for eight years. That just drains them of any damned energy they may have had when they went in there. The other thing is that Talmadge has been in a hell of a long time. But, you know, I don't see it as a humiliation for Carter. I think that, you know, it must hurt, but I don't think it's humiliating. People have changed their minds; they want change. And boy, they showed him in uncertain terms. That's democracy, you know. And the guy has... I know he can be hurt inside. He's gone away to hide in Camp David. But there's the way it goes, kind of thing. I don't see it... the word humiliation. I don't think that, you know, the news media... And then the Talmadge thing was... the thing I heard the next day was, you know, that he was desperate because his career had been shot or something. Shoot! The guy's bloody near... or whatever. Been in politics all his life, made a fortune, got plenty. You know? Can he just retire? I mean, does he have to have a career at his age? It's not like he needs the money or anything. You know, they really make some downfall statements anyway. So Talmadge looks like he's out, and I think it's the best thing. But, of course, the Elsens are Talmadge people, so I don't know how they'll feel about it all. But anyway. So it means that the... the one thing, as I see it, is that the Republicans have got in with such incredible strength in the Senate and the House, everything, that if they can't do something, well, they better be asking for some answers from... the public are going to be asking for answers because they've got the strongest hand that anybody's had in a long time. And, you know, they should be able to do what they said they'll do. And so it's been interesting, and it certainly been fun to go through an American election. And when one thinks about how many people in this country and how few people had to die through an election, when you read about Jamaica and they were losing people at 100 a week, just something being murdered. And there's only 1 million people in the country, and 100 a week were being bumped off over the election. Really, I guess our election was quite civilised.

But anyway, what else did I need to tell you about? Well... getting back to the scrapbook because... said really, it was just a delight. And Dorothy had put on a nice note. And then she had obviously persuaded brother David between... it must have been halftime, I believe, in the third replay of the Auckland-Otago Shield match. She must have been able to catch his attention for just a moment and given him a sheet of paper and pen, I think. Man, he had written some... some very choice words, which just sent me into hysterics. He says that he, you know, if he should want the Go Kiwi, that he might have enough money to come and visit now. If I would like him to come and visit, could I please send the money for the raffle tickets? I mean, that just... it's just so David! On the third action replay, he was, you know, he really had to go because he might miss something. I just thought that's just typical. And I…