Nothing Much Else Happened: March 31, 1978

Today we had another test in Math. This one was on what we were studying for the last 3 weeks. I think I did pretty well on this quiz. My average is only a D, and mother says that if I don't "clean up my act" and bring my average up to a B, then I'll have to go to Summer School instead of taking a trip to New York and the East Coast. After school, I went to a baseball game. It was just as I said. We lost because we didn't practice. In fact, we lost to the worst team, the Dodgers, 12-3!

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 30, 1978

"Today, the P.O.S. (Prisoner of School) will go back to his imprisonment. But Today, in the torture chamber, they are going to give him a blood test (algebra prognosis test)." The test was pretty simple, or that's what it seemed like. I'll find out my results next week. We've got a problem on the ball team. The Red Sox haven't had a practice since last Saturday, and I'm afraid we can't win unless we can practice once in awhile. And it also would help if we could get the whole team for just one game.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 29, 1978

"Today, the poor inmate must go back to prison for another 6¾ years (hours). He has another "hard" day in the torture chamber (Math class). He goes for daily exercises in the prison. (P.E.) He finally gets time-off for good behavior." When I got home, I found that the records I sent for. Only Carole's Donny & Marie record came. But I'm going to have to wait for mine because Columbia Records said it was out of stock.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 28, 1978

"Today was another day in the life of Mark Bailey: He goes to prison (school), gets time off (after school hours), so he has some fun. He goes out and bowls. After all, Tuesday is the only free day he has, because he has to do all those other dull things, such as guitar, baseball, oboe. He bowls a 133 and a 135, and some skimpy other scores. He goes back to his hotel (home), has dinner at the restraunt (dining room), and afterwards, goes to work on his taxes (homework). He finally decides it's time to hit the hay!" Goodnight!

***

You can really sense that I was getting burned out on the diary at this point and was looking for new ways to tell the same story over and over again. This new approach to the writing lasted only a few days before I abandoned it.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 27, 1978

Today: Can you believe it? It's already Monday! School is starting again! Boo-hoo. In math, we reviewed the things that we were studying before. So, I got it all pretty good. Mr. Farnsworth is giving us all these formulas to work on. He says we will of had to memorize almost 100 formulas by June. I already am trying to memorize 8 formulas so, we are just starting to work and its already the 27th week! (13 weeks to go: hurrah) I've taken a new attitude towards math, and now I like it alot more than I did last semester.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 26, 1978

Today I went to Sunday School. Afterwards, we went to a party in Granada Hills where my cousins, Mary Carol and Elizabeth Albright (Grandma Albright's grandchildren), live. They have a pool in the back of their house, but it was to cold to swim. It was a great Easter party and the food was excellent. Then, we went to my niece's and her mother's (my ½ sister's) house. (Huh?) Tina and I watched "Wizard of Oz" for my 5th time. Then, I came home!

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 25, 1978

Today I went back to my normal routine in Pacific Palisades. I went to bowling an hour early because they said it was going to be an Easter Egg hunt. But, nobody showed up, so they decided to do it after bowling. I bowled a 133, a 96, and an 86. Then I found 7 eggs at the hunt afterwards. I said "Bay Shore Bowl, and I got a 3 free games. Then in the afternoon, we played another baseball game. It was a close one, but we lost 7-6. I pitched 2 good innings, allowing 1 hit and 2 walks. The team we played (the Indians) didn't get any runs off of me.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 24, 1978

Today is our last day in San Francisco. We ate breakfast at the Hilton Hotel Cafe. Boy, was it good! Then, we came back to the hotel Mark Twain and checked all our baggage out. Then we went down to Ghirardelli Square. There was a mimist and she called me up and I rode a pantomime horse with her. I got a lot of applause and mom said it was real good. Nothing else happened until it was time to go to the plane. It was only 12 minutes late this time, and we got home around 10:30 that night.

***

One other majorly traumatic event happened at some point on this trip that I didn't document — and it's because my parents managed to keep it from me. Apparently on one night, upon our return to the hotel, we came across the aftermath of a gangland-style shooting in front of the Hotel Mark Twain. Mom and Dad deftly steered me around this without letting on what was happening.

Many aspects of this trip felt like a family of country bumpkins experiencing the "big city" for the first time. (Pacific Palisades hardly felt big-city to me, and before that I'd lived for five years in the quiet mountain town of Idyllwild.)

If you've been following this since the beginning of the year, it should come as a surprise to no one that I was a huge fan of mime. Sometime around this age, I actually worked for a short time with a mime troupe, performing at venues around the USC campus. It's hard for me to come up with more ways to exploit my full-frontal geekery in front of everyone who knows me, but I'm sure the future pages of this diary will do its best.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 23, 1978

Today, we went on a boat cruise for an 1¼. It was a very exciting trip because we sailed under the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay Bridges. We got alot of pictures taken. For lunch we went to a place called Lehr's greenhouse & pottery shed. I had one of the best hamburgers I ever had. Then dad went back to the hotel, and mom and I went on an underground-subway thing-a-ma-jig called BART. Mom said it was a very smooth ride compared to the Subways in New York.

***

BART was brand new at the time ... and having a lot of major problems. Our experience, however, was positive.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 22, 1978

Today was a wild and wooly day! In the morning, we went on a 3½ hour tour of San Francisco and across the Golden Gate bridge it was very exciting and our driver was a laugh a minute. After the tour (which ended at 1:15), we went to lunch at Tadich's Grill. Then we went home (to the hotel) and I slept til 6:00. We got up and took a cable car to Chinatown. But we stopped in the middle of the street because a man had jumped on the car without giving a fare, and the driver called the police. They finally got it straightened out, and that night, I ate the best Chinese food I ever tasted at the Empress of China.

***

There is something I didn't reveal in this entry that happened -- something that had a pretty major impact on me. When I woke up from the nap at 6:00, I (or my parents) turned on the television to catch some news. One of the top stories that evening was the story—and disturbing videotape—of the death of highwire walker Karl Wallenda, the patriarch of the famous circus family The Flying Wallendas. Karl was attempting a highwire walk in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in high winds when he fell from the wire. The video was, of course, played over and over again, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. At the time, it was my most direct experience with death, and it surrounded me like a fog for the next few days. True to the style of this diary, I didn't really address my emotions that day. I'm sure I was still processing it.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 21, 1978

★ Highlight Day

Today was the big day! We flew to San Francisco at 9:00 AM. But, the airplane was 52 minutes late. We are staying at the Hotel Mark Twain and enjoying it very much. After we got ourselves unpacked, we walked around the city for awhile. After that, we took a cable car out to Fisherman's Wharf, and I went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, The cannery, (an old chocolate factory changed to shopping center), and we ate at Fisherman's grotto No. 9. After dinner we went to a pinball place. Then we took a trolley car back to the hotel. When I climbed into bed at 10:15 that night, I fell asleep in 3 minutes!!!

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 20, 1978

Today was the first day of Easter Vacation. I and the Jones' are getting very excited about the trip tomorrow (they are on the same airplane). This morning, I went to my oboe lesson. I was not progressing as fast as I would like to. My teacher, Lon Bussell, is a lot harder than I thought he was. But I want to work on it hard because my band teacher, Mr. Rupp, wants me to be the next oboe player in Intermediate Orchestra.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 19, 1978

Today is Palm Sunday. So dad got all dressed up in a maroon colored bow tie and a bright yellow jacket. I didn't think it matched but he said it was fine for Church. After church, we went to my guitar lesson. (We had to do it today because there was no other time to do it. I got the greatest new song written by James Taylor. It's called "Secret O' Life." My mother fell in love with it the first time I played it for her along with the record.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 18, 1978

Today, I finally came out of my slump in bowling. I bowled a 156, a 134 and a 141. My average was 144! That brought up my overall average to 106, and my Junior League average up to 115. I had a new high series of 431 pins. Afterwards, I went to another one of the Red Sox practice games. We weren't so lucky this time. We played a better team called the Orioles, and they won the World Series last year in the majors. (We won ours in the Intermediate league.) They beat us 14 to 5. Pitiful, huh? and believe it or not we did win the World Series last year.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 17, 1978

Today is the last day before Easter vacation! Hooray! Yahoo! Let's skip school and get right to the best part of the day. Our first practice baseball game of the season! And boy, was it an exciting game. We played an exciting 4 innings of confusion. Since it was our first game, everything was not organized very well, but we pulled it out. I suppose you're waiting for the score? Well, do not get to excited because it was only a skimpy 3-1!

(Hooray for Easter Vacation)

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 16, 1978

Today was one — or should I say another one of those routine school days. Afterwards, a tutor named Rebecca Lippman came to my house to help me. (Mom jumped right onto a tutor as soon as she saw my D in Math.) Rebecca is really neat! She's a whiz in geometry, which is what I need the help in. She explained the formulas for getting the Area and Perimeter of different shaped objects, such as squares and trapezoids. That night, Janna Richert fell into her jet lag. (She's staying with us) But you would to if you had been on an airplane for 33 hours! Countdown: 1 day till E.V.!!!

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 15, 1978

Today, I wouldn't of minded if I could skip it. Unfortuanetly, it was progress report day, and it's the first progress report out of 5 that I had a D (below average), or a U (unsatisfactory). I had a D and a U in Clothing and Stitchery (also known as sewing), and I also had a D in math. All the rest of my classes had lines, meaning I was above average. We didn't have a practice like we were supposed to. It was cancelled. But after dinner, we went to pick up Joe, Jennie Lea, and Janna at the airport because they just came home from Africa. (Remember on February 25th?) Countdown: 2 days till Easter vacation!!!

***

Honestly, I have to say that I'm pretty PROUD of a D in sewing.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 14, 1978

Today, I guess you could call it a "routine" day. The only difference about school between today and yesterday is that we had a band practice. You see I'm in the advanced band at school, and we usually have practices every school day. But yesterday, we sat in the classroom because our band instructor, Mr. Rupp, had to go to an all-day rehearsal for a performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. Tomorrow, again, we won't have a band practice because it'll be progress report day. Countdown: 3 days till Easter Vacation!

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 13, 1978

Today mother came home! Why should I even talk about school! This is such a glorious day! (Yahoo, hurray) When I got home, mother met me with a sly grin. It's so wonderful to see her again! After I got there, we started talking about Easter vacation. Suddenly, mom said, "How about taking a trip to San Francisco?" That sounds super, and dad's gonna try to make travel arrangements! Also, at school, we won't be doing anything for the entire week (almost), because it's the week before Easter vacation. There is a talent show coming up on Friday.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 12, 1978

Today, it was good to think about 2 things. Mother comes home tomorrow is the last week before Easter/Spring vacation, a full week off! After Sunday School, I came home and watched "Superteams." The Dallas Cowboys played the Kansas City Royals in the finals to see who was the strongest. It turned out that each team was equally as strong. In the last event, tug-o-war, they (each team) pulled the rope for 1:15 minutes. It ended to be a draw. Afterwards, I had a baseball practice. Our team is really shaping up, and our first practice game is in 5 days.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 11, 1978

Today, as usual, I got up to get ready to bowl. We had to leave a little earlier because with all the rain we've been having, some of the palisades have been falling onto the Pacific Coast Highway and they close it off completely up north from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. so they can work on it. I've been in sort of a slump while bowling. Today I only had an 87, a 109, and an 85. Not so good, huh? My average is now 104. And only 2 more days left til mother comes home!

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 10, 1978

Today, well, there's only one thing to say about it: TGIF! Grandma left to go back home. That's a good sign to show that mother will be home very soon! (3 days to be exact) So, there is nothing we can do except try to keep the house clean, sit and wait for mother. Oh, I just remembered. We did have dinner at Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches. I had 2 roast beef sandwiches, two potato-cakes, and a chocolate shake. And, only so

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 9, 1978

Today nothing happened at school. But when I got home there was plenty going on! Cooking! When I walked in, Grandma wanted me to "help her" make a meatloaf. Her way of me helping is making me do all the work! After the meatloaf, we (or rather, I) went to work on a pineapple upsidedown cake and a mini-cinnamon cake. After it was done, it looked so beautiful that we took a picture of it and called it my first cake. We had my meatloaf and some mashed potatoes that I made for dinner that night. We also had some undercooked beans, but they didn't taste good because I didn't make them.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 8, 1978

Today, we had our first baseball practice. Wait a minute. Let me tell you what happened in school. We had tryouts for a talent show, and I was helping David Buckband and Jonathan Dixon with an act. I walked up on stage, and I got it in the face with a pie! After school, I did go to baseball practice (with sticky hair!). It looks like we have another winning team this year, even though it gets tougher every year. We will have another practice in 4 days. I counted how many times Grandma griped and it was 19.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 7, 1978

Today, school was as boring as before. But after school, I went Bowling! Dad still isn't able to bowl because of that leg that he hurt in the beginning of January. But I guess he enjoys scoring for me. He says that very soon, he will be able to bowl with me again. Then I'll have my competition! Today I didn't do as good as I usually do. My average for the day was only 105. I had a 99, a 119, an 89, a 115, and a 103. Grandma is always griping at me, so I've started counting how many times she yells at me. Yesterday was 9, and today was 11.

***

There was nothing in this world for which I couldn't find a statistical angle.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 6, 1978

Today is the starting of the 24th school week. It's hard to believe I've come this far. I guess I've been doing pretty [well? good? I left out a word, apparently -mlb] for being in Paul Revere Jr. Hi for my first year. Dad and I have started to play baseball catch because it's getting near baseball season again. I have a baseball practice in 2 days. My team is the Red Sox. I hope it's as good as the team that I played on last year. (The Royals) We have 6 of the same players who were on the royals last year on the Red Sox this year.

***

At this point, my father was almost 74 years old; his days playing catch with me were numbered, as my arm was getting too strong for him.

All punctuation and spelling has been retained precisely as I wrote it 32 years ago at age 12.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 5, 1978

Today, I got up and got ready to go to Sunday school. I'm getting excited about mother finally coming home, because I'm getting tired of Grandma always yelling at me to not yell at dad when usually it's dad who starts the yelling. But when I try to tell Grandma that, she just looks at me straight in the eye and says sarcastically, "Uh-huh." After Sunday School, I came home and watched a program called "Superteams." Bt the exciting thing is that it has stopped raining!!!

***

Oh, how well, I remember Alice Albright's withering stare-downs.

By the way, Alice was not technically my grandmother. My last grandmother died before I turned 1 year old. So around 1970, I "adopted" Alice and her husband Ted Albright" as my grandparents.

All punctuation and spelling has been retained precisely as I wrote it 32 years ago at age 12.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 4, 1978

Today, I got right up and got ready to bowl. After I was ready, we started our way toward the bowling alley. But it wasn't that easy. Some of the roads had been blocked off because of mudslides all over the place. When we finally got there, (and just in time) I bowled 123, 81 and 122. It's not as good as I would of liked to bowl, but it was okay, I guess. That night, in pelting rain, dad and I started out on our way to see a show that my neice, Tina, & my ½sister, Lynn, were in. But we couldn't get there because the freeway was closed.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 3, 1978

Today, dad had to bring me to school again. When school was over, I waited outside for dad to come, and waited, and waited, and waited. He didn't come! We had gotten our plans mixed up. H had thought I was going to take the bus, then he would pick me up at the stop. I had thought he was going to pick me up right at school, and bring me home. He finally came, and just in time to bring me to my guitar lesson. At the lesson, I worked on what songs I am going to do at the recital in two days.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 2, 1978

Today, well, you can guess what the weather is like. They say that since the beginning of the year, we've had 27½ inches of rain. (we used to have a drought in November!) They also say that it's nothing like our average winter. (10.43 inches) Dad, of course, brought me to school and back, so ends another blah day.

***

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Nothing Much Else Happened: March 1, 1978

Today, it was still raining. It's starting to look like the middle of winter, and it is almost spring! It's getting hard to think of things to write, because I don't ever do anything in the rain. Boy, do my teeth hurt! They're really hurting because Dr. Ricketts, my dentist, tightened up the bottom ones, and those are the ones that really hurt! After that, Grandma brought me to school, and after school, dad came to pick me up. I have a feeling he'll be doing that alot in the near future.

***

Hmmmm. A somewhat mysterious final sentence, and I have NO idea what I was referring to.

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Nothing Much Else Happened: February 29, 1978

Sorry, this is not a leap year.

***

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