22 March 2010

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.

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

What's this all about? This is what it's all about.

To view the next day click: March 23, 1978

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