Diaries 1969
1969, 13 years old
I was in the church choir.
Two friends of mine and myself put on a program at the nursing home affiliated with our church.
A young man (in his 20s) was interested in me romantically. I hated him, probably because I never seemed to get relief from him. My mom frequently invited him into our home. One time she allowed him into my bedroom while I was sleeping so he could kiss me. I was not a happy girl about this. The man phoned me up a few years ago and actually apologized to me for his behaviour back then and asked my forgiveness.
I liked reading Nancy Drew. My teacher (a really strange fellow with strange ideas) was very much against books like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and told my class, in all seriousness, that if we continued reading such books we'd develop holes in our heads.
In March our school janitor retired. We had a rather progressive principal who was very student centred who decided that rather than hiring someone new, he would divide up the job and hire students to take various parts of the job. I was one of the lucky ones (so I thought) and became janitor of the girl's washroom and the kitchen. $14 a month seemed like big money back then.
I played Moonlight Sonata on the piano, by memory, for Talent Night. I loved playing that piece! I still love hearing it.
In April a group of us from school/church went to a youth conference in the next province over. I gave the opening prayer Saturday morning. I remember loving this trip. The older students had come along (I'm not sure how a young one like me got to go but I did!) and what fun I had as we all camped out on the floor in some school, talking and singing the night away! We went to sleep at 6 a.m. and had to be up by 7:30 to drive home. I didn't care.
Our principal developed anti-smoking teams. We had a case of flasks that showed the various poisons in cigarettes (arsenic and cyanide are two I remember) and a mannequin who could really smoke. Inside him were two glass jars filled with fibreglass, meant to represent lungs. We would make the mannequin smoke a cigarette and then show how black the lungs were after only so many cigarettes. It was a convincing show. We travelled around to various schools, and even did a presentation to the Women's Temperance Society with several hundred in the audience. Scary stuff!
My first summer job--babysitting the daughter of my mom's friend while the mom was at work all day. I don't think I enjoyed it but I sure got a lot of reading done! Reading was my passion and I read on the long bus trip to and from my job as well. If I recall, I had to get up and a most ungodly hour, especially considering it was summer vacation, in order to get there on time.
I was in the church choir.
Two friends of mine and myself put on a program at the nursing home affiliated with our church.
A young man (in his 20s) was interested in me romantically. I hated him, probably because I never seemed to get relief from him. My mom frequently invited him into our home. One time she allowed him into my bedroom while I was sleeping so he could kiss me. I was not a happy girl about this. The man phoned me up a few years ago and actually apologized to me for his behaviour back then and asked my forgiveness.
I liked reading Nancy Drew. My teacher (a really strange fellow with strange ideas) was very much against books like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and told my class, in all seriousness, that if we continued reading such books we'd develop holes in our heads.
In March our school janitor retired. We had a rather progressive principal who was very student centred who decided that rather than hiring someone new, he would divide up the job and hire students to take various parts of the job. I was one of the lucky ones (so I thought) and became janitor of the girl's washroom and the kitchen. $14 a month seemed like big money back then.
I played Moonlight Sonata on the piano, by memory, for Talent Night. I loved playing that piece! I still love hearing it.
In April a group of us from school/church went to a youth conference in the next province over. I gave the opening prayer Saturday morning. I remember loving this trip. The older students had come along (I'm not sure how a young one like me got to go but I did!) and what fun I had as we all camped out on the floor in some school, talking and singing the night away! We went to sleep at 6 a.m. and had to be up by 7:30 to drive home. I didn't care.
Our principal developed anti-smoking teams. We had a case of flasks that showed the various poisons in cigarettes (arsenic and cyanide are two I remember) and a mannequin who could really smoke. Inside him were two glass jars filled with fibreglass, meant to represent lungs. We would make the mannequin smoke a cigarette and then show how black the lungs were after only so many cigarettes. It was a convincing show. We travelled around to various schools, and even did a presentation to the Women's Temperance Society with several hundred in the audience. Scary stuff!
My first summer job--babysitting the daughter of my mom's friend while the mom was at work all day. I don't think I enjoyed it but I sure got a lot of reading done! Reading was my passion and I read on the long bus trip to and from my job as well. If I recall, I had to get up and a most ungodly hour, especially considering it was summer vacation, in order to get there on time.
posted by Magdaleine at 1:08 AM
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