First Forty

Venture out and wind up at Harvelle’s; J.J. “Bad Boy” Jones keeping the dance floor packed; meet Susan and get her number(!); slip into The King’s Head and tuck into a corner; marvel at the quality of dart play.

Borrow Grant’s library card to check out “Men of Mathematics”; we go to Rose Records; buy Kraftwerk’s “Tour de France” and some Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66; drive to Elmwood Park to look at a ‘67 Thunderbird; talk with Jenny Greco on the phone for about an hour; feeling in better spirits.

Tommarow [sic] we leave for Disney. I finished most of my homework.

Muria on Yumi’s back about raw chicken in the kitchen; it’s “poison”; Yumi furious; take her out of the house to calm down; eat at Planet Fresh instead; spend some time in my office; Shinya almost reveals the surprise that Yuka is coming.

Meggin’s computer crashing; Mom suggests I spend more time with Dad; idea to go canoeing; Todd inducted into Mascoutin Society; run to end of wharf; Casey nearly drinks himself into hospital; he won’t deal with Maureen; laugh over Navy days.

Joe wants me to come see his place / garage in the Palisades; he’s renting from an Italian woman with two beautiful daughters; one owns a bar in Santa Monica; Joe and I drop by one day for a couple of Rattlesnakes.

Mme. Bolvery visits our French class; announces trip to Montreal and Quebec; work is slow, dull.

Our family is so exsited [sic] about our trip. We finally started spelling and I don’t have much time to study the words.

Casey fighting with her housemate; Lisa thinking about moving back to Santa Cruz; she’s overcome with sadness one night; start of Japanese 2 at Cabrillo; meet up with Ted and Don; no teacher; see Kris Akao; Yumi stops by; ride home along the yacht harbor.

Ran, read, de-rusted crash bars — cheap s@#$; The Symposium and Bukowski’s poetry; Plouffis now sleeping in laundry room; oil leak on the Property; Union Oil being very accommodating.

Meet Suzy at Carlton; she invites me to warehouse party; abandoned landscape of downtown L.A. after dark; party is a wash; cops pull me over; segregation of neighborhoods is striking; Hancock Park an oasis, built on denial.

Lecture on the Golden Section; decide I want to see Beth; drive over; she invites me in with a smile; sit on the sofa with nothing to say — nothing changes; agree to do something sometime; really nice to see her again.

Today we beat Red Squad in floor hockey.

Rainy day; Muria has the car so we take the bus up to campus for brunch; talk to Faiza about her plans to go study in Egypt; play ping-pong for two hours; argue a bit at home, though we pull ourselves together before going to bed.

Nice to get smiling faces on campus; Meggin calls but neither of us feel like talking; see Jude Narita; 80s’ dance at Oakes; drive home in a wonderful fog; letter from Jost.

Discover Scooterville; buy 1980 Vespa P200E; so excited to pick it up I put a ding in the Valiant while backing out; ride around the block with Claire and Jean; don’t know when I’ve felt this excited; longer journeys of exploration at night.

‘69 Cubs lose to the ‘69 Mets; Todd and I help Grandma and Grandpa take down at Hawthorne; they set a new record; storm brings traffic to a crawl; freestyle driving in the snow.

We went to school and we had only half day. We played the other half.

Breakfast with Ted at Zachary’s; feeling like a third wheel; convince Ted to take Yumi with him up to San Francisco; scan pictures at Baytree; the Lizards and Foremen at Kuumbwa; the Foremen’s last show there; Hiroe helps me at the counter.

Begin reading “The Symposium”; Native American class thought provoking; go see “The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa”; hearing music that reminds me of Todd; Meggin leaves message, she’s depressed; “Indian Hobbyism”… so that’s what it is.