And with that August 9, 1965 entry I stopped writing on a nightly basis in one-year diaries. Cold turkey. No word of warning. No explanation. I had told my then current "boy" friend Tex, or Ed or Edward that I felt as if knowing I was going to be writing a nightly account of my day and evening was causing me to conform my life to "things" that I could write about that night.
Tex said, "If you don't like doing it, then stop."
Another factor was the approaching time when I would be grading papers and making lesson plans for the third grade class I would begin teaching in September. I knew I would be tired from the daily routine of teaching responsibilities, and wanted to put my best efforts into my teaching preparations after my days at Oakwood Manor Elementary School in the North Kansas City School District.
[I've always been puzzled by the name the district adopted for itself. In the 1960s it was, and still is, a large district geographically, stretching far beyond the smaller municipality of North Kansas City in Clay County Missouri.]
I wanted the freedom to finish my grading and planning and go to bed - with the aim of getting a good night's sleep without taking the time to first write in a diary.
About the diary writer
- Barbara McDowell Whitt
- Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
- ~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.
We went Shopping in Downtown Cedar Rapids - Monday, August 9, 1965
We spent the day shopping in Cedar Rapids as Mom, Phyllis, Virginia and Ann have been doing once each summer for three years now. I was working before, so this was the first time I've ever been downtown in Cedar Rapids. At a wholesale store I bought a Kodak Instamatic camera from which I should get good use, and a Madras blouse. I got a black clutch purse and a cute red raincoat in Armstrong's. A "family shoe store" gave me a special price on a pair of low heeled red patent pumps and black stacked heels.
Read in Book, The Elementary Teacher in Action - Sunday, August 8, 1965
We went out to Grandma's tonight for more horseback riding and visiting. It has gotten quite cool. In fact, Grandpa has their furnace going. This afternoon I read more of The Elementary Teacher in Action that Mr. Fuller gave me to read this summer. It has a lot of good ideas covering most areas connected with teaching. I've decided it might be fun to arrange for pen-pal correspondence with some other third grade class. Goodness, a month from now I'll be teaching - school starts September 7th! The girls and Leets went to Kalona to play tennis this afternoon.
Finished Empire Style Dress with Long Darts - Saturday, August 7, 1965
I finished my dress today. It should be a good one to have - dressy and in the empire line style with long darts the entire length of the front. Luckily (I'd forgotten to plan for it) the print matches exactly at the seams. Last night Virginia and I lay out in the yard covered up with blankets on the picnic benches from 11:30 to 1:00 looking for UFOs. About 12:30 we saw something move across the sky that caused us to call the rest of the family's attention to it. It was bright yellow and faded at one point to dim white. It seemed to be too low, a little large, and moving too fast to be a satellite. Who knows!
Brad is Very Interested in a Quill and Scroll Article - Friday, August 6, 1965
Edward called me this evening as he said he would in the letter I got yesterday. It was a good chance for me to tell him it would be better if he didn't come to Kansas City when I'm busy getting ready for school and going to teachers meetings. Brad was here from 8:00 till 10:30 to discuss the Quill and Scroll article. He is very interested in it and has me all the more enthused. This just has to be good, for all the interest that has been created. I worked some more on my dress - decided to make it sleeveless.
"UFOs" are Seen by Daddy, Phyllis, Ann and Others - Thursday, August 5, 1965
We had a family supper down at Parcells tonight. This afternoon after Rosemary got home from her work at the Journal office I went to talk with her about my journalism article. The big excitement of the week has been UFOs. Some were seen over Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico last weekend, Tuesday night at Sioux City, and now last night police officers in Washington, Iowa City, Grinnell, Oskaloosa and Centerville all "confirmed" an "object" moving east to west. People are finally beginning to realize the possibility of "space" visitors. And Daddy, Phyllis and Ann saw something while horseback riding Tuesday. It "matched" an artist's conception in the paper of one seen in Oklahoma!
Cut out Dress, Sewed while Virginia was Swimming - Wednesday, August 4, 1965
Lorahs came for supper tonight. Bob got to Grandma's from Ohio last night. Schwartzes left this morning to go to DeKalb, Illinois where George thought he might be able to look up some people. I cut out my paisley print dress this afternoon. I thought I should grab the sewing machine while Virginia was swimming. She thinks she will be sewing quite a bit in the next three weeks. Our summer is suddenly to the place where it is about to get away from us - I don't see how it went so fast!
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