About the diary writer

My photo
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.

Vice President Nixon's Autograph - Wednesday, May 10, 1961

Mom, Phyllis and I went to town after school. I got a darling lavender dress at Duncan's for class night. Gretchyn Grady was in there. I went to the library to hunt up what issue of Coronet the Hobos' Code was in. Now to find the August '60 Coronet. Guess whose autograph I held this morning! Former Vice President Nixon's! That was thrilling just to look at it. Mrs. Blumenstein heard him speak in Des Moines at a $25.00 a plate dinner and got his autograph.

4 comments:

Marge Mercurio said...

What an insightful thing you did by writing in your journal on a daily basis. It must be so much fun to read in 2011!

Barbara McDowell Whitt said...

Marge, thank you for leaving your comment. I appreciate it. Yes, it is fun to read my entries in 2011. I don't read ahead in my diary, so I can read a new page each day.

Ron said...

Lots here I don't know about: Coronet? Duncans?

Barbara McDowell Whitt said...

Wikipedia says Coronet was published from October 1936 to March 1971. It had articles and features, a condensed book section and poetry. Duncans was a dress shop on the south side of the square in Washington.