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.
Glenn Miller Orchestra is in Kansas City - Thursday, December 7, 1961
Tonight was the Snowflake Sonata Christmas dance with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Kansas City. I guess only about 80 couples finally went. Some of the boys who didn't go to the dance came over and we had a ball stringing and eating popcorn, trimming the tree, singing Christmas carols, and then Bob Young and Bob Grinnell started doing actions to The Nutcracker Suite. Gee, I think I did fine on my art test. I didn't do so well on our last bio test - darn! I showed Dr. Hamilton the earth's-history-condensed-into-one-year timeline that I brought to Park. Approximately today on the timeline calendar mammals would have appeared. He had used the same thing on a 24-hour scale.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
This old fashioned Christmas scene really got me in the spirit! Love it.
And I love the way my tucked away memories keep coming back. I have been surprised to know that some of my favorite memories of Park are of events and incidents that happened during my first semester there.
That has to be one of the pleasures of having a diary. Memories are often vague when it comes to when and the exact time. How lucky for you!
Yes, I am glad I kept my diaries. I am thoroughly enjoying re-reading and recording the entries in my blog as I first wrote them 50 years ago.
Post a Comment