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.
Perceptions of Lives in Northeast Kansas City - Saturday, March 9, 1963
My work was with Enid from National College and Loren from MU. Our job was varnishing the woodwork of a 4th floor apartment living room on East 11th Street. All of the other groups had painting jobs. Mrs. Williams was a Negro woman with five children. She evidently took a little more pride in keeping her apartment looking nice (though the living room was junky) than some of the other occupants. The old wooden stairway, dirt, and writing on the walls looked pretty wretched. We discussed the day's work tonight and all decided that just being with these people did as much good as the physical work. Tonight we all walked down to the Helping Hand, an organization that gives tramps and alcoholics board and room for small fees for three nights, the Italian center of KC, Mafia, and welfare stores.
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7 comments:
Sounds like a neat and valuable experience!
Suzanne, it was. The location must have been close to where your school is.
I was thinking that when I read what you wrote about the Italian district.
Hey you two. Loving this connection: generational, time, place, family.
Suzanne, I did some searches for Northside Presbyterian Chapel and Church and didn't come up with connections. But we were "there" 50 years ago.
Ron, thank you as always for your keen insight.
Today, April 22, 2023 ~ Earth Day ~ I was reading in Freeing Jesus by Diana Butler Bass, chapter 4, Lord, p. 146 where she was cleaning the kitchen of a wheelchair-bound man in the Netherlands. It reminded me of the weekend work camp that I went to in March 1963 when I was a sophomore at Park College (Park University since 2000) in Parkville (suburban Kansas City) MO. I wrote nightly entries as a student there in the 1960s. In January 2010 in a blog named A 1961-65 Park College Diary I began transcribing the entries and gave each one a title at that time. This entry is followed by comments from a daughter of mine and a former brother-in-law.
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