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.
Embarrassing Phone Conversation - Thursday, August 1, 1963
I don't think I'll ever live down what I did this afternoon. I was told some visitors had called on Father Lew, the Catholic priest. I called his number and when a woman answered, I asked, "Is this Mrs. Lew?" And as if that wasn't enough, when she said, "This is the housekeeper," I asked, "Is Mrs. Lew there?" I felt very dumb as it dawned on me that Catholic priests don't get married just as she said, "There is no Mrs. Lew." Mom had missionary meeting here this afternoon. I think they finally might be about ready to run my newsprint story.
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4 comments:
Love it, Barb. We all have stories like that. I just can't remember mine right now or I would be happy to share!
What is interesting is that I had remembered it as having gone ahead and written a local news item saying Father and Mrs. T.J. Lew had company over the weekend and Mr. Morris running back to stop the press when he saw it in one of the first few copies of the Journal. He always went back to get a copy for final proofreading. But as it was, when I called to get the names of the visitors, the housekeeper set me straight: "There is no Mrs. Lew." Now that I think again about it, I can still see Mr. Morris cringing as he overheard my end of our conversation and, when I hung up, saying, "Catholic priests don't get married, do they?"
Great story!
Moral of the story: there is no Mrs. Lew.
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