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.
2 comments:
Barb; Thanks for sharing your diary. I have enjoyed reading your blog each morning and remembering Park College. We started teaching in the Fall of 1965 in the public schools of Bloomfield, NM. The school district was 20 miles wide and 50 miles long straddling the Continental Divide. I would enjoy trading stories of those first few years. Clifford Porter
Clifford Porter! Thank you so much. It has been great knowing you and Betsy have been among the biggest fans of A 1961-65 Park College Diary.
Last evening as my husband and our younger of two daughters (no sons) drove down Ward Parkway I said to them, "I have an announcement to make."
"What is it?"
"Well, a short while ago I decided that for the first time in almost 2000 days and nights I would not write a post on my blog. Almost no other bloggers post every day."
"Well good!" she said.
"Free at last!" he said.
As stated in the preview at the top of my blog, I will begin promoting the 50th year reunion for the Park Class of 1965 reunion. I'm also helping promote it on Facebook.
Will you and Betsy be able to come to Alumni Weekend 2015 September 18 and 19?
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