Yes, it was that much time ago. Here's the one-page diary entry I wrote on Sunday, April 25, 1965:
"I received my B.A. degree from Park College today. It was really a nice commencement. Dr. Edler G. Hawkins, the Moderator of the United Presbyterian Church General Assembly, was the speaker. He was also given an honorary degree. After baccalaureate (also nice) we went to the president's luncheon in Commons. It was a quite cold and cloudy day (but it didn't rain - just during the night a little). Mom should have gotten some good pictures anyway. I bought my "canary and wine" hood that each of us got along with our diploma. I finished packing after Mom and Dad, Virginia and Ann left, and I drove to Tarkio (where my other younger sister, Phyllis, was finishing her sophomore year at Tarkio College in northwest Missouri). I was able to meet the bus and surprise Phyl when their choir tour bus got back."
And here's how I titled that now slightly edited diary entry when I transcribed it fifty years to the day later on Sunday, April 25, 2015:
Received B.A. in Elementary Education from Park College - Sunday, April 25, 1965
On April 18, 2018, I was scrolling in my Home site on Twitter when I saw a notice about #DCAuthorFest to be held in the Madison building of the Library of Congress on Saturday, April 21.
It was co-sponsored by the District of Columbia Public Library. My husband went, too. He divided his time between two sessions each hour. I took notes during one-hour presentations. I listened to established authors tell about the following topics: The Author-Publisher Relationship; Query Letter Workshop; The Twitter Pitch for Authors; and Writing About Place.
In Writing About Place Elizabeth Flock told about writing her just released non-fiction book, The Heart is a Shifting Sea - Love and Marriage in Mumbai. It's a page-turner about the nearly ten years she spent in three homes observing the marriages within them in a changing Mumbai and India. At 22 Elizabeth had moved from Chicago to Mumbai in search of adventure and a job which she found at Forbes India magazine. Living with the couples was not a part of her job. Since then she has returned to the United States and reports on-air and online for the PBS Newshour while living in Washington, DC.
"A listing of your memories is not a memoir."
Elizabeth said that, and she is right.
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.
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