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.
Met New Manager of Dime Stoore - Thursday, July 11, 1963
We had the club ice cream supper tonight. Connie Bombei, Phyllis and I (along with various others) played badminton and looked at my scrapbook, photograph album and yearbook from Park. I finally saw David Vanderbilt and got a chance to ask him about his trip to the Grand Prix auto races in Garnett, Kansas last weekend. He was at some plays at KU, the Liberty Memorial, and the Country Club Plaza. He's the new dime store manager - real nice - used to work at the store in Kansas City, Kansas. I didn't have much luck getting local news items today. I've got a new feature promised - a glass blower.
Took Nancy and Sherion to Dog 'N Suds - Wednesday, July 10, 1963
It seemed like July 10 has some significance. What happened on July 10? I had gone to the State Café for lunch today but it was too crowded, and then Nancy and Sherion were coming along, so I took them out to the new Dog 'N Suds stand to eat. This was the day to stuff Journal inserts again. I had a lot of local news items for a Wednesday it seemed like - they always manage to come from somewhere. This turned out to be one of my busiest mornings, though it began on the slow side, sort of, anyway.
Record Number of Local News Items - Tuesday, July 9, 1963
I had a record number of locals today - 31. A year ago today - I was looking at last summer's Journals last week - Barbara Glassburner had 28. Stewarts left this morning at 7:00. I mowed the last of the grass this evening after the kids had done most of it. I've been looking at the Narva. Wish we had this year's. To look through a yearbook carefully a while later brings back such nice memories.
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Sparked Interest in Park - Monday, July 8, 1963
Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Stewart of Texico, Illinois are staying here tonight. They're on their way home from visiting in South Dakota and Nebraska. Prof Stewart was one of Daddy's college professors and they're the ones who got me interested in Park. Virginia had to go babysit at Joyce's tonight. This was a good day for local news items - I spent most of the morning writing them, and got quite a lot for tomorrow's Journal. I wonder what a lady thought when she saw her "wedding write-up" [wedding was on June 27 in Sigourney, 30 miles northwest of Washington] that we made into a local news item.
Finished Cruets Story For Journal - Sunday, July 7, 1963
I wrote letters to Nancy Ayres and Nancy Avard - to ask her what became of the LLC colored pictures of the float I had her get reprints of for me. Then I finished the story on cruets - hope Charles likes it alright. I wasn't particularly fond of the last one after I had written it for some reason, but quite a few people said they liked it. Now I hope either Bob or I can get a picture to go along with it. I had a more interesting Sunday School lesson this morning than some of those we've been having when the material was so boring. These lesson plans aren't much better though.
Ann is Home From Camp - Saturday, July 6, 1963
Mom, Daddy and Phyllis went up to get Ann at Camp. Virginia stayed here to babysit this afternoon at Joyce's. I almost could have gone along, as I really didn't do anything after 10:00 anyway. I wrote as much as I could of the cruets feature article without my notes. This afternoon I sewed my orange dress. I finished it all except for the hem, but since it's pretty short I'm going to sew on a facing for the hem.
Interviewed Mrs. Bauer About Cruets - Friday, July 5, 1963
This evening I called Mrs. Roy Bauer, our neighbor, to ask her when I could interview her about her vinegar cruets and she had me go over tonight. She has 193, collected since 1954. Until this summer when one of the clerks in town introduced us, I hadn't even known Mrs. Roy Bauer to see her! And we were even neighbors by then. Mr. Bauer has caned 63 chairs - the one I caned took long enough! It was a profitable hour spent. I also made up for my leaving work about 3:30. There just wasn't any more to do though. Well, we and Washington have finally gotten our rain - even if it did rain on the 4th.
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