About the diary writer

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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.

Finished Empire Style Dress with Long Darts - Saturday, August 7, 1965

I finished my dress today. It should be a good one to have - dressy and in the empire line style with long darts the entire length of the front. Luckily (I'd forgotten to plan for it) the print matches exactly at the seams. Last night Virginia and I lay out in the yard covered up with blankets on the picnic benches from 11:30 to 1:00 looking for UFOs. About 12:30 we saw something move across the sky that caused us to  call the rest of the family's attention to it. It was bright yellow and faded at one point to dim white. It seemed to be too low, a little large, and moving too fast to be a satellite. Who knows!

Brad is Very Interested in a Quill and Scroll Article - Friday, August 6, 1965

Edward called me this evening as he said he would in the letter I got yesterday. It was a good chance for me to tell him it would be better if he didn't come to Kansas City when I'm busy getting ready for school and going to teachers meetings. Brad was here from 8:00 till 10:30 to discuss the Quill and Scroll article. He is very interested in it and has me all the more enthused. This just has to be good, for all the interest that has been created. I worked some more on my dress - decided to make it sleeveless.

"UFOs" are Seen by Daddy, Phyllis, Ann and Others - Thursday, August 5, 1965

We had a family supper down at Parcells tonight. This afternoon after Rosemary got home from her work at the Journal office I went to talk with her about my journalism article. The big excitement of the week has been UFOs. Some were seen over Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico last weekend, Tuesday night at Sioux City, and now last night police officers in Washington, Iowa City, Grinnell, Oskaloosa and Centerville all "confirmed" an "object" moving east to west. People are finally beginning to realize the possibility of "space" visitors. And Daddy, Phyllis and Ann saw something while horseback riding Tuesday. It "matched" an artist's conception in the paper of one seen in Oklahoma!  

Cut out Dress, Sewed while Virginia was Swimming - Wednesday, August 4, 1965

Lorahs came for supper tonight. Bob got to Grandma's from Ohio last night. Schwartzes left this morning to go to DeKalb, Illinois where George thought he might be able to look up some people. I cut out my paisley print dress this afternoon. I thought I should grab the sewing machine while Virginia was swimming. She thinks she will be sewing quite a bit in the next three weeks. Our summer is suddenly to the place where it is about to get away from us - I don't see how it went so fast!

Mom was in Charge of Ceramics Exhibit at the Fair - Tuesday, August 3, 1965

This afternoon we all went in to the fair for a while. Mom was in charge of the ceramics exhibit all afternoon. Some of the ladies have some nice things - most of the interest in it seems to be in the West Chester area. Mom's set of eight small Christmas angels that she made for me in a brown stain (they look like hand-carved wood) is there. Phyllis and I looked around the rest of the fair, watched part of the lamb judging contest, and came home with George and the kids at 3:15. Everybody went out to Grandma's so they could ride horses.

Went to See the Miss Washington County Contest - Monday, August 2, 1965

We girls and Peg, along with Betty, Linda and Shirley went in to see the Miss Washington County contest tonight. Mary Butler was first runner-up. We're sorry she didn't win. It's kind of too bad, but not very many people seemed to care for the choice of winner, Janet Osincup. A lady behind us said "Something's got to be wrong." That struck me as funny. I went on the octopus with Peggy and Linda. It was a rough ride that caused me to say six bad words, "x x x" and "- - -!" I read this afternoon while the others went to the swimming pool.

We went Fishing in Cuddebacks' Second Farm Pond - Sunday, August 1, 1965

We went down to Cuddebacks' second  farm this evening to go fishing. I baited dozens of hooks with our liver bait for Ann and Peggy but didn't fish much myself. Except for a nice size one Daddy caught, most of them weren't very big at all. This afternoon I read the Sunday paper and played Snatch. I seem to be in a semi-depressed mood. When I write to Tex I guess I'll tell him I'll be very busy with meetings and getting ready to teach. I just don't think I'll have a lot of time to see him if he comes to Kansas City the last of August.