OCTOBER
1 October 1971 Friday
Today I slept in until 10. Both Jim Dalton and
Rick Davis were up early doing their homework and then going to classes. It was
quite warm today compared to last week’s weather when it was cool all the time.
80 degrees. I think I’m catching a cold from Jim. I hope not. I didn’t go to my
Reformation class, just because I didn’t feel like it. I went to my Shakespeare
class, and we are already discussing King Richard II. Jim got into my class
which I’m glad about. For dinner tonight the Commons had steak. In the evening
I went to the show and saw “See No evil” and “Mephisto’s Waltz” at the Century
21 theater. They were just all right. After that I went to see Bob Wimberly at
his convenient store job, but he wasn’t there, so I went on back to the dorm at
Othry Hall and went to bed. It doesn’t seem like it should be the first day of
October. I didn’t turn in my cemetery report today nor make an appointment for
my speech and hearing tests.
2 October 1971 Saturday
I got up today at 8 to get ready to go to Garden
Grove to get my eyes examined for some new glasses. Afterwards I came back to
the dorm and ate some lunch in the Commons on campus. After that I decided to
start looking for work again. I went to three theaters before I was hired at
this Taco Bell on Chapman and Harbor in Fullerton. I will start this Monday at
7 at $1.65 an hour. Then if I work out, I’ll get a raise to $1.85 on my next
paycheck. I hope it works out all right. After that I went to Mom and Dad’s to
tell them I got a job. I forgot today was Charline’s baby shower. Jean Horan is
giving it for her. Grandma and Grandpa Williams were down from Yucaipa for it. I
picked up my bike and brought it back to the dorms. In the evening Rick Davis wanted
to go to the show so we went to the South Coast plaza #2 Theater and saw “The
Stewardesses” in 3 D. It was an interesting technique although the plot of the movie
was horrible. I have come down with a first class cold now . I’ve been taking
Dristan but Oh I feel awful. The weather
was hot and smoggy today. 85 degrees.
3 October 1971 Sunday
I felt so miserable this Sunday morning . I
came down with an awful cold. My eyes hurt, my throat and nose sting and I feel so tired. Needless
to say, I didn’t go to church . I’m trying to rest a lot, so I’ll be able to go into work
tomorrow at my new job without too much trouble. I bought three Halloween
cards and mailed them to Pam Husky, Bob Wimberly,
and Karen Gramsted. In the evening Mom called and said Kathy Welte came back
home to Frank and Barb’s . She had
ran away to San Francisco. Mom also said Larry Fagen told her that Jim
Gramsted had quit Leo Waldman’s Taco Bell. I guess the play is over. The
weather today was very hot and dry 85 degrees. I finished reading all f King
Richard II for my Shakespeare class.
KHJ’s top ten are Maggie
May, Uncle Albert, The Free Movement I’ve Found Someone On My Own, Carpenter’s
Superstar, Al Green’s Tired of Being Alone, Donny Osmond’s Go Away Little Girl,
Sweet City Woman, Smiling Faces Sometimes, Steve Wonder’s If You really Love
Me, and So You Know What I mean?” I like
Isaac Hayes Theme From Shaft.
4 October 1971 Monday
I got up at 10 feeling a little bit better but by
not much. It was really hot and dry
today and 90 degrees. I went to my Reformation Class and to my
Shakespeare class. I really enjoy Mrs. Alice Scoufos’ teaching style. Jim Dalton
is in my class so we can study together.
After class I went to the college library and read some more for my
Christianity class then I went and had dinner at the Commons. Afterwards I went
back to my dorm room in Othry Hall and prepared for my first day of work at
this new Taco Bell place off of Chapman and Harbor In Fullerton. I worked form
7 until 1 in the morning and I make $1.65 an hour. Two of the kids I work with are
named Andy and Leroy Schlecht
. Leroy is more or less the night manager
and by coincidence he is also a member of the Church of Christ which is glorious. Work wasn’t too bad,
familiar, and the tie passed quickly. I hope I can learn to like working at Taco
Bell again.
5 October 1971 Tuesday
I got up at 10 today because I had to get petitioned
into a class at 11 which I did. It’s a
religion class on the Hebrew Prophets
taught by Rabbi Morton Fierman. I dropped my education class, so I still have 12 units for my student deferment.
After my Hebrew Prophets class I have Christianity which is extremely enjoyable.
In the late afternoon back in my dorm
room at Othry, I wrote a letter to Grandma Johnson and Ralph Ludders came over
to visit some. I know he misses how close we once were. In the evening I drove
to my Garden Grove Historical Society’s meeting but nothing much was happening there, so I went over to Mom
and Dad’s. There Jerry Smith came over and we rapped a while before I returned
to Fullerton. While I was out, I drove by the Grove Theater and saw John
Cunningham working changing the sign on the marque though I didn’t stop to talk
to him. I just parked and watched him and remembered how much I cared about him.
In the news it was announced that the draft lottery numbers will not go higher
than 125 so I am safe at 165. God’s will be done. Also, a bill to legalize
homosexuality was defeated in the California assembly . The weather was very
hot, dry, and windy from a Santa Ana wind condition. It was 90 degrees today.
6 October 1971
Wednesday
I got up at 11 today not feeling really great.
I had a lot of things to do today, however. At 11:30 I took my dormmate Rick Davis
down to the Fullerton Police Station so he could register his bike. After that
we went to lunch in the Commons. We had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. The
I left to go home to Dale Street where I
gave Mom and copy of the family genealogy I had been working on and picked up a
night stand to bring back to my dorm room at Othry’s . I also swung by and gave Mr.
Dobmeier my manuscript I wrote on the Magnolia Cemetery. Because of all the
running away I did today I didn’t go to any of my classes today because I didn’t have time. I miss going to
my Shakespeare class although. In the evening I went to Taco Bell and worked
from 7 until 1in the morning with Brother
Leroy Schlecht. After work as I was driving over to the Tic Toc Market to visit
with Bob Wimberly, a cop pulled me over. I didn’t get a ticket. He was just
hassling me that’s all for being out late. Over a Bob’s I spent the entire time
of his shift talking to him about life and I didn’t even go home to my dorm. It
was tremendously hot today at 103 degrees.
7 October 1971 Thursday
Since I spent the night over at Tic Toc Market
I didn’t get to bed until 7 this morning. Jim Dalton was getting up when I came
in because he had to go into Santa Ana
to pay a traffic ticket he got while
driving his LUV truck. I slept in until 12:30 ad missed both of my classes today
although I read quite a bit of the Dartmouth Bible. In the afternoon, Rick Davis
and I went shopping and I bought some drinks and snacks for our dorm refrig. In
the evening I did some washing in the
dorms laundry room and the t at 9 Ralph
Ludders came over to hang out as did some other kids from down the hall on our
floor. I finally met some of the other kids who live here. Their names were Kitty,
Janet Walton , Rich Ventura, Gordon, and Paul. Rick Davis wanted to go to bed early
do we all had to leave so we went down to Gordon’s room and listed to songs on
the record player. We stayed up late telling host stories. I didn’t go to ed
until 11:30. Rick was sick with a cold so that is why he wanted to go to bed
early. I had to doctor him some. It was hot again today and very dry but not as
hot as it had been. 90 degrees. In the news Nixon announced the second phase of
his economic policies that sounded great if it works. Why didn’t he do
this two years ago?
8 October 1971 Friday
Today is my cousin Kay Johnson’s 18th
birthday. She was born in Lubbock, Texas. I didn’t get up until 11 today. The Othry
Hall dorm cleaning women came in to clean up the rooms, so Rick Davis and I went lunch in the Commons
around 12:30/ I saw Kitty and Gordon there and sat with them. After lunch I
read some in the library before going to my Reformation Class then to my
Shakespeare’s class. Jim Dalton dropped the class because all the reading
didn’t give him time to get to his work. Rick left today for Lancaster at 4 for
the upcoming 3-day holiday. I ate dinner at 5 and had fried shrimp which was good. I saw
Kitty, Janet Walton, Rich Ventura, Dace, and Gordon there, so I sat with them. I am starting to
get to know some of the kids on my floor. I had to be at work at 7 and I worked
with Brother Leroy Schlecht the first half of my shift then from 10 to 2:30 in the morning with this
girl named Marylynn. We did not get along too well as that she nagged a lot about very petty
things. It’s not like I don’t know my way around a Taco Bell Stand. I worked 7
and half hours and didn’t get back to my dorm room until 3 in the morning. I am
really all gave out. The weather seems to be cooling off since it was only 80
degrees today. There is not much in the news to mention.
9 October 1971 Saturday
I slept in from working late . I didn’t get up
until noon so I could get ready to go to
Yucaipa. I left Fullerton about 1 and made it up there without too much car
trouble although I had to stop and put water in the radiator twice. When I
arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’ trailer Coach on Nebraska Street, I was
disappointed to fund that they weren’t home. I suppose I should have called
first. Its 65 miles from here to their place. So, I left and came back to my
dorm. I later went over to Walnut to see
my Uncle and Aunt Milton and Marie for a little while because my car was overheating.
They live at 20612 Collegewood. They asked me to go with them out to dinner. We
went to Shakey’s for Pizza in West Covina.
I went home to Dale Street to check on my mail
and I had a letter from Sally Johnson that had been sent to Mom and dad’s address. It
was dated October 5 and I guess she is doing fine in Missoula, Montana. She
once said there were a lot of cowboys there at the college.
I didn’t get back to
Fullerton until 11 and when I did, I watched a good mystery movie called “Innocents”
with Deborah Kerr in it. It was about ghosts and supernatural things. It was
very good. Jim came into the room at midnight, and he watched part of it with
me before going to bed. The weather was hot and smoggy today at 90 degrees.
This is Sally’s letter.
“Dear Edgar I’m writing this letter between classes at MSU. It’s really been
hectic trying to get registered and start classes. I’m enrolled in 18 credits
(quarter units) and am working my butt
off just trying to keep up. I’m taking German, Asian Cultures, Geography,
Psychology, and modern dance. My solids meet four and five times a week. It’s a
lot more hectic on the quarter system
trying to keep your assignments up.
I like it here a little
more each day. Now the leaves are changing to gold and red as autumn comes to
the valley. It’s really neat just to look up where ever I’m at on campus and
see snowcapped mountains against the bluest skies you ever saw. Since I’m on
the fifth floor of Hedges Hall north
dorm I have a great view of the campus. After some of the slight snows we’ve
recently had the view from my dorm window is nothing short of fantastic. But
now the days are
too warm for snow so it’s just
great football weather in Bozeman lately.
Yes, Edgar I’ve actually gone to a football game at MSU. How’s that
for a switch. Bill wanted to go so I tagged along. It seems he played tackle in
high school, so he explained what was
going on to this “dumb chick”. MSU won
but that was only because Fresno just couldn’t do anything right. Would you
believe 18 fumbles?
Guess What? I’m
starting to get involved in student
government . Big surprise, I’ll bet isn’t it? I just got appointed to the ASMSU
judicial committee . I sat through a senate
meeting the other night and was very impressed with the
business-like dispatch with which the
meeting was conducted by the school’s V.P.
Not an advisor was in sight; if he was there he didn’t open his mouth. Isn’t that great!
By the way have you heard anything about Trash
Day? I haven’t heard anything from Kent
all Summer and It’s been a while since Wendy has written! I really what to
thank you for writing so often. It’s great to get letters from your friends. I
still love to get letters from home even though my life here seems far removed
from Southern Cal. So please keep writing
when you can. I realize school
must keep you pretty busy too.
How do you like Fullerton? Are you working now or just one of those
hippie types living off the fat of the land while going to school. Best Always Sally.” Her address is MSU Hedges
Hall North #520 Bozeman, Mont. 59715.
10 October 1971 Sunday
Today Bob Wimberly woke me when he called at 7
this morning and asked if I wanted to go out this evening with him, Gary Bassin, Nancy, and Sandy Burns.
. I guess Sandy dropped out of school back east and came back to Kong Beach to
live with Nancy. I said I would. I attended church in Brea to take the Lord’s
Supper and then I went over to Milton
and Marie’s to let them know my car was all right. I didn’t stay long before
coming back to the dorm at Othry Hall and got dressed to go to Long Beach. Bob
told me to wear something colorful for the places we were going to in Hollywood.
I got to Long each at 3 and we took Bob ‘s Buick to go pick up Nancy and Sandy. We drove
into Hollywood to see “some of My Best Friends are…” and the “Gay Deceivers” at
the Pacific’s Hollywood Theater on Hollywood near Cahunga. We go there just
time for Some of my best friends Are which started at 3:45. The Gay
Deceivers was good because of Michael Greer but the other show was just
alright. Fanny Flagg was in it. We were out by 7 and we went to this chic
restaurant called “Etc.” The others ordered cocktails and even escargot, but I
didn’t try them. I don’t do snails. We all ran up a $75 bill! We split the bill 5 ways which was kind of unfair as
It was mostly from the drinks which I didn’t have any and my dinner only came
to $5. The food was extremely good
though and there was live entertainment. I didn’t get home back to the
dorms and in bed until 1:30. It was a fun and exciting evening although kind of
strange as I was the only one in the group who wasn’t gay, and it was the first
time I had even seen Gay movies. The weather was warm again though not as
smoggy at 80 degrees.
11 October 1971 Monday
I have driven 270 miles since Saturday, and I
am getting 15 miles to a gallon. I spent $3.30 on the last fill up. I slept
until noon because I had to work tonight and wanted to catch up on my rest. There
was no school today because of the Columbus Day Holiday. In the afternoon I
cleaned up my side of the dorm room and
then went home to Garden Grove to pick up some mail that Mom had for me. I
didn’t stay long then I came back to the dorms when I got ready to go into
work. I worked at Taco Bell from 7 and
had to close by myself. I worked with Aimee until 9, Andy until 10, and with
Mike until 11. Mike is a new kid just starting today. He had never worked at
another Taco Bell before, and Aimee was
being a real bitch to him. She was always criticizing every little thing while
never showing him how to do anything
properly. Andy and I tried to rectify the situation and Aimee and I
ended up not on the best of terms. I cannot endure her vicious attacks on Mike
or myself. So far have two enemies at
Taco Bell both bitches, Aimee, and Mary Lynn. They chose to be jerks not me. The weather is rally cooling off now.
In the news Governor Reagan said, “I don’t know why everyone is upset about the
one-man race in South Vietnam. It happens all the time in Communists countries.”
Oh, what a goober he is.
12 October 1971 Tuesday
The weather is cooling sown at it was only 80
degrees today. I was so tired this morning that I didn’t go to my Hebrew
Prophet’s class. I spent the time before my Christianity class writing up the rest of the report I have to
give in that class. Afterwards Linda Sparks gave me her notes from the Hebrew
Prophet’s class so I could catch up. I have a paper due in that class by next
Tuesday. After that I went back to my dorm room in Othry Hall and studied. Before
going to the Commons for diner. I drove to Garden Grove pick up my new glasses
and I like them a whole lot. After eating dinner, I went back to Garden Grove
to do my laundry in Mom’s washing machine. I stayed there until 9:30 . While
there I watched a real good National Geographic special on “Monkeys, Apes, and
Man.” When I returned to the dorm, I was
too tired to study for tomorrow lasses, so I went to bed early. I told Rick
Davis that I would take him into Santa Ana so he could get registered for the
draft tomorrow. When Jim Dalton came in, I woke up and we all goofed around
until 2 in the morning. It was fun just being with these guys.
13 October 1971
Wednesday
I got up at 8 to get some studying done before
taking Rick Davis down to Santa Ana to
register for the draft at 10:30 this morning. When we came back to Fullerton,
we went to lunch in the Commons then came back to the dorms to rest some before
attending class. However, I never made it to my classes as I Didn’t wake up
until 4:30 in the afternoon. At 5 Rick and I went to the Commons to eat dinner before I had to go into work at 7 and work
until 1 in the morning at Taco Bell. I worked with Aimee for only an hour but
with Any until 10 and Mike until 11. It was just an average night. I brought
home some tacos for Rick Davis and Jim Dalton who were both still up at 2 . We
were all to keyed up to sleep so we were goofing around until 3:30. I still
wasn’t sleepy and kind of anxious, so I went to see Bob Wimberly at Tic Toc. Gary Bassin was there with him
keeping him company. I only stayed for about an hour before going back to the dorm and by that time
both Jim and Rick were a sleep.
The weather is really
cooling off as it was 70 degrees today. I wrote Sandy Burns today and had a
letter from Sally Johnson. I also joined another book club and a record club today.
Sally’s address Hedges Hall no. 520 Bozeman, Montana on the
campus of Montan at State University.
14 October 1971
Thursday
I didn’t get up until noon today because my
Hebrew Class didn’t meet today. I did go to Christianity class, and we are
still discussing the life of Paul of Tarsus. After class I gave Linda Sparks
back her Hebrew Prophet notes and this Saturday, I guess we will go to the
library at the University of California at Irvine to look up some reference
books. I went shopping today and signed the contract to have a refrigerator in
the dorm room. For dinner at the Commons,
we had veal which wasn’t too bad.
Ralph Ludders called e late in the afternoon to remind me about going with him
to the Orange County Historical Society meeting where he was a guest speaker
tonight at the Bowers Museum. So, I went and there Mr. Reeve introduced Ralph and he did a real good job considering how
nervous he was. His wife Brenda, sisters Pam and Vicky as well as Mrs. Ludders
were all there to support him. It was a nice evening being out and Ralph spoke on the Sugar Beet Factory of Los
Alamitos. I met a most interest man who was the curator of the museum. He was
only 35 years old for that type of job I would think. He was striking looking. Back
at the Othry Hall dorm, Jim Dalton and I talked awhile before I finally went to bed. I am finding
that I really enjoy Jim’s company a lot.
I had a letetr from Grandma Johnson that se
addressed to Othrip Hall #2 Room 123.
Then addred 601 T.Tan Dr. Fullerton Calif but it made it to me. She
wrote, “ Haskell, Tex. Oct 12. Hi Jr. was we happy to get your long newsy
letter, only one that ever writes any news.
So glad you like college and your room mates. Sounds like you have it
made and was lucky to get work close.
Yesterday I got a card
from Judy. I too sent to little Johnny a
little pair of sleeping pajamas. When we
went down to Lubbock to Mable and Ed Barbie wedding anniversary we also went to Huskeys. Everything was locked
up. Also to Judys’ and the same. So
guess they went to spend the
weekend with Huskey and Johnny where ever they were working. What a life. I
did want to see the baby so very much. May be they will be up for our
anniversary. I’ll send Buddy and all a card.
Sounds like Mr and Mrs
Williams anniversary was a success .
Where was Pam’s husband . You just said only she and Bill and Fern was there.
My heart aches for poor
little Cathy. Old Frank ought to be taken out and horse whipped. .
Jr we are going to
church at Throckmorton 27 miles east of Haskel. Not many going there. Some old
people. I just love them all. Guess Bro Baize was teaching error.
Do you still go to worship at Brea. Do wish Donna would get
started to going. Do your roommates go with you.
Do write again So I can
send you our pictures and anniversary cards
Don’t want them to get lost.
Wilburn mowing the
grass. Will close up for the winter. Will go home last of the week. So write me
there . Good luck to you and your roommates If you say their ok I know they are.
Jr, we are proud of you as a grandson and for what you stand for if
God be for us who could be against us. Love from your grandparents Johnsons.”
The weather is 70 degrees.
15 October 1971 Friday
I didn’t get up util noon then I went over to
the Commons on campus for lunch. At 2, I went to my Reformation class and afterwards to my Shakespeare class.
Jim Dalton had gotten back into my class after all. In the Othry Hall dorm room
we bunked my bed with Rick Davis on the top bunk and brought Jim’s bed over to outside
of the room so we could make a kind of
living room to bring our friends in to watch TV. We decided that we are going to
paint the room after all. I had to go into work at 7 and worked until 2 in the
morning. I worked with Andy, Mike, Jan, and Robin today and they are all real
nice to work with. However, Mike is starting to bug me now because he doesn’t
do all of his work and I’m stuck with redoing it. I got paid today $65. After
getting out of work I went over to Tic Toc in Anaheim to see Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin. I
brought them some tacos and we visited but I didn’t stay long as I was tired. I was back in my dorm room at
3:30 and went right to bed. The weather is really cooling off now. It feels
like rain. 65 degrees. In the news they say water has been discovered on the
moon and President Nixon has decided he’s going to visit Moscow.
16 October 1971
Saturday
I didn’t get up until 11 this morning. Then I spent
the afternoon cleaning up my dorm room.
Last night Jim Dalton moved back over to his side of the room. He said it was
too cramped and told me that Rick Davis was annoying. I was kind of pissed though
for now our plans to fix that side of the room up as a guest space has fallen
through. This afternoon Linda Sparks and I went to the University of California
at Irvine to pick up some reference books
we needed for our class. Afterwards I read some from the play Fortune and Men’s
eyes at the college library. Pat from work called at 6 and said I was supposed
to be there, but Leroy Schlecht had
forgotten to tell them that I couldn’t be in tonight until 7. I worked with
Jill and Jan all night and they are really nice girls. Jim and Rick Davis came
up to Taco Bell to get some food and also Karen Gramsted came by to see me. I
was so glad to see her again. We talked for a long time about what is going on
in our lives before she had to leave.
She told me that it wasn’t her brother who quit but Jean Van der Merghal. At
the end of the shift, Andy came up and goofed around with us until we closed at
1. I didn’t get out of there until 2 because the place was a mess. It was a
rainy and cloudy day and it even thundered and lightning ed quite a lot. It was
cold also at 60 degrees
I was so tired that I slept in until 4 in the
afternoon. I had to be at work at 5:30.
I was supposed to have worked with Mike, but he didn’t show up, so they called
in Robin in his place, and she worked until 11 and I worked until 1 by myself
and closed up. I was so tired when I left. When I came back to the dorm, I was going
to take a shower to get the work smell off of me but none of the wash had been
done and there were no clean towels. I was truly so mad. Rick Davis could have
done it as he hasn’t done anything all weekend. It’s all right for him to watch
my TV and ride my bike and for me to
drive him around but he couldn’t do our wash? I stayed up until #;30 in the
morning doing to the laundry room and doing
our wash. And then the damn washing machine’s water was all rusty and all turned all the clothes and towels
yellowish. I finally got to bed sometime
around 4. I was just exhausted. The weather has cleared up and now its cooler
at 62 degrees. A year ago, I was a precinct walker for Jesse Unruh who was
running for governor against Ronald Reagan. I wanted him over Reagan. I
remember Mom saying that Barb Welte while visiting with her remarked how I was
wrong to be campaigning for Uhruh and Mom said she stood up for me and said at
least I was involved in it. So, I did my small part in an attempt to defeat
Reagan by walking in Fullerton.
18 October 1971 Monday
I slept in until noon and then got up for lunch
at the Commons before attending class. Reformation was a little bit better. The
teacher’s liberal wit makes up for his incoherency. Afterwards I saw Jerry
Smith between classes, and we visited briefly but I didn’t have much time
because I was already late to my
Shakespeare Class. In there we are beginning to read “As You Like It” , one of
the comedies. I went home to Garden Grove after class because I was lonesome for my little nephew
James. I haven’t seen him in such a long time, and I love him so much. I bought
him a little dump truck toy to play with. At home I saw my sister Charline and
Dennis. Charline still hasn’t had her baby yet and everyone is so anxious and
excited and yet tired of being kept waiting. She was supposed to have had it
yesterday. I saw Jean Horan and her daughter Carol today who is still very much
a hippy. Jean let me have some cinder blocks
to make a book case in my dorm room. Back in Fullerton I went over to
see Frank and Barb Welte’s house on Hartford where I helped the kids carve this
huge pumpkin for Halloween. After coming back to Othry Hall in the evening I
wrote my paper for the Hebrew Prophet’s Class on the prophet Amos.
19 October 1971 Tuesday
I was up at 10 this morning to get ready for my
Hebrew Prophet Class. I’m really starting to get into this, and I really like how
Mr. Fierman teaches it. It helps that Linda Sparks is in my class too. I had to
give a speech on my paper, and I was so nervous but Mr. Fierman who is a rabbi,
is a very interesting man. Afterwards I went to lunch in the Commons which
served turkey before going to my Christianity Class. We met out on the balcony
of the Seventh Floor of the Humanity Building
since it was such a warm pretty day. 75 degrees. After class I rushed
home to Garden Grove and had a money
order made to the Fullerton Foundation
for my second instalment on my dorm room for $210. While in Garden Grove
I saw John Cunningham driving his Karma Ghia and it didn’t even faze me. I was
in a foul mood all day and have been for the past few days. I had lasagna for dinner in The Commons. I built me a book
case using the cinder blocks and some boards I bought at Builder’s Emporium. I
also covered my study desk cubicle which was scroungy. I had to go into work at
7 at Taco bell where I worked until 1 in
the morning. Pat came in at 11 to explain somethings about how he wanted the
place cleaned at closing. I worked the night with Aimee and Mike. I think Mike
is going to be fired as he is flaking off and I think he’s on drugs. When I
came back to my room at Othry Hall I apologized to Jim Dalton for acting the
way I have been lately. I really do like him and don’t want him upset with me.
Rick Davis is just a spoiled jock.
20 October 1971 Wednesday
When I got up at noon , I went to lunch on
Campus and then decided to go home to Garden Grove and pick up some more things
for my dorm room. I missed attending my Reformation Class but did go to my
Shakespeare Class. Jim Dalton and I have reconciled again although Rick Davis
still pisses me off some. I went into work at Taco Bell at 7 and I was so mad
because they left me another not about the way the place was cleaned the night
before. I worked with Mary Lynn tonight and we got along fine, and we
apologized to each other for the way we acted the first night like Christians
should. When I closed up tonight, I left a note for them saying I quit. They
never were appreciative of how hard I worked and only nitpicked on me. I went
back to the dorm and changed clothes
when I realized I had left my wallet at
Taco bell. So, I called Bro. Leroy Schlecht, and he came down and helped me get
it. I left there and went over to see Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin at Tic Toc
where we visited for a while about why I quitted my job. Pat the manager was
just a demanding jerk, and the kids were never very friendly compared to Leo
Waldman’s joint. Bob and Gary said they want to get married this Spring! I
really don’t know how I feel about that. The weather was warm and
smoggy today. Now I will have to start
working for work again.
21 October 1971 Thursday
I painted my dormitory room an off-white color
to freshen it up from some paint I bought at Builder’s Emporium. The room was
so dingy and kind of a pale yellow that
is depressing. Jim Dalton helped a bit, but Rick Davis couldn’t be bothered and
just complained about me moving things around. In one of the men’s rooms on
campus there was a lot of graffiti mostly political about Tricky Dick and who
Nixon’s father should have withdrawn but the funniest one was written above the
stall door that said, “Welcome to Walt Disney’s Enchanted John.” There are also some content in the Fine Arts
Building’s second floor men’s room that is very suggestive.
22 October 1971 Friday
I got up at 5 this morning when my sister
Charline called and said she was going into labor and needed me to come look
after my nephew James. I was extremely tired
because last night Othry Hall had
a fire drill at 12:30 . It was kind of funny all these kids running around half
dressed and some in underwear. Anyway, so I drove over and picked up James at 7
and took him back to my dorm room to have him eat some breakfast of cereal. He
watched some TV while I tried to sleep some more but later at 11, I took him to Magnolia
Park then home to Mom and Dad’s house on
Dale Street. While at the dorms this morning I was calling James name to keep
him quiet, and Jim Dalton woke up out of his sleep thinking I was talking to
him. It was kind of funny. Charline went to the hospital around 1 in the
afternoon accompanied by Dennis, his Mom Janet Peavy and Mom. She didn’t have
her baby until 10 at night at the Kaiser Hospital in Bellflower. I had handed
James off to my sister Donna before that and came back to Fullerton. Dad called
me there to tell me I had a little niece Charline named Denise Elizbeth who weighs 7 pounds 10 ounces and is 20
inches long. Dad said she is such a pretty baby. Later I went up to Tic Toc to
tell Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin that I
am an uncle again. Tomorrow I will go see the little beauty. I’m so happy that
James has a little sister now. Today was a nice warm day although this morning
was fold and foggy. My sister had her baby on Grandpa Williams 69th
birthday. He was born in Cass County, Texas.
23 October 1971 Saturday
I didn’t get up until 2 this afternoon because
I went to bed so late last night from being at Tic Toc Market. When I did get up,
I straightened up the room and then wrote a letter to Sally Johnson before
going to the Commons to get some supper at 4. Around 5 went home to Garden Grove to do some laundry and also to go see my
sister Charline and the baby during Kaiser Hospital’s visiting hours. Janey
Peavey and her husband Walt , Dennis parents were over at the house so was my nephew,
James. I went with Dennis to the
hospital at 7 and saw Charline and the baby. She’s a pretty baby and was born
at9:37 yesterday. Dad exaggerated her weight
yesterday. She is only 7 pounds 3 ounces. I guess Charline and the baby will
come home on Monday. After leaving the hospital I came back to Othry Hall at 9
and I watched some TV before going to bed exhausted. The weather was warm this afternoon but cooled off considerably in
the evening, 65 degrees. In the news there have been a series of mysterious
booms around the San Francisco Bay area that have cracked windows with no
explanations.
24 October 1971 Sunday
I slept in until, so I didn’t get to church.
Sometimes I miss it but mostly I don’t get much out of the preaching there that
seems so pedantic. I miss the singing mostly. When I did get up, I cleaned the
dorm room and then went back to Garden grove to pick up my laundry I had left
there. Mom and Dad had left for Yucaipa
to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Williams as it was Grandpa’s birthday
the other day. This morning it thundered and lightened all around us, but we
just got a few sprinkles and no real showers. It was 55 degrees. While in
Garden Grove I went to see my sister Donna who was working at Mr. Donut at the
Orange County Plaza. She says she wants to move out from Dale Street next year, but she doesn’t know whether she will be
going to Cal State Long beach or Cal State Fullerton after she gets her Associates
Degree form Cypress. I may move out with her to share expenses. Anyway, she
gave me some day-old donuts to bring back with me to Othry Hall. She said she is
going to see the baby today because she hasn’t had the time yet. There I worked
on a paper tissue stain glass design that
will be back lit from an electric beer sign That I got from Dad. I once did a
beautiful medieval court scene for John Cunningham back in 1969 kind of like what I’m doing now but only with the Jesus Christ Superstar
symbol to be lit. In the evening I watched “Anna and the King of Siam” on TV
for a while until Jim Dalton and his girlfriend Cathy O’Conner asked me to come
up to her room to watch “How the West Was Won” with them. We had popcorn and soda
pop, so it was fun, and I stayed with them sitting on their bed until I went
back to my room after midnight. I really am quite fond of Jim. He’s a good guy.
25 October 1971 Monday
There was no school today because of Veteran’s
Day so I slept in late until noon. I didn’t go to lunch at all. Rick Davis came
in from Lancaster about 2 being surly and some of the other dorm floor kids,
Janet Walton, Kitty and Rich Ventura came in around 3. They are so funny. We
all got together, and we went to dinner at the Commons and then came back to my room where in the evening we had a small part.
They bought a pizza, and we had fun goofing around. Jim Dalton finally said
he's going to fix up his side of the room also,
so I think our dorm room is going to look nice. The weather was clear
but icy cold at 55 degrees. Evening is really starting to come earlier around 6.
I hope with all my heart little Denise Elizabeth and James both will find grace and live a life
full of love and righteousness to be pleasing in God’s sight.
26 October 1971 Tuesday
I was up at 10:30 to attend my Hebrew Prophet class
at 11. I really enjoy this class. We finished reading the papers on the prophet
Amos and some the comments were joyously
funny. Rabbi Morton Fierman is a great man. I then rushed to my Christianity
Class where Dr. Frazee has us discussing the church relationship to the state. I
have to give a report on Thursday on a book that I haven’t even read yet. After
class was over, I bought the tickets for the play “Boys in the Band” that
Nancy, Sandy Burns, Bob Wimberly, Gary Bassin, and I are going to this Friday. I then drove into Garden Grove to see my sister Charline and the baby who were home now. Mom was over at Charline’s
also. My nephew James is acting as can
be expected as he is kind of upset about the change in every body’s attention from
him to the baby. But he’s taking it really
well and I can tell he loves his little sister. In the evening Grandma and
Grandpa along with my aunt Bonnie and Bill Fagan came over to see the baby and
I visited with everyone until I left late. At midnight I went up to Tic Toc
Market to see Bob Wimberly and Gary to
give them the tickets I bought, and they paid me for them.
27 October 1971 Wednesday
I got up at 11 today and it was cloudy and
miserable looking outside here in Fullerton. I went to lunch with Kitty. Janet Walton and some of the dorm gang
that I am starting to know better from our floor. I then studied some before
going to my Shakespeare Class, but I missed going to Reformation. In Mrs. Alice
Scoufos’ class we finished reading “As You Like It” and we are going to begin
reading Antony and Cleopatra” next. In the afternoon Rick Davis and Jim
Dalton went down to the police station
to retrieve Rick’s bike. I guess it wasn’t reported stolen. I went into Long
Beach around 7:30 to see Jean Horan who is in the St. Mary’s Hospital there.
Tom Horan was there with her, and I was told that she will be coming home tomorrow. After the visiting hours were up,
I left and went to see Bob Wimberly and
Gary Bassin at their place on Hermosa. I stayed until about 9:30 then went over to visit with Sandy Burns and
Nancy. I stayed there until 1:30 in the morning relating Gospel and Bible
stories to them. It is the greatest
thrill in the world to share the gospel. After leaving them I left to go home to Fullerton, but I stopped
at Tic Toc where Bob was at work by now.
I stayed until 2:30 until heading back
to Othry Hall.
28 October 1971
Thursday
I didn’t go to bed at all last night but
instead just stayed up reading and doing my homework. Bob Wimberly had given me
some speed uppers that he uses to stay up all night. In the morning I went and
had French Toast in the Commons which is the first time I ever ate breakfast
there and then I went back to my dorm to study finally taking a nap for about
an hour around noon, so I missed attending my Hebrew Prophet Class. I did make
it to Dr. Frazee Christianity class and gave my report that I had to study for last night. After
class I went back to the dorm to try and rest. Linda Sparks came over to get
some books on the prophets that we had from the University at Irvine. In the
late afternoon Kathy O’Connor, Jim Dalton’s girlfriend called and asked if I
would help her paint her room. Of course, I said yes, and I took another upper pill, and I ended up
painting most of the whole room because Kathy and Jim had left to go somewhere
leaving her roommate Catherine to do it, so I helped her until 10 at night. Kathy
is really an ingrate, and I don’t see why Jim goes out with her. Ralph Ludders
came by while I was painting which I left off to go with him to go get a coke.
It was good seeing him again and catching up. The weather is really windy and
cold as the wind comes right off the
mountains. It was 55 degrees.
29 October 1971 Friday
In the news several things have happened that I
think will have long range affects. In
the United Nations Red China was admitted after 25 years and Nationalist China was ousted. The United
Kingdom finally voted to enter the
common market with the rest of Europe. Now the United States Senate has voted
to end all foreign aid , ending 25 years of precedence. Today I slept in until
10:30 and got up to go have lunch at the College Commons . Then I did some
homework. My sister Donna came by for a little while and saw how I had fixed up
my dorm room. It was the first time she had ever come over. I missed going to
my Reformation class but did attend my
Shakespeare Class. We started Anthony and Cleopatra. After class I spent the
rest of the time trying to clean up our
messy dorm room so I could show it off when the Long Beach gang come. Bob
Wimberly and Gary Bassin came over at 8 and we went to the meet the girls Nancy
and Sandy Burns at the Little theater on Campus. Rick Davis was kind of rude I
thought to Bob and Gary. I enjoyed the play and thought the performance of Boys
in the Band was good, but the others said that theatrically it was horrible. Well,
I am not a theater actor or critic. Afterwards we went to Alphy’s coffee shop.
After all the criticism of the play I wasn’t in
very good mood and Sandy and Nancy said they are coming down with something.
It was bitterly cold today also. It was the coldest October 29 in Los Angeles
history since 1877.
30 October 1971
Saturday
I got up today at 11 and had brunch over at the
College Commons. Then later I rode my ten speed
over to Frank and Barb Weltes
house on Hartford because their daughter Barbara An had asked me to help
her with her homework. Frank and Barb ordered some pizza for dinner, but I had to leave at 7 to come back to the dorm to get ready for the
Halloween Party. I dressed as a soldier with a fatigue jacket and helmet I got
from the Army and Navy Surplus store . Karen Gramsted came as herself. We went
together to the Othry Hall Halloween Party, and we stayed until midnight. We then
left to go to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor. A bunch of us, Janet Walton, Rich
Ventura, Dave Gubler, Phyllis Lewis, Ben, Karen, and I went to Dave’s dorm room, and we stayed up goofing
and visiting until 3 in the morning. We then turned our clocks
back for today ends Daylight Savings Time. Karen Gramsted was drinking a lot tonight, but I sobered
her up before she left. She and Ben were making out for most of the party,
and I think she had a really good time.
The weather was so much warmer today than it was yesterday although at night it still pretty nippy out.
All in all, it was a very exciting and thrilling night with lots of fun and
laughter. Dave was dressed for the party as a mortician wearing a feather boa and a plumed woman’s
hat.
31 October 1971 Sunday
I slept in until noon because I had gotten to
bed so late from the night before. I didn’t do much of anything in the day, but
Karen Gramsted called around 5 and said she wouldn’t be able to come over
tonight because her parents were mad at her for coming home so late yesterday.
She said she had a lot of fun though. At 6 I went to the Sizzler’s Steak House
with our wing of the dorm that I am assigned to here at Othry Hall. We decided
toc all our wing the “quivering Thighs.” Kitty’s wing is called “49 Easy Pieces”
and Janet Walton’s is “Fruit of the Womb.” Anyway Kitty, Janet Walton, Rick
Ventura, Dave Gubler, Phyllis Lewis , Paul, and I went in my Ford and
afterwards back to the dorm. Then I left to go over to Frank and Barb Welte’s
for Halloween. I said I would help hand out candy. I stayed until 9 then came
back to the dorm to see what was happening there but there wasn’t anything
going on, so I went to bed around midnight. The weather is warmer now than it has been although it is still
cool at night. 70 degrees. My Uncle and Aunt Milton and Marie are definitely
moving from Walnut down to Orange County since their property has begun to
slip.
NOVEMBER
1 November 1971 Monday
I didn’t get up today until noon and then
walked to the Commons and had a chili dog and a burritos. I went to both of my classes
and next week I’m having tests in all of
them. After classes, I went to eat dinner with the gang and I talked to Mike,
this new kid quite a bit before going home to Garden Grove. I first went over
to my sister Charline and Dennis’ place to see baby Denise and James. I brought James the army helmet I used
for part of my Halloween costume and some trick and treat candy. Dennis said he
has quit his tobacco route and is now
working as a record changer in the vending machine juke boxes. After visiting
for a while, I went over to Mom and Dad’s. They were all asleep, but I did my washing and saw my car gas bill
which was $22. I also got paid at Taco Bell. $41.80. While I picked up my check,
I gave Leroy Schlecht the letter I wrote for him. The weather was warm in the
day time and nice and cool at night. Two
years ago, when John Cunningham and I were coming home from a show on Halloween
Night, I got a ticket for running a flashing red light. Grandma Williams made
some peach butter for me that Mom left out for me.
2 November 1971 Tuesday
I got up at 10:30 when Mom called and asked if
I’d bring my TV over to the house since it has a remote control, and she is
going to have to be in bed for a few days because of her back. I didn’t go to
any of my classes today but instead took the rest of the Halloween candy left
over down to the hospital for children
on Knott and Lincoln in Cypress but when I tried to leave the hospital my car
wouldn’t start so I walked up to Cypress College and there saw Wendy Warner ,
Charlotte Smith and Bev Berge sitting in the Bernstein House. I also saw Ernie Sauter
and Jeff Smith. Kent Larsen was in San Francisco on House office business.
After talking a while, I left and went back to my car where it started back up.
Charline
brought the baby and James over to the house . The baby is going to have hazel
eyes we think. I let Mom have the television set and when I went back to the Othry
Hall dorm I saw that I had a letter from Grandma Johnson. It was a very good
long letter. In the evening I went to the Harbor Cinema by myself in Costa
Mesa and saw “Death in Venice” which was
beautiful and also the “Todd Killings.” Again, my car wouldn’t start at all, so I had to call my friend Jerry
Smith to come take me home to the dorms. It was a warm but smoggy day.
3 November 1971 Wednesday
I got up at noon today and then went to lunch
in the Commons. After wards I went and met Jerry Smith at 2 and he said that he
would take me home to Garden Grove at 6:30. After that I went to my Shakespeare
class. We are reading Anthony and Cleopatra
now. After class I came back to the dorm and found that I received two
letters today. One was from Sally Johnson who is going to school in Montana and
the other was from my uncle J.W. Johnson which contained an announcement for
Grandma Johnsons 50th Anniversary celebration.
“ 1921-1971 In honor of the Fifieth Wedding
Anniverary of Mrand Mrs. J W. Johnson their children and grandchildren invite
yout to a reception from two until four-thirty in the afternoon on Sunday
, the twenty-first of November Lamb
County Electric’s Willie Room 2315 South Phelps Avenue, Little Field Texas”
At 5 I went to dinner
and then met Jerry so he could take me home. Dad and I drove to Costa Mesa to retrieve my car. We started it with a jump
with a battery cable and I got as far as
Brookhurst and Warner when It stalled on me again. So, Dad had to come and
start the Ford again. We finally got it
home about 8 at night. I watched Carol Burnett and Night Gallery at home where
I spent the night in my old bed . I read through a lot of my old letters I had saved
and kind of categorized them . It was very warm again today 75 degrees. There
was a full moon out tonight. I heard that my Uncle and Aunt Milton and Marie
are going to move to Orange County from Walnut.
A year ago, Mrs.
Fouste’s Anthropology class went to the San Diego Zoo for a field trip. It was
the last time John Cunningham, and I ever went to a place together.
KHJ’s top ten songs are Cher’s Gypsies,
Tramps, and Thieves, The Theme From Shaft,
John Lennon’s Imagine, Coven’s Ione Tin Soldier, Sweet City Woman,
Santana’s Everybody’s Everything, The Grass Roots Divided By Love, The Osmonds’
Yo-Yo, Lighthouse’s One Fine Morning, Gayle McCormick It’s A crying Shame.
4 November 1971
Thursday
I spent the night at Mom and Dad’s and when I
got up at 9:30 I called Ralph Ludders and asked if he would take me back to
Fullerton. I went to my Hebrew Prophet’s class, and it was interesting except that Rabbi Fierman was upset with one
of the born-again Jesus Freaks in the class. I went to the commons for a quick
lunch afterwards and then to my Christianity Class which lasted until 2:30. Afterwards
I went back to my dorm room and studied until it was time for supper. I went to
dinner with the gang from our floor and afterwards we all decided to go to the
Titan Theater where we saw “The Devils” and “the Virgin and the Gypsy.” They
were both good movies. Janet Walton , Laura Edmonson, Kitty, Dave Gubler, Paul,
and I went together. After the show we walked back to the dorm and goofed
around in the Othry Hall dorm lobby until about 11:30 at night. We then decided
to go to Taco Bell to get something to eat and drink. I didn’t get to bed until
12:30. I wrote Sally Johnson and Grandma Johnson letters today. It was a nice
and warm today even in the evening it was nice out. 88 degrees . I have been
studying hard for Reformation test this Monday.
5 November 1971 Friday
I slept in until 11 and then went to the
Common’s for lunch in the afternoon. Then I read some more of my text book on
the Reformation before attending. I have
a big test in that class on Monday. Afterwards I went to my Shakespeare class.
I have a test in that class next Friday. After class was over, I came back to
the dorm room and wrote Bob Wimberly and
Sandy Burns. Then I went to the Commons
for dinner. In the evening I rode my bike over to Frank and Barb Welte’s house to visit for a while and they asked me over for dinner this
Sunday. I went then back to my room to study some more for a while before going to bed at 11:30.
6 November 1971
Saturday
I woke up at 8 this morning when Mom called and
said my sister Donna would be over to pick me up to take me back to Garden
Grove. We were there by 9 and Dad and I began working on the Ford in the
morning. We got it running again and in the afternoon I washed and waxed Dad’s
and my cars. Dad said the generator was why the car was running funny and
stalling. Also, I discovered that I have a hole in the Ford’s tail pipe where
it had rusted through so that will have to be fixed. In the evening I went to
Alpha Beta at the Stanton Plaza and bought a few things to take back to the dorm. Then I decided to go
in to Long Beach to see Gary Bassin, Bob Wimberly, Nancy, and Sandy Burns. When
I arrived there Bob and Gary had to
leave for rehearsals and Nancy and Sandy
had some lesbians over, so I just
went back to Bob’s place and read a play
called The Boys In the Band and You’re a Goodman Charlie Brown. I decided to
spend the night in Long Beach rather than drive back to Fullerton. As a favor I
cleaned their apartment and did their
dishes before sleeping in the
couch. I spent the night also because I wanted to see Nancy and Sandy in the morning. It was a cool day at 65
degrees.
7 November 1971 Sunday
I was up at noon and Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin
were still a sleep after getting home
from rehearsals late. Shortly after I was up Bob got up also and we visited for a while . He said he was having a
party for some of his Gay friends at his apartment in the afternoon, so I went grocery shopping
with him to keep him company. Afterwards
at 2:30 I went over to Nancy and Sandy Burns place to hold church services and
have communion. I stayed until 3:30 rapping and discussing the Bible and the
meaning of God in our lives. I didn’t stay long as I had to be back In Fullerton
to have Sunday dinner with Frank and Barb Welte as I had promised to come over
last Friday. We had hamburgers and I stayed visiting until 7:30 before leaving to go back to the dorm. There
no one I knew was there, so I just read the Sunday paper, the National Lampoon,
and studied some before going to bed. There
was a witty segment in the National Lampoon, “In the latest in a series of
political kidnappings, Gay Liberation activists abducted Attorney General John
Mitchell from his back yard rifle range. When administration officials refused
to accept the GLF’s Bill of Fey Rights, Liberation leaders made good on their
threats and dumped Mr. Mitchell on a lonely beach on Fire Island with both his
wrist broken and his hair styled by Mr. Harold.” It never was very warm
today although it wasn’t really cold
either. 65 degrees.
8 November 1971 Monday’
Today was a really fun day. A lot of fooling
around with the kids from the Othry Hall dorm and just generally good fun. I
was up at 10:30 so I could study for my Reformation test although I didn’t
because instead, I went to the Commons for lunch. After that I did study a bit
for my test, but I really don’t give a damn what I did ion it. After class I
went to my Shakespeare class, and we are finishing reading "Troilus and
Cressida" . I saw Ralph Ludders just a little bit before taking my
Reformation test. He wants me to with him to England this summer. I would like
to but only God knows what the future holds. At 5 I went to the Commons to have
dinner and they served enchiladas and Sweet and Sour Pork. On the walk walking
back to the dorm we began our pranks. We spent the rest of the night calling
each other on the phone and , running up and down the hall ways and watching
Laugh-In. After that I came back to my dorm room and Jim Dalton and his
girlfriend Kathy O’Connor were over visiting.
Rick Davis and I aren’t getting along at all anymore. Later in the night after
midnight I went up to Tic Toc to see Bob Wimberly and Gary to give them the poster,
I made for them. I drew and painted a picture of the bird Woodstock from
Peanuts and wrote on the poster. A friend is someone who will; go out and get
two blow jobs and come back and give you One.” They loved it. The weather has
turned cold and hazy at 65 degrees.
9 November 1971 Tuesday
I got up at 10:30 today and went to the
Common’s for lunch at 11:00. I have
never gotten up early enough to ever go there for breakfast even though I am
paying for it. I missed my Hebrew Prophet’s class and I also decided not to go to
Christianity. Instead, I went back to the dormitory and studied before going to
the Commons for supper at 5. I goofed around with the gang for a while before going to one of the
experimental clubs on campus. It was for Gay students. I was just wanting to
explore what it was like and there was about six kids there. It was like only
their second meeting. The club was fun but afterwards O discovered that someone
stole my ten-speed bike. I guess they
ripped it off from the bike rack even though I had it locked. Oh well . It
isn’t the first bike I ever had stolen and undoubtedly it won’t be the last. Coming
back to the dorm I went with the gang up to Carl Jr’s for a coke and then we just
messed around until I went to bed at midnight. I didn’t tell anyone about going
to the Gay Club meeting . Things are
really in a tail spin for me right now and I don’t know where I am going. I
know I won’t be living in Othry Hall next semester and it’s too late to transfer to Cal State
Long Beach for the Spring Semester. If I d I will have to wait until next fall.
I’m trying to get hired at a new movie theater they are building in Yorba Linda.
The weather is cool and ugly out. 67
degrees.
Additional Memoirs
I wrote an article called “California Mormons
and Gay Student Unions” for the Q Salt Lake. It was published September 13 2009
The first openly gay
person I ever knew was a Mormon student who attended Cypress College in Orange
County California. It was 1971 and I really never knew any Mormons or gays
before going off to college. This 18-year-old’s name was Kent Sandy Larsen, and
he took a perverse pride in the fact that his initials’ spelled KSL. Not until
after moving to Utah did, I realize why he had this affinity with these call
letters.
Now, Kent was not only
gay, but he was also a flamer. He was a fine art major and was creative as all
get out. I was a history major, but we were thrown together by Cypress
College’s quirky decision to place all the humanities majors together in one
building. He and I met in an art appreciation class taught by Terry O’Brien,
who was a young and hot instructor, now living in Utah County. Kent informed me
that O’Brien was also a Mormon. It was through my friendship with Kent that I
discovered that there was a strong Mormon presence almost everywhere on campus;
and I also learned that if Kent knew them, lavender was probably lurking
nearby.
Kent Larsen and I
became art locker mates, and he first dropped his “hairpins” around me during a
ceramic class we both were taking. Over a coffee break he confided in me that
he was going through an identity crisis. He confessed that the love of his life
was another Mormon with whom he had dallied all through high school. The
romance ended when his love became Elder Farnsworth and decided to go on a
mission. Kent was inconsolable. I confided in Kent that I, too, had a secret
love, but unlike his, it had been unrequited. But we both had labored at love
and lost, and along with the fact that we were just beginning our voyage into
adulthood, this was enough to cement our friendship.
Kent’s mother was an
old fashion, sweet, rhubarb pie-baking, coffee-drinking native of Ephraim,
Utah. Kent was her baby and he had told her about his homosexuality after
refusing to explain his absence from Gold and Green Balls any longer. Pained,
she had written to Salt Lake City authorities for solace. She received none,
and for some reason she decided I would be a confidant to whom she would pour
out all her sorrows and disappointment in her church leaders’ silence. I think
because I was not a Mormon and I was Kent’s friend, “sister” Larsen felt she
could open up to me knowing I would not judge her as harshly as her Mormon
peers would. I was a gentile after all, so my opinion really didn’t matter,
anyway. But unbeknownst to Kent’s mother, I, too, had homosexual tendencies.
Perhaps she suspected it, having scrutinized her own son’s lack of female
friends. Or maybe not. But from these kaffeeklatsches I developed an
appreciation for rhubarb pie.
Kent Larsen was a very
vivacious blond Mormon youth, and he attracted a following of fawning gay guys
and less attractive straight girls. He was a road show of enthusiasm and even
ran for student body president of our college house and won. It was through my
friendship with Kent that I ventured timidly into the previously hidden portals
of the homosexual world. Kent kept an entourage of drama students who were not
only openly gay but flaunting it. I was not, however, amused, still pretending
that I was just temperamental not queer. In 1971 I was barely acknowledging
that I might have a tinge of pink in my nature.
In college, friendships
often burn bright and fast and then burn out. I graduated with an associate
degree from Cypress College with a skewed view of Mormons and homosexuality. I
had this vague sense that since Mormonism was so quirky with notions of golden
plates, lost tribes, and polygamist pioneers that its followers would also be
quirky and cool with homosexuality. I based this on the fact that nearly every
Mormon I knew at that time was gay.
Kent was a year behind
me in college, and in the fall of 1971, I had transferred to Cal State
Fullerton. Kent remained at Cypress to reign as queen, and I settled into the
dorms at the university. There my dorm mates were a hyper 17-year-old freshman
jock and a 26-year-old Vietnam War navy veteran. The 17-year-old was trying to
prove he was macho by binge drinking and fornicating with willing co-eds while
my Navy mate, who looked like Robert Redford with his Sundance Kid mustache,
used me to try and reacclimatize to civilian life. I was fascinated with them,
and we became really close as dorm mates can become. But I had a secret that,
when revealed, turned our relationships topsy-turvy.
In August, before I
transferred to Cal State Fullerton, a small group of Gay Liberationists had
petitioned the Senate of the Associated Student Body for recognition of a Gay
Student Union on campus. Only a handful of Gay Student Unions existed in 1970 —
just one year after the Stonewall
Rebellion — but by 1971 they were popping up all over the nation. The Senate of
the Associated Students of CSF voted overwhelmingly to approve the club.
However, the President
of the Associated Student Body was a Mormon named Brent Fairbanks Romney, and
then as now, Mormons felt they had the right to press their ideology upon
non-Mormons. So, Romney vetoed the Senate decision on Sept. 11, 1971, thus
squelching the rights of homosexuals on campus to organize their own club. But
while Romney managed to keep the Gay Student Union from being recognized as an
officially sanction student club, he was not able to keep gays from meeting.
In October 1971 I saw a
flyer on a campus bulletin board amid all the calls for war protest rallies and
consciousness raising. It detailed the meeting time and place for a clandestine
Gay Student Union. For whatever reason the fates were prompting me, I knew that
my destiny demanded that I had to attend, and I did. Screwing my courage to the
sticking-place and I hoping I would not fail, I walked into that college
classroom where about seven souls had gathered to reclaim their lives and their
choices. I felt at home for the first time in my life.
I never knew Brent
Fairbanks Romney and he certainly never knew me. Why he felt he was entitled to
dictate what I did with my life, I know not. Looking back now, I see that the
Mormon Church then was filled with more Brent Romneys then Kent Larsen’s. It is
true even today. More’s the pity.”
10 November 1971
Wednesday
I got up at 11:30 and dressed to go to the
commons for lunch. Everybody was gone when I got there except Laura Edmunson,
so we sat and chatted for a while. She said her mother was giving away their
old sofa and I told her I’d take it. Then I went to both my Reformation and
Shakespeare classes. Afterwards went to
supper back at the Commons and then went off to do a lot of little things I had
to do. I went to Cypress College o have them send my transcripts to Cal State
Long Beach and while there I went to the Bernstein House and saw Kent Larson,
Wendy Warner, and Mrs. Felos. I could tell that things had really changed . I
was thinking about dropping Cal State Fullerton
and toing back to Cypress for a semester
again before transferring to Klong beach but after seeing how Cypress had changed or maybe I had, the ghosts there were too strong
for me to go back. I went to the house in Garden Grove to have my sister Donna
take some things back up to Cypress tomorrow, then I went back to the dorm around 11:30. My car’s tailpipe has a hole in
it that needs fixing before I get a ticket for smogging. I asked Jim Dalton if
he would like to move out of the dorms with me into an apartment and he said it
sounded good and he wanted to. Well at least that is settled about getting away
from the dorm.
Grandma Johnson wrote a letter to my sister
Charline Wachs. “Sundy Nov. 7th Dear Chaline, Dennis, James &
Betty ha! I got the announcement . Chaline I guess I get all your letters if I
don’t answer soon I get a letter I just forget. So do forgive. Did you get the
little pink dress and little long pants , I sent her. I’m crazy to see
her. Jr. Wrote she was a pretty little girl and June wild
abouther. I know James loves her if you
don’t evergive him cause ti be jealous.
June
said you all might not come back. Now Dennis and Charline I’m counting on you
“this do’t take place but oce in a life time and I want all my family here.
I know with the babu expenses mount up. But we’ll
pay your way. I’m jusy afraid June not
ging to make it he trip .
Anyway Pauline
working hard to make a success . I hope sje not disappointed. Now write
right back if you want me to send the money or wait till you get here.
Its sue cold .They’re talking of snow, If it comes now may be pretty by the 21at.
Lets us hear and lve the kids for us. Love from your grandparents.
11 November 1971
Thursday
I got up at 10:30 and went to my Hebrew
Prophets class and also to my Christianity Class. After that I went home to
Garden Grove to go to my bank before it closed and took out $210 to pay off my Othry
Hall dorm contract and I loaned Mom $168 so she could pay her state property
taxes. At Dale Street I fixed my tailpipe and made spaghetti for Mom and Dad. Mom’s
back is still hurting he r pretty bad. Dennis Wachs mother Janet Peavy was over
today visiting with Charline and the kids. My nephew James was coming down with
asthma and little Denise has a rash on her face which Charline had taken her to
the doctors form. I didn’t see my sister Donna
for she was still at work. I left Garden Grove around six after my
laundry was sone and came back to the dorm and cleaned up some of my mess there.
Jim Dalton and I studied together for our Shakespeare test tomorrow, I enjoy
being with Jim. It rained this evening , pretty steadily. I get forlorn and
melancholy in November during the rainy
weather for it reminds me hon in 1969 I used to drive around on the freeway for
hours in the rain by myself because I couldn’t go over to be with John
Cunningham.
12 November 1971 Friday
I got up around 10 today and studied with Jim
Dalton some before I went to lunch. I studied some more before going to my
Reformation Class and then went to Shakespeare where I took my test/ I hope I
did well on it, but I can’t really tell whether I did or not. At 5 I went to the
Commons for supper and afterward I went to the Titan Theater and saw Walt Disney’s Fantasia. It was
tremendous . Such an ultimate sensory experience . I think I saw it once before
in the winter of 1969, but I can’t remember whether I saw it with Jerry Smith
or John Cunningham. When it was first released in 19540 it was a flop because
the audiences of the time weren’t sophisticated enough to appreciate it but now
in 1971 it is a box office smash. The weather is really nippy outside at night
although it is nice in the day time when the wind isn’t bowing . 65 degrees.
The dorm’s big social event of the
season is called Monte Carlo, but I don’t think I am going to it because all it
is going to be is drinking and gambling. Everybody seems to be excited about
the football game against Cal-State San Obispo . Seems barbaric to me.
13 November 1971
Saturday
 |
| Dave Gubler |
14 November 1971 Sunday
I was up at 8:30 when Sandy Burns called and said
to get ready to go with them to church. After dressing I went over to their
apartment and cigar smoking Rita came over shortly afterwards. We went to a
service of the Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles to hear this
preacher named Troy Perry. While I was pleased with what the church is trying
to do for homosexuals, I was offended by the type of service which I thought
was misguided with too much ceremony and ritual. The girls all stood in line to
take communion from Troy Perry and his assistants, but I didn’t want to take
the Lord’s Supper in that manner. The Church of Christ should be plain and
unadorned with an unpaid ministry of Elders. Speak where the Bible speaks and
be silent where the Bible is silent. Troy Perry greeted us and others as we left,
and I shook his hand to show I was not a snob. After the church service we
drove down Hollywood Boulevard and went to the Grauman’s Chinese Theater to
look at the footprints of the stars. We just goofed around being silly and ten we ate lunch across the
street at the Hamburger Hamlet. To make a day of it we then went to Hancock
Park to look at the La Brea Tar Pits and go through the Los Angeles Art Museum.
There was a special exhibition of some of Picasso’s works and it was very
impressive. I also liked a collection of
works of a new artist named Chuck Close who painted in photorealism. We all
really had a nice getaway and Los
Angeles was beautiful today because it was breezy out so there was no smog. You
could see all the mountains surrounding Los Angeles. The weather was kind of
cool though at 65 degrees. We were back in Long Beach by 5 and then I drove
home to Fullerton. Boob Wimberly and Gary Bassin stopped by my dorm room for a
while as they went to see Fantasia at the Titan Theater. In the news 3 Cal
State Fullerton football coaches were
killed in a plane crash.
15 November 1971 Monday
I got up at 11”30 and went to the Common’s for
lunch then I came back to the Othry Hall Dormitory Lobby and sat around with
the dorm kids just rapping and having a good time. I didn’t go to my 2 o’clock
Reformation class but I did go to my Shakespeare Class. At dinner time we had
Roast Beef in the Commons and I visited with this girl who I s also I my Hebrew
Prophet’s Class. I’m thinking about an interesting and creative idea for my
term project for that class. In the evening I went into Garden Grove to pick up Linda Spark’s books from her to
bring back to the University of California at Irvine for her. I also stopped at
the house on Dale Street. My sister Charline and Dennis were there . My nephew
James is coming down with a cold and Mom was rocking the baby asleep . Leaving
Garden Grove, I drove to Irvine to turned in the books Linda and I had checked
out . I was back at the dorm about 9 when my sister Donna called and said that Mom
and Dad would be leaving this Friday at noon to go back to Texas for Grandma
and Grandpa Johnson’s 50th Anniversary celebration. I guess I’ll go
back with them. I have to lose some weight before going back to Texas. I’ve
gotten so fat lately at 175 pounds. I should weigh 160 pounds. With God’s help
maybe I can shed a few. It’s so hard for me. The weather in the day was warm
but a night it was cold.
16 November 1971
Tuesday
I got up at 10:30 and got ready to go to my
Hebrew Prophets class where we are studying the Book of Isaiah right now. I have a book report due in that
class bit it’s late. In the afternoon I
talked to the dorm floor kids about me leaving to go back to Texas for Grandma and Grandpa Johnson’s 50th
Anniversary celebration and watched some
TV some. Rick Davis and I are not getting along at all anymore. There is too
great a difference in our life styles since I said I am Gay. I just don’t know
if I will be able to put up with his immaturity for the rest of the semester. I
went to the Gay Student Club my experiment college class tonight and we discussed religion among
other things. I still haven’t met that
many kids who attend yet as its kind of awkward. There are several guys in the
club that live in Othry Hall like me though. I am so mixed up and nothing in
school is going right for me. I just hope I can keep my grades up while I figure
this whole thing out.
17 November 1971 Wednesday
I thought I better go to my classed today for
it will be a while before I ‘ll get to them again because I am leaving for
Texas on Friday. In Shakespeare we are getting into Hamlet. Too bad I won’t be
able to hear Dr. Alice Scoufos finish
it. In the evening I went to the College Commons to eat dinner. We had steak and a baked potato. Dave Gubler is
funny as hell. He is so brilliantly witty. Janet Walton plays the fresh young
coy sweet thing which ZI suppose she is/
Paula and Gordon are both cynics while Rich Venture is friendly but often moody.
I guess because he’s Portuguese. But of all the kids, Kitty I think is the most
misunderstood and I think she has a lot
of personal problems . I hope they all work out for her. Still Jim Dalton is my
best friend and I’m his confidant. We spend long hours way into the mornings
talking about life and philosophy in general. Jim is a beautiful person. God bless,
love, and keep him.
18 November 1971
Thursday
I was up at 10:30 to attend my Hebrew Prophet
class but when I got there class had been canceled for the day because of the memorial service for the three
football coaches who were killed in the plane
crash. So, I then went to lunch, but I didn’t go to my Christianity class like I should have. The rest of the afternoon
I spent packing and preparing to leave the dorm tonight to head home to Garden Grove to spend
the night there. When I was out driving
around a Fullerton cop pulled me over because my car tail pipe was smoking, and
he gave me a ticket. I won’t have to get it fixed until after I returned for Texas.
I spent the rest of the evening talking
with Jim Dalton until about midnight
when I was going to go to Tic Toc to see Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin. When I left the building a wild and wicked wind was howling and blowing fiercely. Jim walked ,e out to my
car to say goodbye. I think he will miss my company. I can’t believe how fierce
the night wind is. Listening to it is seems to howl and scream, while the trees
bend and submit to its force. Satan must be in the wind, and I fear greatly. I
never made it to see Bob and Gary but drove straight home to Garden Grove.
19 November 1971 Friday
I was up at 10 to get ready for the trip back to Texas. Mom
and Dad had the car packed by noon and we left out at 12:30. My sister Donna
and I sat in the back seat, and I showed her that I had some uppers to help us
stay awake when it was our turn to help drive. We took the San Diego
Freeway down to San Diego and then east
to El Centro. Donna drove from there
into Yuma, Arizona where we stopped and had dinner. It was about 6:30 when
he got into Yuma. After eating e took the southern route through Tucson into New Mexico. It was night time for most of
the rest of the way so you could not see any of the scenery. Along the Arizona
Highway we were stopped by the highway patrol
because of a broken head light
but other than that we had no more trouble on the road. It was just a
long hard drive. Donna and I both took two whites to keep us awake while driving while Mom and Dad slept in the
back seat. The speed helped also to keep the trip from being too much of a
downer. The weather was cool for most of the day, but I could not say what the temperature was.
20 November 1971 Saturday
Today is the actual date of my grandparents; 50th
Anniversary but we will celebrate it tomorrow as we were on the road for most
of the morning after driving all night. We stopped in Roswell New Mexico for
breakfast although I was to wire to eat
anything. From there we drove into Hart Camp around 12:30 to Grandpa ‘s farm.
It took us 22 hours of straight driving from Garden Grove to the farm. My
sister Charline, Dennis, and the kids were already at the farm because they had
left a few days before we did. At the
farm Grandpa’s sister Aunt Nervy was down also for the celebration. I really
liked her as she is a good old folksy woman. Not more than an hour after we
arrived, Grandpa’s youngest sister Aunt Alice and uncle Spencer Lippard came in.
Grandma had a houseful but not all were going to stay at the farm as grandma’s
house is only a two bedroom. But we all had a bug lunch and visited for a while and rested from the quick
trip. In the evening Aunt Pauline asked me to help decorate the banquet hall in
Littlefield because she said she didn’t quite know how. So, I stayed up until 1
in the morning cutting ribbons and decorating the place to make it look festive.
I sure was tired as the speed was wearing off. I decorated with ribbons of different
colored Gold Ribbons and think I did a
nice job. But I will have to finish it in the morning. I think all this
activity is stressful on Grandma Johnson as she doesn’t know how to handle the
attention. I think it’s odd that none of her relations showed up.
21 November 1971 Sunday
Well today was the big day for Grandpa and
Grandma Johnson’s celebration of their 50th Anniversary. I slept at
JW and Pauline’s on their couch, and I was up at 7:30 so I could get dressed for
church and have Dad take me down to the Banquet Hall so I could finish decorating it . It looked really
amazing even if I say so myself. Dad came
back for me at 10 where then we all went
to the Littlefield Church for services. Aunt Nervie came to church with Grandma Johnson so that was really nice.
Afterwards we went to the Crescent House
in Littlefield to have dinner before going to the reception hall to
celebrate the anniversary which started at 2:30 My sister Donna and my cousin Kay attended the
refreshment table while my cousin John
Johnson and I looked after the gift table. More people attended then I thought would , nearly 150 people in
all, mostly church people, and neighbors from Hart Camp. All of the Huskeys
came around 3 and Donna and I were glad
to see them even though Donna was once engaged to Buddy. Judy Schroeder even
brought her little baby Johnny Curtis. He sue is a cute although Judy says he
hasn’t been all that well. After the reception was over, Judy invited Donna and
I to stay with her for a few days which we did. There in Lubbock we met some
fiends of Judy’s named Wayne and Lorrie with who we played cards mainly “Spoons.”
Grandma and Grandpa received a lot of nice gifts mostly items commemorating 50 years. Dad even
had to build a shelf back at the farm to
display them all.
I got up at 11:30 today over at Judy
Schroeder’s place . Buddy Huskey, Wayne, and Johnny Schroeder were home from work having lunch. Buddy is
still a fine looing man . We all goofed around for a while and in the afternoon, Judy had a few
errands today do we drove her around Lubbock
which hasn’t changed any except everything is so dried up looking. I
went to Texas Tech in the afternoon to look over the campus I almost went to in
1969 with Buddy Huskey until I met John Cunningham mu senior year. It’s a nice
campus ; all brick buildings in an
Anglo-Spanish style. I am glad however I
went to Cypress instead of Tech. In the
evening Wayne invited us all over for barbecued hamburgers and to ply cards. Judy
and her husband Johnny Schroeder, Buddy Huskey and his wife Joanne, Wayne, and
his wife Lorrie, along with Donna and Me were all there for the get together. After
eating we played “spoons” again and the board game clue until Buddy and Joanne
had to leave at 10:30. We left Wayne’s place about a half an hour later to go
back to the Quirt Street House. It was a very fun evening. I guess Buddy wants
to go back to school and pick up a teaching degree like his mother only not Elementary
but in agriculture now that he has quit his job at the Yellow House Ranch, he
had last summer. I kind of think his rodeo
cowboy days are about over. None of the Huskeys seem to care much for Joanne
but I don’t think any of them think any woman is good enough for Buddy. I hope
things work out for the, The weather is cold and overcast at 45 degrees.
23 November 1971 Monday
I was up
at 7:30 this morning at Judy Schroeder’s place . I so tired from staying up
late visiting, but we had to get the car home to Mom and Dad who are staying
with Grandma and Grandpa at the farm. They wanted to go to Plainview to see
Granny Rose, Dad’s grandmother. She is 95 years old now. However, Mr. Huskey
drove at to the farm to take my sister Donna and me back into Lubbock to stay
with Judy until this afternoon. I then went with Mr. Huskeys to pick up Pam’s
car to take it to the house on Geneva Street. While I was there, I slept in
Buddy’s old bed and took a nap for 2 hours as I was exhausted. After I got up
at :30, Mrs. Huskey was home from teaching,
so we all went over to Judy’s to get Donna who had stayed there. Mr. and
Mrs. Huskey wanted to take Donna and me out to
dinner . We first drove back to Quirt Street, and we said our goodbyes to her
and Buddy who was there and then we left to drive to Levelland to see Pam who was living at the dorm there at
South Plains College. She was surprised to see us as she didn’t know we were
coming. After dropping Pam’s car off to her which Mr. Huskey had driven, we all
ate fried chicken at this restaurant in Levelland. We only stayed until 7:30 then Mr. and Mrs. Huskey drove us home out to
the farm at Hart Camp. Mr. and Mrs. Huskey came in to visit with everyone. My
uncle and aunt J.W. and Pauline Johnson were over also so Grandma and a
houseful for sure. The Huskeys left around 10:30 and when J.W. left I went with
him and Pauline to spend the night at their place. Donna stayed to sleep on the
fold down couch. At J.W.’s Kay was home, so I ended up talking to her for a while. We shared what was going on in
our lives. I guess she wants to leave
home as soon as she gets out of high school and away from Hart Camp. I don’t
blame her. Kay is almost like a little sister to me. I went to bed and slept on
the sofa in the living room.
24 November 1971 Wednesday
I didn’t get up until 11:30 at J.W. and
Pauline’s and then ate lunch with them. My sister Charline called from Grandma
Johnson’s and wanted me to go into Lubbock
with Dennis and her to show them around. They came by at 1:30 with my
nephew James and my sister Donna. The Baby stayed with Mom on the farm. In
Lubbock we went to McKenzie Park to see the
Prairie Dog Town. At one time a hundred
years ago, Lubbock was the center of the largest population of prairie dogs
numbering 400 million . Now there is only a few thousand left. After that we
went to 4th and Avenue Q Street to see
that damage that the tornado did a year
ago that still hasn’t been repaired. The South Plains Building which Dad
lost his money in stock, was said to be a total lost and has to come down. We drove way out to 50th
Street to see the newer parts of town
and then we went to Underwoods Restaurant to eat some barbeque, They have some of the
best barbeque food as well as fried okra and cherry cobbler. We came back to
the farm by 5:30 and I went back to J.W. and Pauline’s to stay with them At 7:30
I went to church with them at Spade where J.W. is an Elder but they didn’t make Kay go. Back at their
place I watched Night gallery at 9 as that Kay was gone to pick up a friend for most of the evening. It was windy and cold
today at 50 degrees.
25 November 1971 Thursday
When I got up at 10:30 Aunt Pauline was already
making Thanksgiving fixings. Everyone
came down to J.W and Pauline’s for Thanksgiving dinner which was really delicious.
We finished eating about 1:30 so my cousin Kay wanted me to go with her into
Littlefield to buy some cigarettes. Her new Plymouth automobile is really nice.
We visited along the way, and I guess Kay is really down in the blues because
she wants to leave Texas as soon as possible. I told her about myself so she
wouldn’t think her problems were as bad as that and she is the first person in
the family that I was Gay or probably ever will. She said that it didn’t matter
because she was a whore because she and her boyfriend Neil Ballard screw on a
regular basis because there’s nothing else to do in the boondocks. In the
evening everyone came back down to Grandma and Grandpa’s to visit some more before we leave out tomorrow. Soon
it won’t even feel like I’ve even been back here. The baby sure has been good the whole
time except when she had the colic and Aunt Nervie gave her a spoonful of
whiskey to sooth her which it did.
26 November 1971 Friday
We all got up at 5:30 this morning and it was
still dark and cold outside. We packed
the car and after a tearful farewell, we were off. I was so glad to be going back
to California even if it meant leaving Grandma and Grandpa, We drove through
Roswell New Mexico into Alamogordo where we stopped to have lunch. My sister
Charline and Dennis was following us, so
I switched from riding in Mom’s car to Dennis.’ It was a long hard drive into
Arizona where we ate dinner at a little
bitty town called San Simon at a
hamburger joint right across the state line. We all decided to drive as much as
possible today so that tomorrow wouldn’t
be so hard. We drove into Gila Bend about 10 and spent the night in this little,
small motel. The weather was clear and dry
all the way except at Apache Summit
in Lincoln County New Mexico where there was snow at 7500 feet. Oh, I’ll
be so glad to get back to Fullerton. I’m tired of driving and even more of riding.
I even have a blister on my butt. No kidding. I didn’t enjoy this trip to
Texas because there was too much to do
in so little time. It was just good to see everyone once again though.
27 November 1971 Saturday
We left Gila Bend about 6:30 in the morning and
drove on into Yuma Arizona where we stopped to have some breakfast. To stretch
our legs, we also stopped at the Uma Territorial Prison which was extremely
interesting . It reminded me that in the news the prison riot in New York was
over today by the prisoners who released
the hostages. After leaving Yuma, we went on in to San Diego then up the San
Diego Freeway to Orange County. We stopped
in Carlton near Yorba Linda to eat some
lunch and then Mom and Dad dropped me off at Cal State Fullerton. I was so glad
to be back. I just grabbed all my stuff and went on over to Othry Hall
surprised to find nobody there in my dorm room. Kitty, Phyllis Lewis, and Rich
Ventura were all in the lobby hanging out . Rich and Phyllis told me some
horrible news that Dave Gubler was in the hospital in a coma. They wouldn’t
tell me what was wrong. It was really strange that they were reluctant to tell
me more other than that. In the evening I went to the movies just to rest .
That is sometimes the best way for me by sitting in a darken theater and
mentally escaping. I went to the Lowes Theater on Euclid and saw “Caged Men” which
was advertised as “The Different Kind of Brotherly Love That Makes Prisoners
Riot.” The movie was about prison rape and was awful compared to Fortune and Men’s
Eyes. Playing with it was “Pretty Maids in a Row” with Rock Hudson in it. The
movie was a black comedy murder mystery which was really good I thought. I was
back in the dorms by 10:30 and Jim Dalton was there. It was so
good to see him again. Later at night I called Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin up
to tell them I was back from Texas.
28 November 1971 Sunday
I didn’t get up until 11 this morning because I
so tired but as soon as I did, I went over to Mom and Dad’s in Garden Grove to
work on my car. I put a new oil sensor on the Ford and changed the oil. It
still smokes so it looks like I am going
to have to put a new tail pipe on it to. I came back to Othry Hall about 6 and brought some Chop Suey and Chinese
Rice home for Jim Dalton and me. Rick Davis returned form Lancaster about the same time with his parents. Jim and
I aren’t in good terms with Rick anymore. It’s too bad in a way. In the evening
Jim was going to go to the show with his girlfriend Kathy O’Connor but she
wasn’t feeling well so he asked me to go along instead, and we walked over to
the Titan Theater and saw “Man in the
Wilderness” with Richard Harris in it and “Omega Man: with Charlton Heston.
They were both entertaining, but I
didn’t especially like either of the them although they were good. I did have a
good time being with Jim however sitting close to him in the dark. It was the
first time we actually did anything together outside of school. The weather is
cloudy skies and a bit nippy out 65
degrees.
29 November 1971 Monday
I was up at 9:30 because I had a lot of running
around to do. I drove back over to Garden Grove to pick up my record albums
from the post office I had ordered from my record club. I had joined the
Time-Life Record Club and my first set of records were on the Baroque Period of
classical music. I also had to put money
into my checking account because I was overdrawn. I returned to the campus
about noon and went to the College Commons to eat lunch. We had burritos. I
didn’t go to my Reformation Class or my Shakespeare Class because I fell asleep in the afternoon. I feel like I may be coming
down with something like the flu that is going through the dorms. I hope I
don’t get it. In the evening I went to dinner at the Commons and had a meat and
macaroni casserole. The dorm kids still
say Dave Gubler’s in a coma. I am hearing gossip that he tried to kill himself
with an overdose of pills because of his struggling with who he is. I pray that
God will be merciful. After supper I took my new records up to Kate and
Catherine’s room to listen to music and rap. They are roommates of Jim Dalton’s
girlfriend Kathy O’Connor. I had a very enjoyable evening up there. It was our
“culture night.” Ha! I wrote sally Johnson a letter today. She is coming
home from Montana on the 20th
of December.
30 November 1971 Tuesday
I didn’t attend any of my classes today because
I’m still not yet quite into the going back to school mode. I still have a book
report and term project that is due in my Hebrew Prophets class. I am going to
finish those this week before going back
to class. I got my registration date for the Spring Semester in the mail. I will
resister on the 15th of December at 5 o’clock. I don’t know exactly
what I’ll take as the class schedules
haven’t come out yet. In the evening I went to the experimental Gay Student
Club and the guest speaker was a member
of the ACLU who spoke about the laws against homosexuality. It was extremely
informative about avoiding harassment with the police departments of Los
Angeles and Orange County. After the meeting, this cute guy named Mark Torriano
came over to talk for a while and then at midnight after Mark left, I went up
the Tic Toc Market to see Bob Wimberly
and Gary Bassin. It was the first time I’ve seen them since I got back to California
from Texas. Bob was telling me how Sally Johnson and the rest of the Cypress gang
specifically asked Bob not to come to
Sally’s homecoming because he is Gay. I was outraged . I finally told Jim
Dalton about myself tonight and he took it quite well, I think.
DECEMBER 1971
1 December 1971
Wednesday
Today was little James’ 3rd birthday
and I didn’t get to send him a card or a present. I have no money. He was born
in Artesia, California. Someday he will not want from me. That is for sure. I
remembered the little wart though with all the love in my heart on his 3rd
birthday. Today I only went to my Shakespeare Class again. Dr. Alice Scoufos remarked
about how bright she thought I was and that just made my day. I just kept
ribbing Jim Dalton about it. Jim is such a good, wonderful man and a human
being. I really love him for his
kindness he shows to me and others. He let me borrow $5 so I could but gas to
go down to Garden Grove to see James. Rick Davis is just driving me right up
the wall. If I don’t get away from him pretty soon, I think I will crack up.
How can anyone person be so repugnant but then the Bible tells us we can hate no man
so I will endure. Today at the Commons at supper time, I met a new kind named
Paul Dobyns. We are both Arians though we really don’t have that much in common.
It is still good to meet new faces. Dave Gubler is not going to come back to
Fullerton this year, but he is steadily recovering quite well so Phyllis Lewis
says.
2 December 1971 Thursday
I got up at 11 this morning and went to the
Commons to eat. I didn’t go to my Hebrew Prophet’s class , only to my Early
Christianity Class. Linda Sparks was being sarcastic about how much school I
have missed . Anyway, in the evening I did finish my book report and am into my
term project. I will have them completed
surely by next Tuesday. In the evening I went to supper with Paul Dobyns,
and we talked a lot about different things going on in our lives, about school
and the draft. I always seem to meet people too late. I mean now that I’m going
to move out of the dorms. I was going to stay in the dorms over Christmas
vacation but today they said everybody who is going to stay is going to have to
move to Hall I . Well hell, I don’t want to have to move into some stranger’s
room for two weeks. I don’t know now what I’m going to do. Jim Dalton is in the
same straights. The weather today is cold and chilly, a cold front is supposed
to be moving in . 60 degrees. In the news there has been border clashes between
Pakistan and India and as they both have nuclear weapons it’s pretty serious.
3 December 1971 Friday
It was a truly wonderful day for me though to
world peace it was a Black Day. India and Pakistan have declared war and President
Mixon has pledged commitment to the Israeli War. Today I started out like any
other . I got up at 11 and went to lunch and then went to Garden Grove to get
some money out of the bank. I bought another Jesus Christ Superstar album and
another rock opera called Truth of Truths. I went to my Shakespeare class but that
was all. In the evening I went to the Commons to eat with Janet Walton , Kitty,
and the gang but later I called Paul Dobyns up to see what he was doing. He
asked me up to his room to watch some television, so I went up there and some
of his friends, especially a boy named Terry. We talked and watched TV for a
while then I left about midnight because they were getting tired. I went up to
Jim Dalton’s girlfriend’s room where Jim was hanging out. Kathy O’Connor, Jim,
and I listened to my Jesus Christ Superstar album until Kathy wanted to go to
sleep. Jim was still antsy, and I think kind of horny, so we left and went to
the laundry room to hang out and visit. Jim and I talked about our sexual experiences,
and he then surprised me by asking what do Gay guys do? I said they mostly kind
of give blow jobs and he then asked me if I would give him one. I was taken by
surprised but said sure and we went to our dorm room where Rick was already
sound asleep.
The
room was dark, and we went over to his side of the room where we had sex. This
was the first time since Phil Casas, and I stopped having sex in high school probably
six years ago. Before Jim, Phil was the only boy I ever had sucked off and back
then I wasn’t that keen on it but with Jim it was different as I really liked
Jim and he was so handsome in a Robert Redford kind of way. Jim and I had a
beautiful experience way in the early morning hours. One I will never forget. It
was mostly a rainy day today.
4 December 1971
Saturday
This morning at 4:30 Rick Davis got up in his
sleep, climbed down from the bunk bed above me and turned on all the lights,
lit a cigarette and went back to sleep. I was so mad. I had to get up and take
the damn cigarette from him before he burned us all up in the middle of the
night. I then got up at 6 to get ready to take the car over to where Dad works
at H& L Distributors so we could put
a new tailpipe on the Ford Galaxy. We got the car running now and all I have to
do now is take it to the Highway Patrol headquarters to get the ticket written
off. I came back to Othry Hall about 8:30 and promptly went back to bed and
slept until 12:30 when Jim Dalton and I both got up, I went to Garden Grove to
do some laundry and brought some Chop suey and egg rolls back to Othry Hall for Jim and me.
They were delicious. Jim had to go to work at 6 so I just stayed in and watched
TV some until I got ready to go over to Cypress to meet up with Gary Wimberly
and Gary Bassin at 8. The play Amahl and the Night Visitors stated at 8:30 . A
actress named Phyllis King played the part of the mother and was great. The
little boy was played by Patrick Swaggarty. Afterwards Bob, Gary, and I went
over to Burger King to get something to eat. I ordered a Whopper which was
almost too much to eat. Then I went on home to the dorms.
5 December 1971 Sunday
I slept in until 11 then was up Both Jim Dalton
and Rick Dave were gone somewhere. As I was waking, I remembered that I didn’t
have enough money to pay Jim back for last Wednesday, so I paid him back by
doing up all his laundry at home in Garden Grove. I spent ,most of the day at Mom’s
doing laundry . Mom and Dad were gone somewhere. I imagine they were out
Christmas shopping. My sister Charline, Dennis and their kids came over today.
James fell I guess and cut his head open. He’s always falling down . I just
hope he survives his childhood. If he does nothing will kill him. Ha! Anyway,
when I returned to the dorms, Rick Davis went to work at Thrifty’s and Jim
Dalton was upstairs visiting with his girlfriend Kathy O’Connor. I was out in
the hall talking with Gordon when Paul came up and squirted me with a water
pistol filled with cologne. I grabbed him, trying to take the water gun away
and Rich Burton poured water all over my head. Gordon, Rich Ventura, and I retaliated,
and we all had a water fight until the
resident advisor on duty intervene d and
put a stop[ to it. I was soaking wet, but it was so much fun. After drying off and changing clothes I went up to Cathy’s
room where Jim was, and we watched The Great Race with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon,
and Natalie Wood in it.
6 December 1971 Monday
Today I got up at 11 in the morning and got
ready for school. I had a test scheduled for my Reformation Class at 2 but I hadn’t studied for it at all, so I
decided not to go. All in all, the test probably wasn’t given today anyway. In
the afternoon I went to my Shakespeare Class were we are studying Othello. I am
writing really screwed up right now because Rick Davis and I got into a quarrel
and a fight when he started calling me a faggot. I really put him down as I was as mad as hell . I still am. The fucking
cocksucker. I’d like to send him straight to hell where he belongs after all I have done for him. Jim Dalton and
I went apartment hunting together about
4:30 and we found a real nice place for $150 in Placentia. In the
evening I met this boy named Michael Hughes
who is really nice even if he’s kind of distant. I hope to get to know him
better and to become good friends. Bret Welte called me about 7 and asked me to
come to his folk’s house at 2243 Hartford Avenue. Frank and Barb only live
about a mile and a half from campus. Frank and Barb were gone so Cathy Welte wanted
to talk to me because she is 3 months pregnant and only 14 years old. She was
afraid to tell her folks and I told her to come to me whenever she has problems,
she can’t tell anyone else about. I know about keeping secrets from people. She
got pregnant when she ran away from home to get away from Frank who had been
abusing her.
7 December 1971 Tuesday
I got up at 10:30 today but missed my Hebrew Prophet’s
class I was really pissed at myself as I wanted to turn in my three act
play that I had finished for class. It’s
on the Prophet Amos. I didn’t go to my Christianity class either but instead went apartment hunting by myself
because Jim Dalton had to go to work for 8 hour today. I’m not staying in the Othry
Hall dorms with Rick Davis any longer. I don’t hate him. I just can’t stand the
air of hostility he has for me now by calling me names like Queer Boy and
Faggot. I don’t pay $137 a month here at the dorms to be harassed by a teenage bully. That is what I told Luke
Burson, my resident advisor, He said he understood perfectly, and he sent me to
see Aaron Maxia who is the person in charge of the dorms with whom I had a long
talk about exactly what the problem was between Rick Davis and me and where I
stood on the matter. I told him was gay and he said he would talk to Tom Ulrich
for me and try and get some of my money
back from my breaking my contract. In the evening I went to McDonald to
see this boy named Terry where he works.
In the news the Pakistan war is still in full force with India pretty well
defeating Pakistani troops.
I picked up a copy of
the list of the top ten songs on KHJ which
are Sly and The family Stone’s Family Affair, Staple Singers Respect Yourself,
Neil Diamond’ Stones, The Three Dog Night’s An Old Fashion Love Song, The Chi-Lites
Have You Seen her, Theme From Shaft, Don Mclean’s American Pie, Temptation’s
Superstar, Honey Cone’s One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show. I Like Les Crane’s The Desiderata
and Melanie’s Brand-New Key
8 December 1971
Wednesday
I got up at 11 today and went to the Commons to
eat lunch. I visited with Mark Torrani and Paul Dobyns some. I didn’t go to Reformation again, only
to my Shakespeare Class. There I told
Jim Dalton that I found an apartment at the Sycamore Village which I really
liked. We drove out there after class and took a look at it. We compared it
some others and decided we liked it best of all. It’s a one-bedroom unfurnished
apartment with all utilities paid for $150 a month. I like it and I just hope
Jim really does also. We paid the $30 deposit to hold the apartment and the manager
said as soon as I pay the $150, I could move in although the rent doesn’t begin
until January. When I came back to the dorm room at Othrys Hall, I called Mom
and told her that I got an apartment and
then I called Bob Wimberly and Garry Bassin. In the evening, the dorm hall kids
all sat in the lobby and we burned a fire in the fireplace as a surprise Phyllis Lewis and her boyfriend
Ben came down from Glendale to see us and
they said that Dave Gubler was getting better.
9 December 1971
Thursday
Jim Dalton woke me up in time to attend class
at 10:30. In my Hebrew Prophet class we are reviewing for a test to be given
next Tuesday. Rabbi Feirman handed back out book reports ad term projects. I
got a B on the book report and an A in my term project. I was so happy about
that. After lunch in the commons, I went to my Christianity Class and saw Linda
Sparks . Afterwards I went home to Garden grove where I withdrew $150 out of
the bank for the apartment. I also had my car ticket written off by the Highway
Patrol after getting the tailpipe fixed. Back at the dorms I talked to Gordon
for a while about me moving out of the dorms and I drove him to show him the Sycamore
Apartments. My new address will be 3300 Palm Drive number 331, Fullerton
California 92631. In the evening after Jim Dalton got off work, he, Kathy O’Connor,
and I went over to the apartment and we shoed Cathy around. It will soon be an all-new
life I will be having by the time the
New Year comes around. Glory to God and to his infinite wisdom and goodness.
10 December 1971 Friday
Today I got up at 10:30 and got dressed before
going to the College Commons to eat lunch. We had cheeseburgers and I sat and visited
with the usual kids. We found out today that they aren’t going to move everyone
out of hall 2 to Hall 1 for next
semester after all. That is good news for the kids who are staying in the
dorms. I didn’t go again to my Reformation Class. I probably will get a horrible
grade in it, but I really don’t care. I went to my Shakespeare Class s with Jim
Dalton, and we finished discussing Othello today. On Monday we will start on
King Lear. I dinner in the Commons and
sat with Paul Dobyns. We talked a little about astrology. In the evening after Rick Davis went off to work, I went over
to the apartment to finish moving in some little things from the Othrys Hall dorm
room. Jim Dalton found out today that they won’t release him from his dorm
contract. I hope he finds out why. I went to see Terry today at his work. I don’t think anything is
going to happen between us. The weather is very nippy at night; almost cold at 50 degrees.
11 December 1971
Saturday
I got up at 10:30 in time to go to brunch at the College Commons. Paul Dobyns and
Michael Hughes was there so I sat with them and visited. Afterwards I we back
to the dorms to get ready to go to Garden Grove .There I dismantled Donna’s
twin bed to put in Dad’s pick up. I moved my old double size bed into Donna’s
room so she could use it now. I also took with me my desk and the things I
packed into boxes. Mom and Dad were over at Milton and Marie’s for most of the
day so I had to wait for them to come home with the truck keys before I could go back to Fullerton. When Mom
and Dad came home at 7, I called Jerry Smith up and he said he’s drive the pickup
for me as I don’t know how to drive a stick shift. He said he would help me carry
my thigs into the apartment also, We were done moving my things into the
apartment by 9:30 and I gave Jerry an
electric Coors sign that he collects for helping me. He likes those things.
When Jim Dalton got off work, we visited awhile about living together until
Rick Davis came home and insulted me again,
I just left and went to the apartment
where I sent my first night alone
since I now I have a bed there. My Aunt
Marie is letting me use some of her pots and pans until I can get some of my
own.
12 December 1971 Sunday
I got up at 10:30 at my new apartment and it
seemed strange to be here alone in basically an empty place. I got dressed and went to Garden Grove to work om my
car and I had to replace the starter.
Moe debt! God told us to seek after righteousness an to be like the birds of
the air and the lilies of the field. I pray it is so. I got done with the Ford about 2:30 and went back to Othrys Hall to
pick up a few remaining items. There I ran into Gordon and Paul. They were
going over to the Casa Commonwealth where they are planning on moving to along
with Janet Walton , Laura Edmunson, and Rich Ventura. I like Jim Dalton and my
apartment better . Anyway, I went to over to Frank and Barb Welte for dinner as
here was no food in the apartment and I was hungry. There is nothing of news to
report at the Weltes so either Cathy hasn’t told them, or they didn’t want to
tell me anything. Afterwards I went back to the apartment to straighten things
up that I had scattered throughout the front room. I watched some TV while
sitting on the floor. Jim and Kathy O’Connor came over for a while and I could
tell Jim was troubled about something. I guess Jim had a really rough day for
he seemed really tired. I wish he would of stayed here at the apartment and
rested for a while, but Kathy wanted him
to go back to the dorm.
13 December 1971 Monday
Today really started out bad. I got up early and
went to the housing office about breaking my contract, but they hadn’t even
considered it yet. But the real bummer was that when I went over to the dorms
to pick up a few things, I was talking to Jim Dalton, and he said he was having
second thoughts about moving out with me. When he said that my heart leaped
into my throat as I pondered what to do, I immediately left and drove back to
the apartment , fell on my bed, and cried and prayed for wisdom and strength. I
had no one to turn to. No one to talk to. Only Bob Wimberly came to mind, so I
drove to Long beach to be with him, but he wasn’t home. I didn’t know what else
to do. I felt so helpless so powerless. Why’d people have to act this way
because I said I was Gay? Why can’t people love and have more tolerance? I came
back to Fullerton in the afternoon and
wrote a letter to Jim saying everything That I couldn’t say to him in person. I
left it in his room and later he came over to the apartment to see me and we
talked. I said I felt betrayed and wronged and that I would never have moved
into this apartment if he would have told me sooner. He said that Rick Davis
told Kathy O’Connor that I was a queer,
and she didn’t want Kim living with me because of what people would say. We
compromised and he said he’s trying to work things out, but I told him that I
didn’t know if I still wanted to live with him now. I trusted him and had been hurt, I can forgive him, but I can’t forget. Life is so hard. God’s
will be done.
14 December 1971
Tuesday
I got
out of Othrys Hall contract finally because I said I was Gay. I’ll have to eat
at the Commons for the rest of the week,
but I’ll get my money back from the dorm room for this week. I went to
Garden Grove and withdrew $75 from the bank. $60 of it I loaned to Bob Wimberly
because he said he was a little short his week on his rent. I bought my sister
Doon and Jim Dalton’s Christmas gifts with $5 of the $15. Then another $5 I
spent on groceries to make some candy for the dorm kids. Mom said she would
made the fudge and divinity for me. The last $5 went towards buying some stuff
for the apartment although I wasted $2.59 because I bought a shower curtain that
as too short. I also bought some batiking stiff today. Grandma Johnson sent me
$10 for Christmas today also. I went to my Hebrew Prophet’s class to take a test,
But I have absolutely no idea how I did on it. My life is too much of a mess
right now to think about school. I came back to the Commons to eat dinner and afterwards I found that my
car wouldn’t start so I had Dad come up from
work to fix it. He said it was a solenoid wire that had come loose from the
battery. I then went to Builder’s emporium
to buy some stuff for the apartment. I saw Jim there, but it was still
too hard for me to talk to him.
15 December 1971 Wednesday
I didn’t get up until 10:30. When I did, I just
rounded up a lot of things to take over to Mom’s so I could work on some of my
batiking to get my mind off my troubles. Mom made up a batch of divinity and
fudge for me so I could take it to the
kid’s Christmas party at the Othrys Hall tomorrow. I stayed at Mom’s from 11:30
to about 4:30 then I left for Cal State Fullerton
to register for next semester. I just
threw a schedule together without much consideration. Even now I don’t know exactly
what I am taking. I really don’t care. Needless to say, I didn’t go to any of
my college classes today. In fact, I am dropping my Reformation class because I just can’t get into it with all
that is going on with me. At the Commons they had a steak dinner served by
candlelight which was kind of nice. Afterwards
I saw Terry and I talked to home for a while and then went to the dorms to talk
with Paul Dobyns. We didn’t visit long before I went them up to Builder’s
Emporium to see Jim Dalton. I really tried to be nice and show him I wasn’t mad
anymore. He said he wanted to move out of the dorms during Christmas vacation back
in with his parents. I was disappointed because he had talked about staying
with me over the break. I imagine that was Kathy O’Connor’s suggestion. He also
said he’d drop by tonight after work at
10 and now it’s 11 . I feel like such a fool and don’t understand anyone this.
16 December 1971 Thursday
I got up at the Sycamore Apartment at 11. I
didn’t make it to my Hebrew Prophet class
but went to lunch instead in the College Commons where I still had some
credit. I sat and chatted with Janet Walton. I am so depressed about my life. I
do believe things are going to get worse before they get better.
I had made up my mind
to kick Jim Dalton out and find me
another room mate or to at least try to
get out of the Sycamore contract. I talked to the apartment land lady, and she’s
been so understanding about my
situation. She said if I wanted to do so I could stay until February without any lease or anything. If I found a roommate
and stayed fine. If I couldn’t and wanted to leave, she said fine. At least I
will have a place to stay until then. She’s even given me the month of
December free. I don’t know what to do about Jim and my feelings for him.
Anyway, in the evening Janet held her Christmas Party at Othrys Hall.
There was about 9 of us there including Gordon Townsend, Paul Blankenship,
Phyllis Lewis, her boyfriend Ben, Laura Edmonson, Rich Ventura, Barb Williams,
and myself. It was just wonderful being with the gang again.
I brought homemade fudge and divinity. Laura brought
Christmas Cookies. The party lasted until midnight although about 11:30 Jim and
Rick Davis came to the party for some reason
as they hadn’t been that friendly with the gang before. It was painful to see
Jim there, so I didn’t stay long after that
17 December 1971 Friday
At the party yesterday, Gordon and Laura Edmunson asked if they could stay with me at the
Sycamore Apartment until the 31st after the dorm closes down for
Winter Break on the 20th. I said sure and glad for the company. At
the party we all talked about going on New Year’s Eve to Phyllis’ home in
Glendale for a party and maybe see the Rose Bowl Parade as she lives only a few
blocks away. Paul and Rich Ventura may also be staying with me for some of the
time over the Winter Recess. Anyway, this morning When I got up to go to
classes my car had a flat tire and so did my spare. I rolled the spare tire down
to the gas station to have it fixed but
then back at the apartment my car jack broke. Just everything went wrong , I
just felt like giving up. This whole week has been nothing but a heart ache and
misery. I finally fixed my jack and
replaced the flat tire with the spare for in the meantime. I decided today to
just let Jim Dalton do what he wants. If he wants to move in with me, he can.
If he doesn’t fine. Anyway, the Ford started smoking again and it just seemed
like everything is going wrong as if God was giving me a sign to repent. I
dropped my Reformation Class so now I
only have 9 units. Even my school work is screwed up. In the evening I wrote a letter
to Jim because I can’t catch him at work or in class , to tell him how
disappointed I am in him leaving me stranded after our friendship. I called Bob
Wimberley to come and pick me up for
tomorrow as I knew I wouldn’t be able to use my car until I can get the tail
pipe fixed to keep the exhaust from smoking so much. Around 2:30 I was
surprised when Jim Dalton showed up at my apartment to tell me that he decided to
stay with me and see how things worked out. I am so happy about that.
18 December 1971 Saturday
Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin came by the
apartment at 7 this morning after getting off work , to pick me up. I told them
about Jim Dalton’s decision to live with me but Bob think’s I am a fool. I
can’t help it. After all God doesn’t stop loving me when I sin so how can I
stop loving Jim when he hurts me? Anyway,
I left with them at 7:30 and when we reached Log Beach we sat around in their apartment and visited some before we all went back to bed. I slept until 4:40
in the afternoon but Gary and Bob slept in until 10:30 at night. In the meantime,
I just sat in the front room in the dark listening to classical music such as the Messiah and Shubert’s Ave Maria
over and over. I am so lonely and filled with despair about the direction of my
life. At least Jim said he is moving in with me. I’ll have that to look forward
to. Poor Jim how hard it must be for him to deal with me and Kathy O’Connor. I
went to bed at 1:30 in the morning after Gary and Bob had left to go to work at
Tic Toc.
You are my God and always will be, but I don’t
understand . I just don’t understand
19 December 1971 Sunday
I got up ay 10 this morning and straightened up
the apartment really good for Bob Wimberly’s Christmas Party tonight, I woke
Bon and Gary Bassin up at noon because there was a lot to be done; decorations
to be made, and cookies to be baked. The party preparation ended up being really nice, but I
couldn’t really get in to the spirit of it. The party was set for 5 and by then
everything was done and the Christmas candles all lit. but no one showed up for
the longest time. I really felt sorry for Bobbie, and this just heightened my feelings of despondency. Finally, at 7:30 some the kids
arrived but only Carl and Danny, Michael Fiore, and Nancy and Sandy Burns all
homosexuals. It was a small intimate Christmas get together but rather sad in some ways. Carl and Danny only
wanted to talk about sex and Bob was getting smashed on Cold Duck for he had
started drinking at 5. The party lasted until 11:30 then most went home when Bob and Gary had to
go to work. Michael Fiore who I knew
from Cypress and had just recently said he was Gay stayed a little longer and we visited some. I
think he wanted for us to do something together as he kept massaging my back, but I didn’t. He left after
midnight when he knew I wasn’t in the mood to fall into bed. I had tried to be
better company, but I felt as the party went on, I was living in a Shakespeare tragedy.
I know my fatal flaws but where’s my noble character? I just wanted to go home to
the Sycamore Apartment, but I spent another night at Bob’s wondering if this is
supposed to be what being Gay is. Tomorrow officially begins the Winter recess
and there’s no school until January.
20 December 1971 Monday
I didn’t get up until 11:00 and began to clean up the mess from the party that was left over
from last night, lots of glasses, and empty bottles and used paper plates. I
didn’t really do anything all afternoon
except listen to music and visited with Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin
after they woke up. In the late
afternoon, we went over to see Nancy and Sandy Burns because their car is broken,
and Sandy needed a ride into work. While Sandy was at work, Nancy came over to the hermosa Apartment where we had Chinese takeout for dinner. I was
anxious to be out of the apartment so I went with Nancy so she could glaze her
pots. She is a very good potter and has her own potter’s wheel. We visited for
a while before I went back to Bob’s place around 10 and I started to round up my things to go
back to Fullerton. I was anxious to go home because I knew Jim Dalton would be
at the Sycamore Apartment . But before that we stopped at some friends of Bob
and Gary’s . they we very warm and sincere Gay people. When I finally reached the apartment at 11:30 it was dark in
the place, so I thought Jim Dalton wasn’t home yet however I soon realize he
wasn’t going to be there at all. He had left me a note changing his mind saying
he thought it would not work out staying
with me and decided to spend the Christmas vacation with his parents. I broke
down into tears. I do not understand why any of this happening to me. I just
want to go home to my mother. I am so tired of playing and losing.
21 December 1971 Tuesday
I didn’t get up until 11:30 and after getting
dressed I decided I better try and find some work as I am almost broke, and I
will need to come up with rent for January. It looks like everything is pretty
well taken for the holidays and I won’t be able to find much until after the
new Year It was a gloomy and depressing
day. It did rain some in the evening. I
was depressed and on the verge of tears over Jim Dalton stranding me in this
apartment that I just drove home to Garden Grove. Mom was in her bedroom
reading and I went in and just cried in her arms. I was so lonely, afraid , and
upset about everything and the mess I made of my life. Nothing seems to be
working out right for me. Mom held me and tried to comfort me asking what was
wrong but how could I tell her what was really wrong? So alas there was no
comfort to be had as there is no solution to what is wrong with me. Besides if
I did tell Mom about me, it would hurt Mom and Dad more than I hurt by keeping it a secret. Once
I got it out of my system and knew that Mom couldn’t fix me, I left and went to Fullerton to see Frank and
Barb because I had told Barb I would as
she had asked me over to have dinner, so I went. Barb fixed enchiladas and I stayed until 7:30 then returned to an
empty apartment . It was sprinkling pretty
good at the time and not wishing to be alone I got up enough nerve to go to
Builder’s Emporium to see Jim Dalton. I could tell he was nervous when he saw
me because I am sure he thought I was
mad but by now I wasn’t. I was not even upset anymore because I was through crying and decided to
just live from day to day. I told Jim that I still want to be good friends no
matter where we live.
22 December 1971 Wednesday
Today is James Dale Dalton’s 25th
birthday. I didn’t do much of anything today. I slept in as long as I could to
make the dismal day pass faster as I am in a state of depression. When I
finally got moving at 5 in the
afternoon, I went to the Ralph’s Supermarket and finally bought some groceries
for the apartment. I mainly bought canned goods as I still haven’t got a
refrigerator in yet. I’ll have to talk
to the land lady about getting
one tomorrow. It rained for most of the day anyway making the apartment feel that much
more gloomy. My car is really acting up with the power steering fluid leaking,
so the Ford is making a horrible noise. In the evening I just watched the Carol Burnett Show and I wanted to watch Rod
Serling’s Night Gallery, but it wasn’t on. So, I watched a crummy movie called
Crimes of Passion on Channel 9 instead. I am not feeling well., like I might
have a slight fever. Anyway, at midnight I drove to Tic Toc in Anaheim to see
Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin and waited 45 minutes, but they never showed up,
so I left to back to my apartment. I still feel so lonesome, but I also now
feel like the pieces are starting to fit back together . The pendulum has
swung to the extreme but now it’s about to swing back. It’s time
to say goodbye to old friends as God calls me onward out of sin.
23 December 1971 Thursday
I started reading the Bible again and a
revelation came to me tonight even after months of wickedness and when every
thought was on evil constantly. God has not forsaken me if I had shamefully
forgotten Him. Forgive me dear Lord for I have sinned. Forgive all us sinners.
Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no languor know. There for sin could
not atone, thou must save and thou alone. In my hands no price I bring, simply
to the cross I Cling. Rock of Ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee. I
need to avoid all promiscuity for that
is wickedness. A person who so his wild oats
also prepares for his eternal place in hell.
24 December 1971 Friday
At 7:30 this morning Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin stopped by the apartment and Bob to see how I
was . When they left, I was really sad because I knew I had to let them go from my life if I
want God in my life. I went back to bed, and I overslept until 12:30 this
afternoon but it didn’t matter because it was raining extremely hard. Today is
my Aunt Minnie Lee Williams’ 42nd birthday. She was born in
Muleshoe, Texas.
25 December 1971 Saturday
It rained all night and
some this morning but by the afternoon it had cleared up. My Aunt Bonnie
and Bill Fagan had Christmas Dinner over at their house at 5796 Honduras Way in
Buena Park this year, I left the apartment at noon and arrived there at 12:30.
As soon as I pulled of the freeway and
turned into the side street where they live, my front tire blew out on me. I was able to drive to Aunt Bonnie where my cousin Larry helped
me change my tire. I will definitely have to get new tires now. There’s no way
out of it. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa Williams were down from Yucaipa with
Aunt Minnie . I visited with them until Mom and Dad came over along with my
nephew James, My sister Charline and
Dennis brought baby Denise and my sister Donna came by herself. The only other person
to have come was my cousin Gary Williams who came by himself which was kind of surprising. My uncle and
aunt Milton and Marie did come as they are feuding with Bonnie and Bill over
some reason. We had a real nice turkey dinner, but I was kind of too tired to
really stay very long and left at 4:30 and went back to the Sycamore apartment in
Fullerton. At home I watched a 1937 version of Romeo and Juliet with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer both way
too old to be playing characters who are supposed to have been young teenagers
like was done in the 1969 version of the play. I also set down and wrote Jim
Dalton a letter to let him know how
things are with me and that I was
thankful for his friendship. So, this was Christmas day 1971.
26 December 1971 Sunday
Bob Wimberly and Gary Bassin came by this
morning to see me. They brought over their Christmas gifts for me. It was kind
of strange seeing them now after all that has happened. There is no feeling and
so very odd. Then when Bob gave me his minister Bible it was the sign that God
wanted me to end my acquaintance with him and Gary if I want to be on the path
of righteousness. Poor Bob and Gary in their seemingly happiness know not what tragedy lies ahead for them due
to their being wicked. After they left, I drove home to Garden Grover where Dad helped
me buy some tires for the Ford. I bought two for $32.80. While there I also did
up my laundry before coming back to the apartment at 3. The apartment manager
finally brought a refrigerator into the apartment, so I went shopping for fresh
groceries. I straightened up the apartment some and watched some TV before
going to bed. It looks like the weather may be clearing up. I need to let all
bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from my
life. I need to be kinder and more tenderhearted and forgiving of those who
offended me if I want God to forgive me
for my wickedness.
27 December 1971 Monday
It rained all afternoon and for most of the
evening. It was a cold and chilly rain also. In the afternoon I went over to
Cal State Fullerton to do some more research for Jim Dalton’s paper on Orange
County’s place names. I thought I’d help him since I seem to already know quite a bit of Orange County history. I used
to do so many term papers for John Cunningham when I was a freshman at Cypress
to help him keep his draft deferment. In the evening I straightened up the
apartment and then went down to Builder’s Emporium on State College Boulevard
to pick up some varnish for the gift I am making for Bob Wimberly. Once I complete
it, I will be finished with our former friendship. At Builder emporium I saw
Jim Dalton and he looked awful. He had a purple, swelled up lip. I asked him
what happened, and he told me that last Thursday on the way home from work he was in an
automobile accident in his LUV truck. Kathy O’Connor and he were both
involved but thanks to the mercifulness
of Jesus intervening no one was
seriously hurt. Jim’s truck was wrecked
pretty badly he said. After work he came
by the apartment where I gave him a big
hug and the Christmas gift, I had gotten him.
28 December 1971
Tuesday
Today I got up around 11 to get the place
somewhat straightened up for the dorm kids to arrive. It rained for most of the
morning but by the afternoon it really cleared up by then, even though it was
still extremely cold out. The Ford wouldn’t even start because it was too cold
today at 40 degrees. Anyway, Laura Edmunson came over first about 2:30 and not
long after that Janet Walton came over
to just visit. I guess everyone had a good time for Christmas. Janet left about
6:30 so Laura and I walked down to Rich Ventura’s cousin’s place to learn if he had heard
anything about where Gordon was. Monte Ventura is now living at the Cedar Glen
Apartment and Rich’s sister Tammi Ventura is down from Fresno where they all
are from. We visited with them until Gordon came in at 9:30. He had been in San
Francisco during the Christmas break. We
all stayed down at Monte’s until 11:30 and then went back to my apartment and had
a midnight snack before going to bed at 1:30.
I let Laura have my bed while Gordon and I slept on the floor in the
front room
29 December 1971
Wednesday
I have a strange feeling today that even now,
after all that is said and done, Jim Dalton will never come live with me as my roommate here at the
Sycamore Apartment, next year. I somehow know it as sure as I’m sitting here
writing this . I pray God it is not so. Besides thus ugly fear within my soul,
I had a beautiful day even if the Ford did break down again. When Laura Edmunson,
Gordon, and I got up, we fixed lunch and then we went to the Othrys Hall to
find someone to let us into dorms. Gordon needed to pick up his mail and get
his stereo. In the evening we went down to Monte Ventura’s place to pick up him and his cousins Rich and Tammi
Ventura because Laura had asked us to go to Covina to have dinner at her folk’s. There we had a spaghetti
dinner. I took the Ford because it was running super good for a change but as
soon as I pulled in to Laure’s driveway in Covina, the muffler fell off! Well, we ate dinner and had a great
time. Afterwards I tried to fix my car,
but I couldn’t . So, I called my uncle Milton Williams because he lived close
in Walnut, and he came and took us all
home to Fullerton. He didn’t mind rescuing us and I think he had fun being
with all us kids. I had a really good time until the muffler fell off. Glory to
God.
30 December 1971
Thursday
It was a beautiful day today and the rain was
all gone, and it was so crystal clear out. The mountains were snowcapped, and
you could see a panoramic view of them. It was just a really pretty day. I had
to get up at 8:30 to get ready to meet Mom at 9:30 who came to take me back to Covina to see
about the Ford. When we got there about 10, Laura Edmonson was home, and I
talked to her some as I worked on my car. I had to buy a new muffler but even
after I put it on, I saw that my tailpipe had come loose also. So, I had to
drive it to a welding place to get it all fixed. It cost me $24 before it was
all said and done. When I came back home, Gordon and I went over to Rich and
Tammi Ventura place, and we talked for most of the afternoon. I guess Rich
Ventura and Gordon decided they are going to move to the Casa Commonwealth apartments
instead in with Monte Ventura at the Cedar Glen Apartments. I think Janet
Walton is going to be mad because she already signed a lease at Cedar Glen. I
hope everything works out for all of them. Things always have a way of doing that. Will Jim Dalton
move in with me, or won’t he? Will I have to give up this apartment and move back home to Garden Grove? God
knows the answer, but I don’t.
31 December 1971 Friday
Well, this is the end of the year at last. I
won’t say it was a bad year nor a good one either. I will just say it was an
average year. I had some good times, and I had some bad times. It was a glorious
year in that God has begun to reveal a
destiny for me but socially I’ve run through friends like water slipping through my fingers. I don’t think I’ve made
any really lasting friends this year. Maybe that is what college is for. Today
was a beautiful, clear day with snow covering all the mountains around us.
There’s even some on Modjeska’s’ Peak in the Saddleback Mountains. In the
afternoon, I had to go home to Garden Grove and while there I called Ralph
Ludders to visit, and he told me all that Rick Davis had told him about me being
queer and then I told him the truth. He then told me that Brenda and he are
thinking about converting to Mormonism. I hope not but if it fills whatever he
needs, we all have to find are own way. Anyway, I went to a New Year Eve party tonight in Glendale, thrown by Phyllis
Lewis. Gordon, Laura Edmonson, Janet Walton, Rich Ventura and his sister Tammi
Ventura and cousin Monte Ventura, my sister Donna, Don, Karen Gramsted, and my
cousin Larry Fagen all went to it. The party was really fun for we listed to
rock music, danced, and rapped a lot.
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