Spring 2nd Quarter Journal 1972 April- June

 

APRIL

1 April 1972 Saturday

I went into work at Taco Bell at 11 at night yesterday and worked until 4 am this morning. It was super slow, much slower than a week day so I did not feel that I should stay that long.

            I was in a weird  and strange mood this morning  at work. Mark Lauria and I had an ice, cheese, and olive throwing battle; just goofing around. I guess because I was so tired, I was being silly.

            Chris Davis came up to the stand for a few minutes  just as I was about to leave, and we talked for a while. I think he likes me in a way I am trying not to be.

            I went home to Garden Grove to try to get some sleep  and I slept in until 2 in the afternoon. Then I went over to the Sycamore apartment to finish cleaning the place up. The land lady said I could transfer my deposit to Apartment 434 that had two bedrooms where I told her that I might be moving into. Well, I might. I know some of the kids there who haven’t paid their security deposit of $75  so I’m letting them  use it . Since they will be there  until the end of June, I’ll get my money back then instead of just losing it.

            I tried calling Ralph Ludders several times,  but he was never home to answer the phone. I don’t know whether he is still intending on coming over here for Easter dinner or not.

2 April 1972  Sunday

Today is Buddy Husky’s 23^rd birthday. It seems so long ago that I spent a summer with him in Texas. Today is also Easter and another holy day of the resurrection.  I went into work at Taco Bell at 1 in the morning and worked until 9.  We did have a bit of trouble at 2:30 when these three drunks came up and deliberately knocked our trash can over .

Little were they aware that Officer Hunt who is this patrolman, came up behind them  and saw what they did. He made them pick up all the trash and later arrested them as they drove off the property  as they were drunk.  I was pleased.

Mark Lauria left at 4 because we were so slow.  So, I worked the rest of the graveyard shift on my own. I heard the entire Jesus Christ Superstar album several times on different radio stations.

            The morning was kind of nice out while I was hosing down the patio. I came back to Dale Street by 9:0o and slept until noon when my great aunt and uncle Beulah and Ed Danforth  came over for easter dinner. 

Others who came for dinner was my uncle and aunt Milton and Marie Williams, Grandma and Grandpa Williams, my sister Charline and her  family and my sister Donna.  Dennis’s mother Janet Peavy also came to the house with her sons Tom and Bruce to just visit but didn’t stay long  It was so good to Beulah and Uncle Ed, Dad, and my namesake.  Mom made a big ham dinner that we ate at the picnic table in the back yard as the weather was good.

 I went back to bed around 5 in the afternoon and slept until 10 before getting ready to go back into work at Taco Bell at 11.

3 April 1972 Monday

I worked from 11  last night until 8 this morning . It was a slow night. Cindy Paulsen stayed until about 1:30 just to visit even though she was off at 12:30. Patty Walls is now the assistant night manager for the swing and graveyard crew and has been feeling her oats bossing people around. I hope it’s just because she is new at it and is trying to impress Duane Pickett   with what a good job she is doing. If that is so, that will wear off.

I like Patty but you can’t  have all work and no play and keep a happy crew I believe a happy crew is an efficient  crew. We will have to figure her out  and then work around her quirks.

            When I was off work,  I was just too tired to attend any of my classes although school resumed after the Easter Break.  So, I just went home to Dale Street  and went to bed.

            I have two mid-terms this Friday  and another one on the following Monday. I really don’t care a thing about my classes anymore. I’m a junior in college with an Associate of Arts degree with the prospects of 5 more semester  before I can have a teachers certificate and teach.  How do people do it and not be supported by their parents. It’s so hard  and wearisome but alas is not life the same?

4 April 1972 Tuesday

I knew I was tired but didn’t realize how much until I woke up  this morning at 5. I ‘d been asleep  since 10 yesterday morning. When I got up, I looked outside, and it was overcast although it did turn into a pretty day  here in Garden Grove.

I decided to clean up the garage today and then later helped Jerry Smith haul some garbage out to the county dump in Yorba Linda.

            I had my own phone put in my bedroom today. The phone is red, and the number is 539-4181 easy to remember. I am so happy to have my own phone but wait until the phone bill hits me then I’ll wish it was somebody else’s phone.

            As I drove on the 91 Freeway to Cal State Fullerton to attend my night class. It occured to me that I should change my major from history to religious studies as my life is about to change with a mission that I might not returned from. More about this I cannot write until I get more confirmation from the Lord about what He wants me to become.

5 April 1972 Wednesday

I rode with Jerry Smith to Cal State Fullerton and attended all my classes. In my American Literature class, Mr. Cummings  changed the midterm  from this Friday until Monday. Now I have two mid-terms on my birthday.

Mom had to go into the hospital today for a dilation and curettage procedure but not sure what all that entails. I suppose a DNC is what women have to get when they get older.

            It was really a beautiful  day out. When I came back home from school, I decided to get out of the house, so I went to the Stanton theater and saw “Sunday, Bloody, Sunday  which I really didn’t care all that much for.

.I wonder so much why I have the feelings I do. However, I know there is no true love apart from some pain if all the love songs are correct.

6 April 1972 Thursday

I was up early to go to Cypress College with my sister Donna Pierce. I had intended to study some for my John Milton literature mid-term,  but I was just fooling myself.

            I saw Kent Larsen in the Bernstein House and he asked me if I wanted to go see an art exhibit at the Claremont Men’s College that was showing some of Charlene Felos’ work. They had chartered a school bus to go to Pomona.  I said I would, so at noon we got in the bus and went off to Pomona. Claremont is such a beautiful and lovely campus with ivy covered walls and tree shaded pathways. It was just so beautiful. To go there would be a dream but maybe I’m wrong to pursue  after material things  after what has been shown to me by the spirit of the Lord.

            Kent took me home then I called Ralph Ludders up to tell him about requirements for Cal State Long Beach. He was glad to hear it and furthermore he asked if I wanted to go to the show with him. I said sure  so we went to see “The Boyfriend” at the Loew’s 2 in Fountain Valley off of Brookhurst and Edinger. Twiggy was in it, and it was simply fabulous; just really great. We didn’t stay for Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run which we had both seen before. After the show let out, we went Bob’s Big Boy Hamburgers. We talked for a long time about our duty to God and after we ate, he took me home.

7 April 1972 Friday

I woke up at 8 and got dressed for school. Jerry Smith came by at 9:39 and we rode together . I didn’t plan on going to any of my classes except to Milton, so I could study for the midterm. As it turned out, I didn’t really even do that as it was a clear beautiful  warm day. So, I just sat on the grass in the shade and visited with Richard Ventura, Rosie Medina, and a friend of hers who were on campus.

            I feel so strange  though. I don’t know why. I feel like as if things are about to change for me again in my life. Everything I do is so different now than from just a few months ago.

Do I still have the love of God with me. Am I doing his will by giving up my former friends and life.  Am I too haughty  thinking that God has given me a calling? Pride oh foolish pride. I wonder if that if we ever succeeded at attaining humility  would we not be proud of that?

            I have such a weak flesh that leads me to places I should not go.  I am so mean and low. Grant me virtue to do thy will.

            I think I did alright on the midterm, so I just went home to rest as I had to go into work at 11 tonight at Taco Bell.

My favorite song right now is If Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack.

8 April 1972 Saturday

I worked from 11 yesterday until 6 this morning  with Mark Lauria. I didn’t get to see Cindy Paulsen much because she had to leave early  to get some sleep as she had to work tomorrow and Monday. It was an average night and not much happened. No police came up at all tonight to get some food which was unusual.

When I came home  from work I slept until 2 in the afternoon and then went over to Sycamore Village  to lie by their pool as it was so nice out.  I was reading the Book of Mormon when this older German man came up to me and when he saw what I was reading said to me “Mormons are very bad people. Very bad.”  I almost had to laugh but didn’t.

I stayed there by the pool for about 2 hours  then went over to Janet Walton and Laura Edmunson’s place as Dave Gubser was coming down from Glendale.  When I arrived there, we all went in my car  over to see Jim Dalton’s apartment because they wanted to see the floor plan. They didn’t know about how I felt about Jim, and I was kind of glad that he wasn’t home. However, Janet asked his roommate Glen if we could come in to look around. I was kind of embarrassed because Glen reluctantly let us and Janet, Laura, and Dave were being silly. Still, I finally saw the inside of Jim’s apartment . It was so much bigger than mine at the Sycamore but not as nice either.

After leaving we went to the Briarwood Apartments and there, we saw some more old dorm mates.

After taking the gang back to their place, at 7 I drove on home as I was super tired, but I did have fun at Laura’s.

9 April 1972 Sunday

Today is my last day of being 20 years old. I got up at midnight and prepared to go into work at 1. It was a slow night and Mark Lauria was in a weird mood, doing silly things like tossing ice at me  or later squirting me with a hose. He was being silly, but I was able to get him good also. It was fun.

            No cops came up again tonight. I think it’s because Mark is charging them full price now for their orders, though he says he’s not.

            There is so much bitterness going on down here at work  that I don’t know if I want to work  at Taco bell anymore. Mark is mad at Cindy Paulsen for not doing the steam cabinet before leaving. Cindy resents Patty Walls for being an authoritarian bitch. Patty thinks Mark and Peggy are lazy and I’m caught in the middle trying to be a peace maker. If I listen to Mark’s complaints against Cindy and don’t side with him, he thinks I am against him, but Cindy is also my friend. I can’t speak badly of her.

            I wrote Phyllis Lewis a letter at home, also trying to  make peace between her and Mote Ventura as they are fighting now.  Blessed be the peacemakers.

10 April 1972 Monday

Today is Jerry Smith and my 21^st birthday and Wendy Warner’s 19^th birthday. My clock radio didn’t go off and I was late getting into work this morning. I was so tired but made it somehow through another graveyard shift. Patty Walls was in a talkative mood and stayed until 4  pouring her woes into my sympathetic ear, I think I understand her better now.

            When Duane Pickett  came in at 8, I immediately left to head home to Garden Grove  so I could change clothes and get ready for school. When Jerry Smith came over to pick me up, he gave me a birthday card  and I wished him a happy birthday also, although it isn’t much of one as he got a speeding ticket when we left Cal State Fullerton to head home.

            I went to my Christian Church class and took my midterm which I didn’t really study much for. Afterwards I went to the common and studied for American Lit which will be a bear until Rich Ventura  came by and we ate lunch together.

Accidentally  later I ran into Jim Dalton.  He was tiffed at me for coming over to his place the way we did last Saturday. I told him it was done without malice intent,  and he shouldn’t be so upset. I said, “You should at least trust me as much as I had trusted you.”

I bombed my American Lit midterm and after coming home I just slept until the evening and then watched some TV. So now I am an adult. I don’t feel any different maybe because I didn’t have a celebration.

11 April 1972  Tuesday

Today was a busy day and the most important thing I did was vote in the Garden Grove city elections. Then when Ralph Ludders came over to the house, we went down to Cal State Long Beach to see if Ralph could get in there. While there I picked up some information on the dormitories for my sister Donna.

            After leaving Long Beach we drove all the way to Cal State Los Angeles where we finally think Ralph will be able to both get into the school and their teacher education program. We didn’t get back to Garden Grove until 4 and then Ralph Left.

I had to get ready for my Book of Mormon class  at Cal State Fullerton’s Institute of Religion. We are studying the first book of Helaman having finished with Alma. We also talked about the Church conference that was held around April 6 when the LDS Church was founded. Bro. Thompson ad I had a difference of opinion on whether we should participate in wars. I said no, quoting the teachings of Jesus while he said yes and quoted from the church’s point of view and from Alma. It made me think is not Christ over Alma as Bro. Thompson is over me?  

12 April 1972 Wednesday.

It was a cold, cloudy and windy day. In my Christian Church class, I got my mid-term back  and had a “B” on it which I was more than happy to get. After that I went my Byzantium Class where we fished discussing the history of the Empire to its fall in 1453.

            I went and ate lunch with Nick and Rich Ventura although we didn’t visit much.  I decided not to go to my other classes as it was cold and windy, and I didn’t have a sweater or a jacket. So, I just went home early with Jerry Smith.

            At home I took my leather belt making tools over to Pam Ludder, Ralph’s sister  as she wanted to make a belt. Later I got ready to go over to Laura Edmunson’s to take her to the show. We went up to Cal State Fullerton’s recital hall and saw “Start the Revolution Without me”  that I first saw in with Jerry Smith. 

13 April 1972 Thursday

Today was a strange day. In the morning my sister Donna and I went over to Cal State Long Beach to look at on and off campus housing. I think she was more impressed with the campus  than I was. I still prefer Fullerton. Afterwards we went to Cypress College so she could go to her anthropology class where we stayed until 3:30 in the afternoon.

            It was “moral and Spiritual Week”  at Cypress and I went to two events in the Bernstein House while waiting on my sister. One was a panel discussion on what was the purpose of life and the other was a lecture by Dr. Truman Madsen, a Mormon instructor from Brigham Young University. On the spiritual panel was a Mormon and several other Christians and when asked to say what was the purpose of life, the Mormon simply said “joy” which made the Mormon kids in the audience kind of cheer. I thought it was kind of disrespectful but I kind of liked their comradery.

            When Donna and I came back home, mom had left me a message that Janet Walton and Laura Edmonson  wanted me to come over to their place at 7. I had no idea what that was all about,  but I went because it sounded serious.

            When I arrived in Fullerton, Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser were down from Glendale but instead of the levity usually found when they come down as I had expected, everyone seemed to be in a grave and depressed mood. Laura was even on the verge of tears all night. I guess Phyllis and Dave came down  to settle and hash out whatever differences that seem to be breaking up and splitting the gang.

            Monte Ventura, Rich Ventura, Paul Blankenship, Janet, Laura, Phyllis, Dave, and I hammered out and fought over concerns in a group session which appeared to work. Gordon Townsend was the only one who copped out of participating.

14 April 1972 Friday

Jerry Smith called me early this morning and said he wouldn’t’ be able to take me to school today so I went by myself in the Ford Galaxy. I went to all my classes for a change. In Christianity I gave Mr. Frazee, some Arabic and Greek pita bread I bought from a Greek bakery on Dale street up by Ball.  I like him and he thanked me for it. I had never seen Greek bread before.

            At lunch I sat with Rich Ventura again for a while,  but he had to leave early  to set up a project for one of his classes.

I received back my test  from American Lit and I had a C+ not bad considering How zonked out I was when I took it and never studied any.

            I tried to sleep some after coming back home to Garden Grove  before going back to Fullerton  to take Laura Edmunson to Cypress College. I invited her to attend my sister Donna’s Anthropology Club dinner. Janet Walton and Paul Blankenship also came with us, and I showed off the campus to them so they could see how beautiful Cypress can be at night.

            The dinner was good, and I was able to see Mrs. Fouste there who I had for cultural and physical anthropology. It was good to see her again.

            We left about 8  and after taking Laura, Janet, and Paul home, I came back to Garden Grove to try and get some sleep  before going into work at midnight.

15 April 1972 Saturday

I worked from Midnight until 9 this morning and we were pretty busy. When I got off work I came home, read the newspaper, and went to bed about 10:30. I slept until 2:30 when Larry Jaeger of all people came over to see me. I hadn’t seen him in such a long time. He told me how being in the Reserves is. We didn’t talk too long because I told him I had to get some sleep as I was so tired form working last night. In reality we had little to talk about since we were high school friends back in 1968.  I think he was just being nostalgic.

 I finally got up for good at 6:30  to get ready to go over to Laura Edmunson’s place to pick her up to go to the show. We went to the South Coast Plaza and saw “Cabaret” with Liza Minelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey in it. It was just tremendous and Superb. They subtly showed the decadence of pre-war Berlin  and the rise of Nazism.

            After taking Laura home I sent into work  early even though I didn’t have to start  work until 1. I worked on term papers in the office that are due on Monday,  and I have to get them done tomorrow for sure.

16 April 1972 Sunday

I worked from 1 in the morning until 9 this morning when Jackie came. It was a busy night Mark Lauria went home at 3:30 when it all of a sudden got dead so I let him leave. It was doing some prep work when this guy came up to the front counter about 4  who was drunk and kept hanging around to visit with me. He was about 19 and long haired and giving me, this vibe and I was weak and took him in the back of the store where he wanted me to do to him what I did with Jim Dalton in the dorm last year.  After we were finished, he left, and I just finished cleaning up the parking lot and hosing down the patio.  I have no idea why I succumbed to temptation and to that part of me I am trying so hard to get rid of. I think I am just tired and lonely.

            I left and went home, prayed for forgiveness, and slept throughout the day really depressed at myself until it was time to get up and go back to work again

17 April 1972 Monday

I went into work at midnight and kept myself super busy even though it was a slow night. After coming back home to Garden Grove, I showered and dressed for Jerry Smith to come by and take me to Cal state Fullerton. I didn’t go to all my classes but neither did I leave early. I just read some form Joseph Fielding Smith’s “Church History.: I ate lunch with Rich Ventura. He said he’s going to the anti-war march and Dave Gubser party with the rest of us.  It was cold and overcast  like it might rain but it never did. I said hi to Rick Davis today and went by Taco bell to pick up my paycheck.

18 April 1972 Tuesday

I took my pay check to the Imperial Bank today and then went shopping for most of the afternoon. I bought $20 worth of leather at Tandy Leather to make belts for my friends, spent $5 worth of paint at Standard Brand to paint this plaque for my Aunt Marie Williams and then $55 on clothes at J C Penney’s. Not sure why I spent so much money today,  but I did need some new clothes. I bought two dress shirts, a pair of slacks, a pair of corduroy pants, and a pair of blue jeans,  So I pretty well spent all the money I made today.

In the afternoon I had an appointment to see Bro. Thompson to discuss my relationship to the church. He agreed to set up an appointment for me to meet with two Mormon missionaries at 1 this coming Thursday. After meeting with Bro. Thompson at the Institute  I went over to campus and ran into Laura Edmonson  and agreed to take her home after her orchestra practice. We visited for a little while before I had to leave to go to my Mormon Class.

We had a midterm  and there’s no telling what I did on it. I deserve to fail. I was asked to give  the prayer  in class, and I felt pretty guilty after last Saturday. Oh God of my youth help me in my endeavor to do what is right.

On the radio KHJ’s top ten songs are Roberta Flack’s “The First Time I ever Saw Your Face”, Joe Tex’s “I Gotcha”, “Suavecito”, Sonny & Cher’s “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done”, “A Horse with No name”, Stylistics “Betcha by Golly Wow”, the 5th Dimension’s” I didn’t get to sleep At All”, The Dramatics’ “In the Rain, The three Dog Night’s “The Family of Man”, and Aretha Franklin’s “Day Dreaming”.

19 April 1972  Wednesday

I was up at 7 this morning and painted some on my Uncle and Aunt Milton and Marie’s  coat of arms plague before going to school with Jerry Smith. I need to be creative again. It was cool and cloudy,  but I didn’t think anything about it, so I didn’t even bring a jacket However when I got out of my second class, it was lightning and thundering. It was just poured down rain. It was so unexpected.

             Ate lunch in the commons with Rich Ventura as usual and we visited just in fun and not seriously about ways to keep Gordon Townsend  from going to Dave Gubser’s party as he is sometimes rude around Dave.  Although I later heard that Rich told Gordon for real that we were going to Glendale to  see Phyllis Lewis get Baptized. Gordon is such an atheist and he told Rich that he wasn’t going to go if that was the case just as I suspected.

            In the evening  I went over to Pam Ludder’s home in Los Alamitos and worked with her  showing her how to make leather belts for the rest of the night. I was able to get three made  for Barbara Williams, Cindy Paulsen, and Mark Lauria, people I work with. I am going to make one also for Jerry Smith

            At the Ludders I saw Ralph and Brenda also. He was over to wash his car.

20 April 1972 Thursday

At 1 this afternoon I met with two Mormon missionaries at the Institute of Religion. I was surprised that they were so young around my age.  We talked about the tenants of the LDS Church and it’s foundation. I have an appointment with them for next Tuesday at 3. So far, I am not too impressed, but I am seriously considering being baptized into the church for the forgiveness of sins.

21 April 1972 Friday

 I went to Cal State Fullerton with Jerry Smith  but didn’t attend any of my classes because of the anti-war rally which was being held in the quad. I attended it and later ate lunch with Rich Ventura. He told me that he thought that his cousin Monte Ventura and Gordon Townsend  would not be going to the party or the rally  tomorrow.

            At home in Garden Grove, I had a phone call from Dave Gubser,  and he told me what to do  for the party. I then called the rest of the kids to relate his message.

            It was 6 o’clock  before I was able to get any sleep  for tonight. I had to get up at 10  to be in at work by 11

22 April 1972 Saturday

I worked until 6:30 this morning.  Patty Walls stayed until 4 talking to me after she was actually off work. Then Chris Davis  came in at 5. I was hard pressed to get all my work done so I could leave early.  Mark Lauria  and I had argued for most of the shift over whether the peace march would get out of hand or not and should I go.

            After work I went home to change  into my grubbies  for the march, but I took some nice clothes for the party later. Mom and Dad were not happy I was going to the march  and said that if anything happened not to depend on them to get me out of jail.

            I left and drove over to pick up Laura Edmunson and Janet Walton first. While they were getting ready, I went to the Ralph’s market and bought some snack items for the party later. We all brought our own lunches to eat at MacArthur Park. After the girls were ready, we picked Rich Ventura up and we were on our way

            We left Fullerton around 9 and reached Los Angeles about an hour later. We parked at Kingsley and 9^th Street which was half way between the march’s staring point and McArthur Park. I was so excited to be at my first march.

            The police blocked off Wilshire Boulevard from traffic and the March began at11. I never seen so many people. The newspaper estimated the crowd was 12,000  but I know from other reports it was closer to 20,000.  We marched down Wilshire Boulevard  chanting and singing, “Peace Now-Peace Now”, “1-2-3-4 We don’t want this fucking war and “5-6-7-6 Nixon eat shit” and “Ho, Ho,Ho Che Minh the NLF is gonna win.”  It was simply grand to feel a common unity with so many war protestors and it was all peaceful despite what people were saying.

 It took about 45 minutes  to walk down to McArthur Park with the other  demonstrators. We weren’t the first to arrive nor the last. When we reached the park,  we were parched, and sun burned. I found a liquor store that was open, and I bought us some cokes to drink. Boy were we thirsty. We went and sat down beneath a tree in the park  and ate our lunch  listening to the speeches.  The only disturbance I saw was when the police marched the Nazis away from the rally. They were the only thing that scared me, them in their Brown Shirt uniforms and swastikas

            I saw no one hassling the cops and they didn’t hassle anybody either,  except for the Nazis although the police out I force.  The riot units were stationed nearby.  We listed to Anthony Russo ,a codefendant for having released of the Pentagon Papers and several other speakers. We had to leave before Black Panther Bobbie Seale, or the NAACP Ralph Abernathy  could speak so as to go to Dave Gubser’s  party in Glendale on time.

            Phyllis Lewis, her boyfriend Ben, Laura, Janet, Rich, and I with Monte who drove up by himself were all there for the barbeque at Dave’s parent’s two-story house at 1627 Arbor Drive. It was a beautiful house, and they must be extremely well off. We played badminton and messed around until about 8 at night. We then all decided to drive into Hollywood to mess around there.

On Hollywood Boulevard, Dave, Laura, and I broke into a  chorus of ‘Hooray for Hollywood”. Then at another point they would point out the window and scream “Is that Rock Hudson’ and “Is that Jean Stapleton”, just to have people look. We stayed until midnight after going to Grauman’s Chinese Theater and sitting on Jean Harlow’s cement prints. Then we went back to Dave’s place and played cards until 3 in the morning at which time I drove the girls home. Rich with his cousin Monte. It was 4 in the morning   before I slept in my own bed.

23 April 1972 Sunday

I slept all day after getting in at 4 this morning until I had to go back into work at Taco Bell. In the evening I needed get out of the house, so I went to the show and saw Fritz the Cat at the Cinemaland Theater on Harbor. It was an X-rated cartoon which was funny but kind of crude.

24 April 1972 Monday

I worked from midnight  until 8 in in the morning and it was a fairly busy night for a Monday. When it was really slow, I wrote Phyllis Lewis  a letter but other than that I didn’t do much else but prep and cleaned.

            When I came home, I just went to bed , still tuckered out  from the fun weekend. I didn’t go to any of my classes.

I sure am mixed up right now. I care deeply for Laura Edmunson,  but do I really love her? Would it be unfair to act like I do care for her when I can tell she is falling in love with me . I love Phyllis in a way, but I know that she could not  and does not love me sexually. I love John Cunningham  most of all  but only spiritually. Should I wait and may be fall in love with a Mormon girl? I can’t hurt Laura’s feelings. She is so delicate, but I must be fulfilled myself  for one  must love truly from the heart to be happy. In God there is wisdom and  I know he will reveal  to me  in his own good time who to fall in love with lest then I just become dust of the earth. I am not even  like dust  for dust obeys my Father’s will while I do not.

25 April 1972 Tuesday

I was up at 8 this morning and I tried to clen up my room some that I have neglected. What a mess. I wrote out my sonnet for my American Lit class and I’m pleaded with it. That’s all that matters.

            From 10 util 2 in the afternoon I went over to Poes Street and helped Jerry Smith clear his yard of tree branches  he has been cutting down and I helped him haul them to the county dump  in dad’s Ford Pickup. When we returned,  I had to change clothes  and hurry over to the LDS Institute in Fullerton to meet again with the Missionaries that I am talking  with. Their names are Elder Fairbanks and Elder Pettite. They are  both about my age  and trying their best to answer  all my questions  concerning  the LDS doctrine regarding the Gospel. They read mostly from a script that they never varied from, that kind of bugged me. When they said that God had a body, I was skeptical because to me God is a spirit. I said to them if God had a body does, he also have bowel movements? They didn’t know how to answer that, and Elder Fairbanks just said he’d get back to me on that but that God having a body was true.

            After the meeting, I went over to campus and listened to Laure Edmunson’ concert rehearsal  until they were finished at 5:30. While hurrying to meet me for a ride she fell and hurt herself when her knew went out on her. Poor Laura felt embarrassed as much as hurt.

            I stayed at Laura’s place, and she fixed us some supper before at 7:30 I left to go to my Book of Mormon Class,  and we finished up covering the Book of Helaman and now are stating on 3^rd Nephi.

            It’s a full moon  out tonight

26 April 1972 Wednesday

Jerry Smith came over at 9:15 this morning and I rode with him to Fullerton. He said that he wouldn’t be able to take me on Friday  because Fred Townsend, Paul, and he are going off to Las Vegas for the weekend.

            At Cal State Fullerton  I went to all my classes today and in two of them I had pop quizzes which I did poorly on. In my John Milton class though, Mrs. Scoufos returned  my midterm, and I received a B on it.

            I sat with Rich Ventura  at lunch,  but he didn’t say much as he was in one of his moods. After my classes were over, Jerry took me home  where I had intended to go over to Pam Ludder’s and work some more on the leather belts but instead Karen Gramsted called and asked if I wanted to go to the show with her. I hadn’t seen her in such a long time so I said I would, and we met at the Stanton Plaza Theater and saw “Shaft” which is pretty good although the movie Clay Pigeon wasn’t at all. After saying good bye, I went home and just went right to bed.

27 April 1972 Thursday

I had another appointment to meet with Elder Petitte and Elder Fairbanks  at 10 this morning at the Institute of Religion. We discussed the Word of Wisdom until lunch time. I don’t smoke or drink coffee, and I can easily give up alcohol, but iced tea is something else altogether.  Lunch was served in the recreation room, and we had some tostadas while some of the other kids played ping pong.

            Afterwards a group of us from the Institute went outside into the courtyard and played Volleyball for about an hour. It was fun and the first time I played since Cypress, but it was also supper hot outside at 86 degrees.

            I then drove home and decided to put some money in bank from my savings so the checks I’ve written  won’t bounce.  When I drove over to the Euclid Anaheim shopping center  to go to the leather store, the Ford Galaxy stalled  on me in an intersection. I had to push it over to the side of the road and find a pay phone to call mom. She came over and stayed with me  while we waited for Dad  to bring jumper cables to start the car up so I could drive it back home.

            I am through playing around with that car. I’m going to get a new one as soon as possible if it be God’s will. Oh, how I was angry about that car stranding me.

28 April 1972 Friday

I rode with Jerry Smith to Cal State Fullerton because he canceled his trip to Vegas. However, I didn’t attend all my classes, just the morning ones. Then I left and walked over to the Institute of Religion  where I read some while waiting to attend a noon forum. I listened to this LDS woman speak about faith and bare her testimony. She said that paying her tithing helped her get a car she wanted by obeying God’s commands.

            Elder Pettitte and Elder Fairbanks were there also. Seeing them I decided  that I wanted to get baptized and join the church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints. These kids seem to have something I don’t have which with God’s strength I can overcome sin. Elder Pettitte is so kind and patient with me and I want to be like him, spiritual and not carnal.  I just don’t know when  exactly yet  or break it to my friends and family.

            At home I went right to bed  and slept until 10 at night  however it was really too hot to really feel rested. I went into work at Taco Bell at 11  and found out that I didn’t have to be in until midnight, but no one told me. Mark Lauria  had taken off to go to Catalina for weekend and I have to take his place.

29 April 1972 Saturday

So, I actually started work at midnight and worked until 8 this morning until Duane Pickett  came in . Since Mark Lauria was gone , Paul  was the only person there was for me to work with and h stayed until 6.  It was a steady morning though not exactly busy. The ice machine for drinks  is broken again and the drains  have clogged up on me, so it was kind of a hectic night.

            When I finally got off work, I  left for Garden grove and slept until 5 in the afternoon. When I got up,  I had to get ready to go over to Laura  Edmunson’s place in Fullerton because  Dave Gubser and Phyllis Lewis  were down from Glendale.

            I stopped at Richard Ventura’s place at Cedar Glen first to pick him up. Then we drove over to see Dave and Phyllis.  Janet Walton and Paul Blankenship weren’t with us tonight because  they went to a  car rally. So, it was just us 5

 Laura and Phyllis, both wanted  us to go kite flying so we headed over to Hillcrest Park, just to goof around. It never did get windy enough to fly kites but still it was fun running up and down the hills and sometimes simply rolling down them. When it got dark, we left  and went to McDonalds  to get something to eat and drink.  It was a wild night  as it always  us whenever we get together.

When we finally returned to Laura’s apartment,  we played cards, Hearts, and then Password for the rest of the evening. Dave won every time at Hearts by shooting the moon. We were amateurs compared  to that card sharp.

I asked Phyllis if she would come down when I get baptized a Mormon. She said she might. I hope she can come as I think she is the only one who really gets me.

30 April 1972 Sunday

  I went into work at Taco Bell  at 1 in the morning and worked until 9 when Jackie came in. It was the morning of Daylight Savings,  so I had to turn the clocks a head at 2 so I was an hour behind on my work all night long. I was tired at work from playing yesterday with the gang. I hardly could keep my eyes open. The only interesting event to happen was that at 3  Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser  came up to the stand, drunker than hoot owls. It was fun to see them but also made me fall behind even more.

            They shared what continued evidently after I left. They and Laura Edmunson went to Paul Blankenship’s party he was hosting after his road rally for the Circle K International fraternity  bunch.  Anyway, Laura got tipsy, Janet Walton couldn’t walk straight, Dave’s eyes were glassy from all the pot he was doing, and Phyllis was posing for highly provocative pictures.  Anyway Paul, who was smashed,  pronounced to these straight lace Frat Rats and Sorority Sorry Sisters at 3 they were all going to talk about the big M. Masturbation. That  cleared the room out of the Circle K bunch. Dave and Phyllis thought that was a riot. I wish I wouldn’t have been there to see it.

            After coming home to Garden Grove, I went to bed and slept for most of the day since we lost an hour.

            April is my birthday month and while I didn’t do much, I did turn 21 years old. I started to take the LDS missionary lessons because I needed something more in my life as I have been drifting without any purpose. I am really tired of school as I don’t see much point to it except what else can I do. Taco Bell’s graveyard shift is really wearing me out and it’s easy to get in trouble after I am alone when everyone leaves.

            I feel so lonely without John Cunningham in my life but maybe that is God’s will, no matter how hard it is to bear it.

MAY

1 May 1972 Monday

It’s May already and it’ a nice month in which to be baptized. I went into work at midnight at Taco Bell and worked my shift until 8 in the morning. I was fairly busy since I worked by myself for most of the time. When I was off from work , I drove home and called my friend Jerry Smith  and told him that I wouldn‘t be riding with him today to Cal State Fullerton because I was too tired to go to school. I feel like I am coming down with a cold.

 When I got up later in the day, I drove over to Ralph Ludder’s parents house in Alamitos and picked up the leather belts and tools I used to make the make designs on them so I can finish them up.

My old Ford Galaxy I fear is on its last legs. I am going to have to buy a new cars pretty soon, preferably this month. It was a good car at one time but it’s 10 years old. My sister Donna learned to drive in it back in 1966, and in 1967 we used to take it to the beach almost all summer long when we weren’t back in Texas. It was Mom’s car, but we took her to work and picked her up when she got off work.

I learned to drive in the car too and got my driver’s license in 1968. In 1969 John Cunningham and I took the Ford to San Clemente, into Los Angeles and San Diego so many times that it’s just now worn out.

2 May 1972 Tuesday

I had an appointment to meet with missionary Elders at 10 this morning at the Fullerton Institute of Religion so that’s where I spent most of my day. I asked the Elders if I could get baptized on May 20^th and they said that date would be alright.  I felt so good about my decision.

            After our talks I went over to State College Boulevard and picked up my check at Taco Bell. I made $84. Later in the afternoon I went and picked Laura Edmunson up on campus and took her back to her place where she fixed us a dinner of burritos. I bought her some roses and carnations because she has been such a good friend.

            I had to leave  at 7:30  to attend my Book of Mormon class where we are studying 3^rd Nephi now. I told Mom today that I was going to be baptized into the LDS Church. I think she understands, at least I hope so. I also hope all my friends might be able to attend my baptism.

3 May 1972 Wednesday

I didn’t go to school in Fullerton all today as I’ve developed a miserable sore throat and from where I picked it up, I couldn’t say. In the afternoon until well into the evening , I worked on the leather bets I’m making for Jerry Smith  and my work friends Cindy Paulsen, Barbara Williams, and Mark Lauria.

However, before that I had gone and picked up my nephew James and decided to take him to the park as it was a pretty day outside. When we came back to Mom’s house the Ford quit running so I had to ride James on my handle bars down to the Taco Bell on Gilbert  to get him something to eat then we went back to the Magnolia Park where we played on the swings until 2.

            The Ford started up again, so I took James home and in the evening about 9:30 I went back over to Laura Edmonson’s apartment  where I had a spaghetti dinner  with her, Janet Walton, and Paul Blankenship. We ate dinner while listening to songs on her stereo, It was a pleasant evening  although I didn’t get home until 1 in the morning.

            In the news J. Edgar Hoover that old cuss, finally died today  at the age of 77 years. I hope the Lord is more merciful and just than he ever was as head of the FBI.

4 May 1972 Thursday

I didn’t make it to my Mormon missionary lesson this morning at the Institute was my nose was runny and I was blowing it a lot. I guess I’ve really come down with a cold.

            I spent the better part of the afternoon  sitting in a parking lot over on Euclid  because the Ford  over heated on me when I drove it over to a shopping center there to buy more rivets for the leather belts I made for my friends. This made me all the more determined to buy a new car for reliable transportation.

When the Ford started up again, I came home where Mom, my sister Donna and I went out driving around looking at Ford Pinto’s. There’s a white one with a stick shift I was pretty interested in, but the rest were way too expensive for me. Wilson Ford and Smit Ford both were rejected  because of the super slick and pushy salesmen. I didn’t feel like I could trust their word.

            When dad came home from work, he said tomorrow he’s look around Los Angeles County and see what he might find. I only have $125 plus the Ford for a down payment. However, I believe God will meet my need.

            Today is the second anniversary of the Kent State Massacre.

5 May 1972 Friday

I was up at 7:30 to get ready to go into Fullerton to attend school. In the morning it was cloudy but by the late afternoon it had cleared up. I went to all my classes today for a change.

At noon I attended the anti-war rally that was held on the campus quad. Around 400 students from Fullerton Junior College marched down Chapman to Cal State Fullerton and joined the war protestors there who were demonstrating against the Honeywell Corporation for building indiscriminating  weapons that killed civilians as well as combatants.  I hear that Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland are to appear at a rally on campus in about two weeks. The main speaker today was Anthony J Russo Anthony, a researcher who helped leak the Pentagon Papers.

When I returned home from Fullerton, I cleaned out my old ‘63 Ford Galaxy, knowing that this is the last time I’ll ever drive it again. It was the first car I ever had.

When dad came home from work, he, mom, and I went into Norwalk and Downey looking at Ford Pintos. I finally found a ’71 Pinto, 4 cylinders and an automatic for $2,100 at Downey Ford.  It was a light sea green color with a dark green interior. I went wild for it. It took until nearly 10 at night signing all the papers  but it was a really beautiful vehicle and I drove it to work at Taco Bell tonight when I went in at 11.  Oh, praise the gracious God that brings us such joy.

Additional Material

My folks gave me their old 63 Ford Galaxie when I graduated from high school in 69. However My first car I bought for myself was a 1971 Pinto Runabout this same color... I called it my Pinto Blowabout I bought mine in 1972 for $1600 with $65 monthly payments. I made $1.65 an hour working at Taco Bell part time going to college full time to keep my draft deferment. It had an 11 gallon tank and I usually could filled it for $3.50. I loved that car and had it until 1978 when it froze to death in a Dallas ice storm. In 1976 drove it across clear across the country on bald tires with only a map to guide me, no GPS or cell phones back then. I had it when I was in college at BYU but left it at home in Garden Grove . I think most have fond memories of their first car

6 May 1972 Saturday

I worked until 7 this morning  with Mark Lauria . Since we have the new boy, I guess he will be taking over Mark’s hours on the weekend so next weekend will  be most likely the last time Mark and I work together.

            At work I showed off my new care  to Mark, Peggy, and Cindy Paulsen who all said they really liked it. Work was busy and by the tie I came home at 8 this morning I had been up for 24 hours. I was exhausted and slept until 3 in the afternoon then was up to show off my new Pinto to more of my friends. I drove over to Karen Gramsted’s house in Anaheim and drover her around in it some. Then I went  over to Janet Walton and Laura Edmunson’s apartment in Fullerton.

While there Janet decided not to go to the LDS party, I invited her too, so Laura and I decided not to go also since it was kind of cold and cloudy out. It was going to be a swimming party and an old fashion ice cream social. Instead, Laura and I took my car to Glendale to see Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser,

            There, only Phyllis was home, so we went and ate pizza at Pizza Pete’s  but later when Dave got off work, we drove up to the Griffith Park Observatory to look around where Rebel Without A Cause was filmed and then we drove down Hollywood Boulevard being silly singing “Hooray for Hollywood”,  but Dave was in a mood.

7 May 1972 Sunday

I was back in Orange County in time to drop Laura Edmunson off and go into work at 1 in the morning. I worked until 9 and it was a steady night  but not too busy. Mark Lauria left at 4:30. When Jackie came in at 9, I stayed and visited for a while before heading home to Dale Street.  It just sprinkled some, just slightly early this morning.

            At home I read the Sunday newspaper, then slept again until  watching some TV before going back into work.

            I wonder what’s really going to happen with all of us ex-Othry Hall dormitory kids  next fall. Are we all going to live together as planned. Dave Gubser last night said he might not go back to school at Cal State Fullerton and Paul Blankenship’s grades might not allow him to attend. Rich Ventura isn’t really that sure himself what he will do.  Even I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford it with a car payment now and whether it’s feasible for me or not to move out. Laura and Janet Walton are the only ones I know for sure who will be at Fullerton in the fall. Oh well life’s tide  flows and ebbs.

8 May 1972 Monday

I went into work at midnight and worked until 8 in the morning  when my boss Duane Pickett  showed up. I didn’t attend school but went home and slept until 4:30 this afternoon.

Today was kind of an eventful day although I didn’t do much myself.  My sister Charline called and said that my niece Denise was standing now by herself. Of course, she isn’t freestanding  but is pulling herself up, but still, she’s only 6 months old. Thank you, dear Lord, for giving me such beautiful children such as James and Denise to love. Maybe she will out do James who started walking at 9 months.

When I finally did  get up,  I wrote Grandma Johnson finally  and also a letter to my cousin Kay Ballard. Then I drove over to see Pam Ludders around 5:30, to bring her my leather stamping tools  as she wanted to make herself a leather belt. Ralph Ludders was over at his mom’s, and  we visited some. He and I watched President Nixon give  his war speech wherein the foolish man has decided to bomb, bomb, bomb, Indochina.  He is blockading North Vietnam ports  with sea mines  and bombing the Viet Congs supply routes from the Chinese border  to the Demilitarized Zone. Oh, why does this bloodshed go on. Oh, for a time of peace for the children of his world.  Jesus come quickly.

9 May 1972 Tuesday

It was a strange eventful day. I went into work at midnight  and worked until 8 until Duane Pickett  came in to relieve me.  Mark Lauria  had come in last night drunk and I had to leave Taco Bell to take him home. He came in later this morning, sobered up, and I talked to him and Duane Pickett   for about an hour before leaving and heading home The war was what we mainly talked about with Nixon’s new folly

At home I just read the newspaper and ate some breakfast  before leaving to go up to the Fullerton Institute  for another missionary lesson. It was about the Three kingdoms and God the Father’s plan of eternal progression It seemed marvelous to me.

I went away for the meeting so full of the spirit that I felt like bursting and determined to live a better life. On campus  I came across  Paul Dobyns who I hadn’t see in ages,  so we stopped and talked some. As I walked with him to his class, I then ran into Rick Davis, and we stopped and had a talk about what happened between us last year for about an hour and a half.  Well, he had changed  greatly just as I knew he would and as I once told him he would when I first met him.

            He’s much more tolerant now and liberal now then he was. We forgave  each other  of any transgressions we might have held against one another . We were once very close almost like brothers but now things have changed too greatly between us to ever become friends as before. He told me how Jim Dalton had quit his job at Builder’s Emporium.

            Later afterwards I met up with Laura Edmunson and gave her a ride  to her apartment from the University and we talked for a while too until I had to leave to go to my Book of Mormon class.

            Back home, later that night I called Jim up to see how he and Kathy O’Conner  were getting along. He said everything  is working out for them and that he was staying at that apartment with his friends through the summer. Rick had told me that Jim was really upset about Kathy,  saying  that Jim said he can’t leave her nor live with her. That is too bad I suppose.

I’m glad I stopped to talk with Rick  and had called Jim Up. I think it kept a messy situation remediated and gave a kind of closure to that sad time in my life. I had been up for 24 hours before I finally was able to go to bed.

The songs out right now that are in KHJ’s top ten, I really like on the most part. They are “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, Al Green’s “Look What You’ve Done for Me”, “I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All”, “Betcha by Golly Wow”, War’s “Slipping in the Darkness”, the Staple Singer’s, “I’ll Take You There”, the Chi-lites’ “Oh Girl”, Todd Rundgrun’s “I Saw the Light”, Michael Jackson’s “Rockin Robin”, and The Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice”. A song I really like  out right now is Jackson Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes”

10 May 1972 Wednesday

I went to all my classes on campus today but in the afternoon, I went and watched the protests that were going on in the quad about Nixon’s decision to blockade the ports of North Vietnam with mines. Over at Nixon’s birthplace  just down the road on Yorba Linda Boulevard, several Cal State Fullerton  students are manning a 24-hour vigil there ad saying someone will be there until the war is over or Nixon is defeated in November.  There are lots of protests across the nation but none nearly as bad as they were two years ago during the Cambodian Invasion. The most violent outbursts  were at Columbia and Berkeley Universities.

After my classes were over, I drove home to Garden Grove and went immediately to bed  for a nap because I am so tired lately.

I love my new Ford Pinto  and I hope I can take good care of it. When I was over at Ralph and Brenda Ludder’s on Monday they said to name  the Pinto “Spunky” so Spunky is my car’s name now. I wrote Phyllis Lewis a letter between going to classes today to check in on her.

11 May 1972 Thursday

I had my last Mormon Missionary lesson today with Elders Pettite and Fairbanks. Afterwards we had luncheon  at the institute  where they served this week hamburgers and enchiladas.

            After the meeting was over, I drove to Cypress College and went to the Bernstein House where I saw Kent Larsen, Wendy Weaver, and Karen Gramsted.  I heard  that Sally Johnson will be coming home in a few more weeks from Montana. Nothing new was going on at Cypress so I left  to go home to Garden grove to wait for the missionaries assigned to the Garden Grove 6^th Ward, Elders Fielding, and Christensen, to come over at 4:30. Elders Fairbanks and Petitte had set up an appointment with them to come meet me and for me to meet the ward’s Bishop this Sunday.

            After meeting with the missionaries who just stayed long enough to introduce themselves, in the evening I went to Fullerton and picked up Laura Edmunson from Orchestra practice. I had wanted to go to Glendale to see Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser  but had forgotten they had night classes until reminded so instead Laura, Janet Walton, Paul Blankenship, and I drove down to Bolsa Chica Beach  to wait for the Grunion run but we were disappointed because they never did. Laura said she received a letter from Dave today saying he wouldn’t be back to Fullerton in the Fall.

12 May 1972 Friday

It was a strange yet wonderful day. As I was driving home from Cal State Fullerton, near home I saw John Cunningham’s yellow Karma Ghia in the McDonald’s parking lot on Dale and Katella.  I immediately pulled into the lot, jumped out om the Pinto  and went inside to find John and say hello. It was might fine to say the least to see him again. I showed off my new Pinto and he said he really liked it. I even let him drive it, so we drove around  some together which seemed so much like old times and how it used to be.

            We drove by his old house on Capri street  and them up to the Grove Theater where he had worked with his brother James before stopping at Carnation’s ice cream  parlor where we went in to get something to eat. We used to go there  so many times, a long, long time ago.

            He told me that he has decided to go back to school after dropping out of Cypress and is trying to get into Can State San Fernando  Valley College. His brother Andy I guess will be going there  also. James is going to Cypress.

            John said he isn’t too happy with his box boy job at Safeway  even though he makes $2 an hour. I told him all about my conversion to the LDS Church, but John will always be skeptical.

After going back to McDonalds to retrieve his car, I barely could say goodbye to him once again not knowing when I would ever see him again. Yet I thanked the dear Lord for arranging this to happen even with me being such a sinner.

I had to be at work at 11tonight.

13 May 1972 Saturday

  After going over to Taco Bell, I worked until 7 in the morning, and it was super, super busy.  The busiest night I had ever worked here. Patty Walls sent everyone home early  even, which left me handling most of the work by myself.  I didn’t get caught up until 7 and I was super tired,  so I went straight home and crashed until it was almost time to go back into work. Man, I was tired.

14 May 1972 Sunday

I went into work at Taco Bell at 1 this morning and worked until 9 when Jackie came in to relieve me. It was a pretty busy night but nothing like yesterday. Dave  Morrow stayed with me until around 4  and Mark Lauria left at 8.

            It was already beginning to warm up outside  by the time I got off work. Earlier when I was cleaning up the parking lot, I found a wallet of some kid who lived  in Cypress. So, when I got off work I drove to his house  and returned his wallet then went home to Dale Street.

            There I read some of the morning Sunday newspaper. Mom and Dad left for Yucaipa to spend time with Grandma Williams for Mother’s Day. I didn’t even go to bed until 11:30 and then had to be up at 1 to get dressed so as to meet with my bishop at 1:45 . His names is Larry Juchau, and he seems really nice.  We visited until it was time for Sacrament when then we went into the chapel. There I saw Arthur Johannsen, Kent Larsen’s old friend and we sat together  during Sacrament. Afterwards he told me all about his being accepted to go on a mission to New York City . After the Sacrament meeting, I came home and tried to get some sleep

15 May 1972 Monday

I went into work at Midnight and Cindy Paulsen stayed with me until 1  then she went on home. I didn’t even try to do any real work buy  instead wrote out a paper that was due today in my Byzantium History class. I worked on it until 6 in the morning  and then did all the work I should have done in 2 hours  instead of 6. I was super tired when Duane Pickett  came in, but the place was spotless, and the prep all done.

            I immediately drove home, showered, and changed before going back to Fullerton  to attend my Christianity class. I had this woman who was also in my Byzantium class turn in my paper for me  because I was too tired to go,  as I would have fallen asleep in class.

 Instead, ant noon I went and registered for classes for the fall semester. I guess I am taking  Hebrew Wisdom Literature, the early history of Mexico, The Westward Movement, the history of motion pictures and the History of the Tudor -Stuart period of England.  I guess  I will have to sign up for a class at the Institute of Religion also.

At lunch I visited with Rich Ventura for a while. He said that Phyllis Lewis had come down again last weekend, but no one told me. Oh well.

On the way home to Garden Grove  heard on the radio that some man tried to assassinate George Wallace at a rally in Maryland and he is in a critical condition.  Hate breeds hate but dear Lord we pray for mercy for Mr. Wallace.

16 May 1972 Tuesday

I was up at 8 this morning to go to Fullerton to meet with Elders Petitte and Fairbanks so I can be interview by their Zone leader. At 10 I met with the Zone leader named Elder Spoonlove who interviewed me for my coming baptismal. The one question I had concern about was whether I was “morally” clean not knowing exactly what he meant but since I don’t lie, cheat, or steal I thought I was as moral as the next person. The interview was over at 11:30  and so I just went back to Dale Street  and read some and watched TV. I was too tired to go to my Book of Mormon Class, so I just went to bed early instead.

            I don’t know what is wrong with me to make me so tired lately. I suppose I better start taking some vitamins.

            In the news George Wallace is in critical condition  in Maryland but doctors think he will live although he might be paralyzed  for the rest of his life.  A long as this society rewards violence  and breeds violence, violence committed by unstable people will continue in our society forever.  There’s really no difference between killing a Vietnamese or an American Politician  as they both have souls. As long as one is condoned, I am afraid the other will also be.  A society that lives by the sword shall perish by the sword.

17 May 1972 Wednesday

            I was up late so I didn’t make it to my morning classes. I didn’t go to my American Literature class either. I’m sick to death of it. At lunch I met up with Rich Ventura an sat with him while we watched the Chicano students  demonstrate against the war. They even burnt  an American flag and when tow white kids tried to stop them , there was a big scuffle  and plate window at the entrance to the library was smashed.  Other than that, nothing much is happening on campus.

            In the evening Laura Edmunson, Rich Ventura, and I drove to Glendale  to go to the show with Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser.  However, when we arrived up there Dave was moody and said he didn’t want to go out, so Phyllis didn’t either. Consequently Rich, Laura and I went by ourselves and saw “The Boyfriend” and “Kelly’s Heroes.” The films were super good,  but I was a little put out on driving all the way to Glendale, then Phyllis and Dave not wanting to go out. We left Glendale around 1:30 in the morning and after taking Laura and Rich home it was nearly 2:15  and I was home at 3:00.  Laura is mad at Rich and me for some reason.

18 May 1972 Thursday

I slept all day until 5 in the late afternoon and it really felt good to catch up as I really felt rested  finally. When Dad came home from work , Mom asked him if he was going to my baptismal. He said he wouldn’t go . I didn’t show it but that really  bothered me a lot. In fact, it down right hurt me,  but the Lord said that those who would forsake their fathers and mothers to follow  after Him  was not worthy of him. I hope someday to be worthy  of my Lord and my Father in heaven.

            In the evening I went to the Fox Anaheim Theater to get out of the house  and see this kid named George Matthews who works there. He lives at the Sycamore Village, and I had let him have the $75 security deposit I had paid there and hope to have it refunded at the end of June when my lease is up.  While at the theater  watched “Pied Piper” with Donovan in it and “ZPG” with Geraldine Champlin. Neither one of the movies were worth getting excited about .

19 May 1972 Friday

I was up at 9 to get ready to go to Cal State Fullerton  but changed my mind when it started to rain. I decided just to go driving around in the rain since it was a stormy rain one, we never usually get.  I wanted to be by myself  today and reflect some. I really enjoy driving in the rain when I am depressed.

            The rain cleared up around 2:30 in the afternoon  and so I went home and slept some more until Richard Ventura called at 4 and woke me. He said that Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser were coming down tonight to spend the night so they can attend my baptism  tomorrow.

I left the house then and drove over to the Cedar Glen apartments to see Richard around 5:30. There his cousin Monte was getting ready to go to New York City  on some business trip. He’s so excited about it.

            Phyllis and Dave  came in about 6:390 and they said they were late because Phyllis car got a flat tire that Dave had to change which Phyllis said was comical. When they were here, we all decided to go  over to the college campus to see the movie “If”  which I first saw in 1969. It’s  a great movie about resisting the establishment.  I’ve seen it at least 4 times

            Rich and I left before Dave and Phyllis  because they had to wait for Laura Edmunson, but we went ahead  because Rosie Medina was going to meet us there. We saved them a seat although the theater was packed.

            After returning back to Rich’s place I had to leave at 12:30 so I could go into work on my graveyard shift.

20 May 1972 Saturday

I went into work at 1 in the morning and worked until 9.There were 3 new people working the swing shift  and Cindy Paulsen was about going crazy because she was in charge of the shift. Dave Morrow worked with me  until 6:30  but I had to show him how to work the front line and everything as he was only used to cleaning up. Thank goodness Gay stayed until 3:30 so that helped a lot with the new people.

            When I left work, I immediately went home to bed and slept until 3:30 when Rich Ventura called me to say that after the baptism, he wanted me to stay and have dinner  with him and the dormitory gang.

 I said okay and then got dressed and drove over to Placentia  where I met  up with Rich, Phyllis Lewis, Dave Gubser, Janet Walton, and Laura Edmunson. They followed me to the ware house where we went inside and waited for the Elders to arrive. I was surprised that Cindy Paulsen  came in a little after we did,  and I was so happy to see her come.  My Uncle and Aunt Milton and Marie Williams came  while I was in the back changing my clothes into white pants and shirt.

I chose Elder John David Pettite to baptize me while Elder Fairbanks gave me the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. I had a tinge of guilt having asked Elder Petitte to baptize me because a wicked part of me knew we would have to change out of our wet clothes together afterwards.  While praising the Father for his matchless gift of love because of these feelings, I felt so unworthy of His efforts, but I had the remission of all my past secret sins in the Baptism waters.

            After the baptism and the laying, on of hands  my friends congratulated me and the only relatives I had there were Milton and Marie. I really appreciated that  and of all my friends  who came since none of my own family came. I don’t know why I should have let the fact that dad wouldn’t come to see me get baptized affect me so much. I suppose it’s because I’ve never done anything in my life  that could please him.

            Brother Thompson from the Institute made it to the ward  just as we were all leaving, and he said he was sorry  that he missed it. Except for the Elders they were probably the only Mormons there.

            When Milton and Marie and Cindy left, left and the rest of us kids went to Richard’s place where Laura and he made a spaghetti dinner that was really good. We played a dictionary game  until about midnight  when Phyllis and Dave decided that they better head back to Glendale  and I had to go back to work at 1.

waters of baptism.

21 May 1972 Sunday

I was back at Taco Bell from 1 until 9 this morning  when Jackie came on. I immediately went home to get some sleep  but no one at the house woke me so I slept through the time. I was so tired and actually slept until 10 at night. I feel good that I was baptized yesterday but felt bad that my first day as a Mormon I didn’t attend church.

            There is something happening between Laura Edmunson, Rosie Medina and Phyllis Lewis regarding me. I feel it but what it is I can’t understand. I think they might want more from me than I am willing to give especially now as LDS.

22 May 1972 Monday

I went back into work at midnight and worked by myself until Duane Pickett  come in at 8. I really didn’t want to go to school so I just went home to Garden Grove and slept until 4:30 in the afternoon. Then I got up and dressed to drive up to Glendale  to see Phyllis Lewis and find out what exactly is going on with Laura Edmunson and Dave Gubser regarding me. Last Saturday Laura wouldn’t even talk to me.

When I caught up with Phyllis, we talked out on her front porch,  and she told me all that she had heard. She said that Laura was told  by Janet Walton about the way I used to in the dorms at Othry Hall.  That really upset me  because I have struggled so hard to  put that behind me but if everyone is talking about me  it got me to thinking  and doubting myself again. We talked for a long time, and she said she didn’t care what people thought about Dave, Rich Ventura, and me that she liked us for who we are not for what we have done or what people say.

            I then suggested that she come  with me on down to Fullerton  and spend the night with Rich and I at his place to talk things out. She said she would and when we got back to Orange County we had to wait for Richard, Rosie Medina, and Gail Carphone who were all at a George McGovern rally.

We decided to go to a show to wait for them, but we couldn’t make it to a theater on time for the first showing so instead we drove around Newport Balboa and rode the ferry out to Balboa island where we talked about life for a long time. When we finally made it back to Cedar Glen Apartments, it was late, but we spent the night there because Monte Ventura was in New York. We stayed up really late telling ghost stories and it was so much fun.

23 May 1972 Tuesday

It was a miserable and heartbreaking day. When I came back to Richard Ventura’s apartment from my Book of Mormon class, Phyllis Lewis  had brought Laura Edmunson over to talk to me. We all tried to talk out what was bothering Laura, but she wouldn’t open up. I did some soul searching and tried to explain how the situation in the dorm last winter came about. It was agonizing for me to justify and defend  what I had thought I was, but it had to be done if it would help Laura see me differently than what Janet Walton said about me. Janet said I was just using Laura to cover up what I am.  My explanation didn’t help, and she left saying that it was just not working out.  I also found out I misjudged Janet that it was Dave Gubser not Janet who told Laura I was a homosexual, and I was just using her. Dave told Laura that at my baptism and that is why she was so upset and wouldn’t speak to me that night.

I started to think how I might have hurt her, but I didn’t understand how as I had no intention of leading her on but simply liked her as a person. I then started to get really emotionally upset with myself and just went into one of the bedrooms to cry unto the Lord for help in understanding this burden. I was so miserable feeling full of sin. Sin after just being baptized. My past haunts me even when it’s washed away.

            Phyllis  had to leave to go home, and she was awfully upset with herself  because she blamed herself.  I told her not to that it’s my burden to overcome. She thought she was doing right by trying to help Laura understand me.

24 May 1972 Wednesday

I was too miserable with myself to attend any of my classes on campus and besides, Jane Fonda , the political movie actor, was speaking in the Cal State Fullerton gymnasium so I wanted to go to that. She spoke on the heinous crimes being perpetrated on the Vietnamese by the military. Some protestors were outside heckling calling her Hanoi Jane.

            Afterwards, I went to the campus commons to get something to eat,  and I sat and visited with Linda Sparks. I also saw Jim Dalton  with this girl I knew from Cypress College. I didn’t say anything to him as he was a reminder of what I want to overcome and also inside I felt a twinge of feeling still for him.

            After eating I walked across Nutwood and the Titan Plaza over to the dormitories at Othry Hall to visit with Rick Davis to make amends. He invited me into our old room, and I guess he’s doing okay in school, but I think he’s smoking too much dope. He had a Chicano friend with him in the room named Manuel that when he learned I was a Mormon he seemed really interested in the LDS Church. He said he might even go to a Sacrament meeting with me this Sunday. I hope so,

            Later Rosie Medina and Sister Gail Carfone, even though she hates for me to call her sister, came over to Cedar Glen and spent  most of the evening with Richard Ventura and me at his apartment.  Gordon Townsend came over also about 10:30  when Laura Edmunson called Rich and wanted to speak to me.

She apologized for had happened the other day and told me that the reason she was so upset was that she thought I was still  following after my old life when I was dating her.

Around midnight I left Fullerton and went home to sleep in my own bed.

25 May 1972 Thursday

Well finally all the old quarrels and misunderstandings have been cleared up. Oh, Happy Day.  I was up at 10:30  and dressed to go to the L.D.D. Institute’s luncheon as it was the last one for the semester. We had pizza. After socializing I went back to Garden Grove  where I found that my books, I had ordered for Bro. Thompson  had come in the mail, so I drove back to Fullerton  and took them to him.

 While in Fullerton I stopped at this Me and Ed’s Pizza Parlor behind the dorms on Commonwealth  to apply for a drivers job they had advertised. They gave it to me, and I will start this Monday  at $1.75 an hour and go up to $2.00 if I work out.  The only trouble is that the little truck I’ll be driving is a stick and I don’t know how to drive a stick that is one not on the steering wheel.  So, I will learn.

            When I went to see Rich Ventura at his apartment,  I called Taco Bell  to see what my hours will be for the next day,  and I found out from Patty Walls that I’m not the only one to have had a bad week. Cindy Paulsen got into  a pretty bad car accident but thank God she wasn’t hurt seriously,  and last Tuesday Mark Lauria was beat up by an irate customer during his shift. So, he quit. That is terrible.

            After talking to Patty, I went to the movies at the Fox Anaheim theater and saw “the Last Picture Show” and “Bless the Beast and Children”  and didn’t get home until after midnight.

26 May 1972 Friday

 I slept in until 11 this morning then was up  to drive to attend the Institute of Religion where Brother Thomas Reeve, my old history teacher from Cypress College was speaking on Mormonism and patriotism.  He was extremely interesting as always  and for a few brief minutes Bro. Reeve  had stimulated me enough to try and achieve the same academic recognition I had with him,  again. Listening to him gave me a spark that maybe can rekindle my interest in school as I am so bored with my classes this semester.

            After his lecture  I drove home to Garden Grove  where Mom had my sister Charline and the kids over. My nephew James had hurt his finger, so I had too love on him and make him feel better. He’s growing up to be a fine boy. I remember him as a tiny babe who I used to rock to sleep and tell him stories. Must you grow up?

            Back over at Rich Ventura’s apartment I ate  dinner with him and Gordon Townsend while Helen, who is still living in the dorms, came over later to visit. I tried to sleep  a little in Richard’s room  before going into work . Ugh!

            In the news  today the Soviet Union  and the Unites States signed a nuclear missile treaty.

27 May 1972 Saturday

I left Richard Ventura’s place at 12:30 in the morning after sleeping there for a bit.  I went into work at Taco Bell  and worked with Dave Morrow until he left at 5 and by myself until 9 when Patty Walls came in to take over. I left after that and returned to Cedar Glen  and slept at his place until 5 in the afternoon when it became too hot to sleep anymore. It must have been 85 in the apartment.

In the evening Gordon Townsend, Richard Ventura, Laura Edmunson, and I went  with Gail Carfone and Rosie Medina to some flicks on the Cal-State campus. Key Largo with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart was good but the other was just fair.

After the movies we went back to Richard’s apartment where we rapped until 12:30 before I took Gail, Rosie, and Laura to their homes so I could be at work at 1.

28  May 1972 Sunday

I was at work at 1 and worked until 9 this morning. It was a pretty busy night  more than it was yesterday. The only exciting  thing to happen was to be threatened by this drunk lady who said she was with the mafia and was mad that I hadn’t put more meat in her burrito. I just laughed at her.

            When I was off work, I went back over to Richard Ventura and slept until 1 in the afternoon when I had to get up to get ready for Sacrament. I drove home to Garden Grove changed clothes and went to the Garden Grove 6^th Ward at 2:30 .

Sacrament lasted until 4 as it was Fast and Testimony Sunday which is when members of the Ward speak before the congregation  and give their testimonies of the church being true. Arthur Johannsen spoke along with his family since he will soon be going off on a mission. Arthur is a good man and has been friendly towards me and Kent Larsen. After the service I came back to Dale Street and slept until getting up to go back to work at Taco Bell.

29 May 1972 Monday

I went into work at midnight and gave Cindy Paulsen some flowers I bought for her because of her accident. She looked pretty good for having been banged up in a bad accident. She still has 2 black eyes and a broken nose.

            I worked with Joe Knight  who is this new kid until he went home at 6. Allison came in at 8  because Duane Pickett  is still on his vacation. I left to go home to Garden Grove and slept until 4 when I had to get up and get ready to go to work at Me and Ed’s Pizza. The guys there were pretty friend and I worked from 5 until 9 at night but I just didn’t like the work, so I don’t think I am going to keep the job.

            After work , I went back over to Richard Ventura’s apartment  to visit with his cousin Monte who told us all about his business trip to New York City. I guess he really had a bad time there  and is going to quit to find work in Los Angeles. I left around midnight to go back home.

Because of Memorial Day there were no classes today, but it was a super-hot day . I think it’s going to be a long hot summer since we haven’t had in rain for a while. .

30 May 1972 Tuesday

            I slept in until 10:30 this morning the got dressed to take the Pinto over to Downey Ford  to have them look at it. They said to bring it back on Friday  ad they would service it.

            In the afternoon I drove over to Kent Larsen’s house on St. Marks to drop off a book  I had borrowed from him  a long time ago. He wasn’t home  but Sister Larsen was, and she invited me in to visit. We talked  for several hours about her concerns about Kent. She is so upset  and had written to church men in Salt Lake City about him.  I do hope our visit  has helped her and comforted her by  allowing her to discuss her concerns about Kent’s problems with someone his own age and experience.

            After I left, I felt so full of the Spirit that I went to John Cunningham’s brother Andy’s apartment  and saw that  John was down from Tujunga and I was invited in. I gave John some financial aid papers I had with me car and I discussed LDS theology with Andy and not John since he said he had to leave to return to Tujunga. So, John and I really didn’t get any time to talk but I was pleased to share the gospel with Andy. The Cunningham brothers would  make great Saints if only they would have the faith to believe.

            I didn’t make it on my Mormon class today.

31 May 1972 Wednesday

I slept in until 8:30 this morning when Jerry Smith  came over to borrow my type of writer for a paper he has to write. Today is the last day of classes at Cal-State Fullerton but I just went back to bed and slept. Who really cares?

            Mom went back to work at Dee Dees Dress shop where she is a seamstress doing piece work.  She had been out of work since last September. I guess she is pretty tired.

            My sister Donna isn’t going to take out a loan after all, but instead is just going to try to work full time at D.K. Donuts at the Orange County Plaza.

            I spent most of the day thinking about John Cunningham and amazed about how God does work for my good.

            I called Phyllis and I guess  she is pretty tired from working so hard on the George McGovern campaign for the past week.

I’ve been trying to get a hold of Ralph Ludders to see how he is but he’s never home.

This hot weather is really making our plum crop from the tree in the back yard ripen early. They are the best plums anywhere.

            This month of May has really been mixed up and erratic. The first of the month was easy going with the Vietnam War demonstrations mainly being the primary  purpose of my life. In the middle  of May I was baptized a Mormon and the closeness of my Taco Bell friends  was wonderful  but the last half I witnessed a drifting away on my part  from the Othry Hall gang, especially Janet Walton, Laura Edmunson, and Paul Blankenship.

            I’ve gotten to know Rosie Medina and Gail Carfone a lot this month also. Gail is a Mormon like I am but gets upset if I call her sister Carfone.

            I saw John Cunningham  two times  this month and while Praise the Lord for being so kind to see him again, I also know better now why the Lord did what he had to do taking John out of my life. I am not sad about it anymore over the way things turned out, maybe a little. The Lord is letting me see John just enough to keep me from idealizing him into something he never was.

            I bought a new car this month, a Ford Pinto but losing a lot of memories with the old 63 Ford Galaxy. Mark Lauria is gone now too. I hope he settles down and makes good at Claremont College. It was a strange, strange month.

 

JUNE

1 June 1972 Thursday

Today is Sally Johnson’s 22^nd birthday. We  used to be close but like others from the old crowd at Cypress we drifted apart.  Here it is June already and summer will be here before we know it. It was really hot today at 95 degrees. It seems like it’s going to be a long hot summer.

I didn’t do much today but read some and watched TV  although I did go over to Richard Ventura’s Cedar Glen apartment  for a little while to visit and also over to Frank and Barb Welte in Fullerton where I mostly visited with Barb for most of the afternoon.

Later I picked up my check  from Taco Bell and I made $98 but only cleared $79 after taxes. I deposited all it into my checking account at Imperial bank  and then bought 2 shirts plus a swimsuit at Zody’s. I also paid my first install met in my Ford Pinto  of $100.

I went into work at Taco Bell at midnight.

2 June 1972 Friday

After getting home from work I slept in until noon . I had to take the Pinto down to Downey’s Ford to have it fixed. I had to first go by Cypress College to get my sister Donna to follow me over  there so she could take me back home.

            It was another hot day so I was glad to be back to the house where I put in-foil on my bedroom windows to block out the heat and the light so I can sleep better during the day. I went back to bed and slept util it was time for me to o\go into work at Taco Bell. In the meanwhile, Mom and Dad went into Downey to retrieve the Pinto and bring it home when it was fixed.

3 June 1972 Saturday

Today is my mom’s 43^rd birthday. I came into work at midnight,  and I was supposed to have worked until only 8 but it was 9 before anyone came in to relieve me. It was a busy night  although not really hectic. I had worked with Joe Knight until 5 in the morning when he left then I was on my own until Patty Walls came in to work.  When she did, I just immediately went home to Garden Grove and went to bed.

            I made myself get up at 6 this evening  so I could go to a florist store before they closed so I could buy Mom some flowers for her birthday. Mom wasn’t home though because she and dad were over at my Uncle and Aunt, Milton, and Marie’s house, so I drove over there where I was asked to join them for dinner at Sir George’s Smorgasbord.

            I took my cousins Stephanie and Gregory in my Ford Pinto,  and it was the first time they rode in it. After dinner and taking my cousins home, I drove over to Richard Ventura’s Cedar Glen apartment because his cousin Tim Ventura was down from Fresno.

We visited until I had to be at work at 11 so I didn’t get to stay long. Richard Ventura said he was really upset because his cousins Tim and Monte  found a one-bedroom apartment for $240 a month in West Hollywood  which excluded Richard  after all the plans he had made to move to Beverly Hills with them.

4 June 1972 Sunday

It was a pretty busy night up until 3:30 in the morning when it finally slacked off. I worked the back of the store cleaning and prepping food for the morning shift  until about 5:30 and then I went on home to Garden Grove leaving Joe Knight on his own.

            I was just too tired to stay up to attend Priesthood meeting,  so I slept instead until 1 in the afternoon when I got up to get ready for Sacrament. There I saw the elders and Arthur Johansen afterwards and then I went back on home to Dale Street.

            I intended to go to Laura Edmunson’s concert recital  on “King David” and I drove all the way over to Cal State Fullerton,  but the room was just so crowded that I couldn’t find a place to sit, so I went over to Richard and Monte Ventura’s place instead. I guess Richard was still upset about Tim and Monte  giving him the shaft. Rich and I talked again about him moving in with me at Mom and Dad’s house for the summer.

I didn’t stay long  because I planned on going back home to study . However, at the last minute I decided to drop by Othry Hall and go to my old dormitory room  to see Rick Davis. He wasn’t there but I got to talking to a friend of his about the church and I stayed much too late with the kid. I stayed in Fullerton until 12:15 in the morning and didn’t get home to Garden Grove until 12:45. I studied for finals until 2. I was doing the Lord’s work. 

5 June 1972 Monday

Today is Phyllis J. Lewis 21^st birthday and finals began. I was up at 7 this morning bone tired from last night and scared to death because I didn’t do much studying for my Byzantium History final today. I think I did well on my essays but bombed the identification parts. Oh well I just pray I get a B out of that class. After the final I went over to Richard Ventura’s Cedar Glen apartment  to go with him to look at the El Dorado apartments which Janet Walton, Laura Edmunson, and Paul Blankenship liked but unfortunately the manger lady said there wasn’t an apartment available to look at.

            Rich and I didn’t care  too much for the hallways and the outside anyway. So, we went over to the Montclair’s, and we really liked them . A two bedroom with utilities paid and a refrigerator which would be extra was $192. Paul said he’d move in with us so that would be for the 3 of us about $64 a piece which isn’t bad.

            Later in the evening I called Phyllis to wish her a happy birthday . She said she was going to get to go to New York City this weekend and then stay a couple of weeks working on the George McGovern campaign. I’m really excited for her.

I wrote my cousin Kay Ballard a letter today  as it’s been a while. 

6 June 1972 Tuesday

 I woke up at 10:30 this morning and got up shortly after thereafter, showering and shaving.  Mom and Dad were already at work  and Donna was Cypress College, so I cleaned the front room and kitchen  then went to the polling place to vote in the California Primary.  I voted for George McGovern for President  and for Proposition 7 which would establish that all U.S. citizens 18 and older who are a resident of California may vote in all elections.

After that I came back to Dale Street and cleaned my old room which Richard Ventura will be moving into for the summer.  Richard had called in the afternoon and more or less  said he will move in with us for sure.

I then drove over to the Cedar Glen apartments and picked him up to take him shopping at Judy’s for summer clothes  and afterwards took him home to Dale Street to show him the house and introduce him to Mom and Dad. I think everything will work out. He said he would move in this weekend when his sister Michele  brings him back down from Fresno.

            I had my Pinto  washed and waxed  today  so it will look nice when I pick Cindy Paulsen to take her to the Huntington Library. Now watch it rain. Ha! I shouldn’t have spoken as it did  a little, but it just made things hotter and more humid. The results of the primary won’t be In until late.

7 June 1972 Wednesday

 It was misting rain some this morning when I went over to Cindy Paulsen’s house  at 11  to take her into San Marino  to go see the Huntington Library. She had never been there . Although it was an ugly overcast day , we had fun at the library going through the mansion  and gardens. The first time I ever went to the Huntington Library was in August 1969  with John Cunningham. It’s  beautiful place and we stayed there for about 3 hours. 

I took Cindy home at 4 because she had to be at work at Taco Bell by 5. So, I just went home and studied for my two finals tomorrow. I really feel like chucking the American Lit final because I know I’ll flunk anyway.

Oh well, thy will be done. I gave myself to the Lord in search of the gospel and now I pray He will help me through my trials of my own making. Hosanna.

8 June 1972 Thursday

I was up at 7 to go to Cal State Fullerton because I had a final in American Literature at 8 as that at the last minute, I decided to take the final after all. The Lord knows what I need and praise his glorious name  that he will answer my prayers.

I knew nothing  that was on the final  but I’m sure I got a B on it. The same thing happened in my Christianity class. All the questions were ones I knew, and I am sure I did well on it too.

 After classes were over, I just went home and slept some because I was so tired.

9 June 1972 Friday

It’s my sister Charline Wachs 25^th birthday and the Spring Semester of Cal State Fullerton is over and so ends my Junior year in college.

            When I was up to go to my last final, it was like rainy and misty out,  but it cleared up by the afternoon.

My final was on John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”  and Samson’s Agonistic. I think I think I did really well  on the final, at least a B.

            Once the final was over, then that that it. School is out  or at least until Summer School begins.

            I think I may get a B in my John Milton class, a B in my Byzantium  class  and a B in my Christianity class. I hope I get a C plus  in American Literature,  but I could very well get a D in that class.

            Anyway, I went home to Dale Street  and slept until 6:30. When I woke, I got dressed for tonight’s farewell party since everyone is leaving school. I arrived there at 8  and only Dave Gubser was there. However, Phyllis Lewis and Dave’s cousin Jeff were hiding out side.

Later Helen from the dorms called and asked if she could come to the party  too so I went and picked her up outside Othry Hall. By the time I got back, the party was more or less in full swing. All the people wo were there were Laura Edmunson, Janet Walton, Richard Ventura, Gordon Townsend, Paul Blankenship, Dave Gubser, Jeff Gubser, Phyllis Lewis, Rosie Medina, Gail Carphone, Helen, and Henry and his friend Mike.

            Actually, it wasn’t much of a fun party because everyone knew that everyone was leaving,  and it was kind of sad. Everyone was drinking and smoking pot  which also kind of made me sad, but I can’t and won’t condemn my friends but just try to set an example.

            Gordon tried to put the make on Helen out by the pool  as they were both drunk. Rosie who has a crush on Gordon was drunk and crying over Gordon. Janet was hugging everyone goodbye by the time I had to leave to go work at 2 in the morning

            It was a strange party, kind of like the Bernstein House farewell party at Cypress College last year but not quite so vicious.

10 June 1972 Saturday

I went into work at 2 this morning  and we were busy, and the place was a mess, but Dave Marrow wanted to leave so I let him, and I worked the rest of the morning with Joe Knight.

Joe is a strange person, very extroverted and comes on strong. He professes to be a Jesus Freak although he has taken an interest in the Latter-Day Saints. I sent him home at 5:30 and I stayed until 9 cleaning up. I was so tired when I went home, and I slept while Michele and Richard Ventura  moved a lot of his stuff over to the house.

            It was hot today so I couldn’t sleep much.

            Patty Walls called me to come into work at 10 tonight because he said everybody at work was sick.

11 June 1972 Sunday

It was a super busy night at Taco bell during the morning also. Although we were short on help because Dave Marrow, I learned quit  and Lynn, Sharon, Helen, and Peggy were all sick. I worked with Gay until 2:30 when I sent her home and I had to stay until 7:30 because the place was such a mess and I wanted it cleaned up before the morning crew came in.  I worked a 9 and half hour shift.

            Obviously, I didn’t make it to my Priesthood meeting and since I was so tired  and had to go into work again tonight, I just slept through the day until it was time to go back in to work.

            Rosie Medina , I think is getting serious about me. I wonder if she really cares for me or is just looking  for someone to become her love object. May be time will tell. Laura Edmunson is still a little hurt from last month  and I am sorry if she thought I was leading her on. I was just being nice because I thought of her as a friend.

            I guess my sister Donna is moving out of the house for sure for the summer  with some hippie friends of hers.  Richard Ventura should be moving in for sure soon then it will just be him and me living with Mom and Dad.

12 June 1972  Monday

I went into work at midnight and worked until 8 this morning when Duane Pickett  came in to relieve me. The shift was a mess as that everybody was sick again, so we were shorthanded. The store fans were also broken so it was super-hot in the place. Nothing was cooked up when I came in, no meat or beans so I spent much of the shift  between cooking food  and waiting on customers. Besides all that it was a super busy night and we made $85 in sales That was the most I made working by myself . When Duane Pickett  came, I  told him the hours I wanted to work during the summer about 28 as I intended to go to summer school

            When I left work, I went straight to bed at home and slept until  5  when then I went over to Richard and Monte Ventura’s place in Cedar Glen apartments for dinner for the last time. Gail Carphone and Rosie Medina fixed dinner for Richard, Monte and Monte’s mom who is down from Fresno to help him move into his new apartment  which is in West Hollywood.

13 June 1972 Tuesday

Today is Karen Gramsted’s 21^st birthday and I miss seeing her. We were good friends.

It was a strange mood that I was in today and maybe now would be a good time to reflect. I’m out of Cal-State Fullerton for the summer and it couldn’t have come any sooner  for I hated all my classes this Spring Semester except for maybe my Book of Mormon  class.

But with the ending of school also came the end of school friendships for the summer. Laura Edmunson and Janet Walton  are both moving back  home for the summer as is Paul Blankenship. Gordon Townend , Monte Ventura, and Richard Ventura have now all moved out of the Cedar Glen  apartments so that chapter is closed along with the dorm experience at Othry Hall, the Sycamore Village and the Casa Commonwealth as part of my Junior college year experiences.

I’ll be starting school next Monday at Cypress and I am sure to be making friends there,’

            I guess Richard Ventura is moving in with Mom and Dad starting tomorrow while my sister Donna hopes to move out with some of her friends for the summer  “Where do those Golden Rainbow end? Why is the song I sing so sad? Love is just a word I heard, a syllable to be said.”

KHJ’s top the songs played are Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue”, “Too Late to Turn Back Now”, Billy Preston‘s “Outa-Space”,  the Rolling Stone’s “Tumbling Dice”, Dr. Hook’s & The Medicine Show’s “Sylvia’s Mother”, Bill Wither’s “Lean on Me”, “Slipping in Darkness”, Cat Steven’s “Morning Has Broken”, and Elton John’s “Rocket Man.”

            I don’t care for any of them except for Cat Steven’s song which plays in my head when I go out to hose the patio down in the mornings when its quiet and peaceful in the early dawn.

14 June 1972 Wednesday

The only special thing to happen today was that Richard Ventura and I went to see “Man of La Mancha” performed at the Fullerton Light Opera Company. Laura Edmunson was playing in the orchestra, so we came to the dress rehearsal for free. It was super good, and I really enjoyed the music especially the songs Dulcinea and the Impossible Dream. The music and lyrics were so beautiful.

            Since I had to go into work tonight after the performance, I just took Richard  home to Dale Street where he moved in today.

            The play made me  think;  am I wrong  to want for glory and dream of a better world than this. My friends say that I have become a religious fanatic, blinded from reality  and maybe it is so. Although I can’t see any harm  in being part of a Celestial glory  by helping the world know truth and understanding . For like poor Don Quixote the world I see is a better one than this. 

15 June 1972 Thursday

            I worked from 11 yesterday night until 2:30 this morning. However, I got up about 9:30  to get dress so I could be over at Cindy Paulsen’s house at 11 because she wanted to go to the Huntington Library again, take some pictures and see all that we missed last time.  We left about 11:30 and we took the Pomona Freeway  into the San Gabriel Valley  then into to San Marino. It turned out to be too cloudy to take really good pictures, so we didn’t stay long.

            After coming back to Garden Grove, my sister Charline  asked if I would go down to the county law library in Santa Ana  to help her see how to file for James adoption by Dennis. That took about an hour  then  Richard Ventura  asked if I would take him in to Los Angeles to look for an apartment there because he said he got a job  at Century City in Hollywood. However, everything we looked at was so expensive  plus the traffic was horrible.

 I had a bad headache  by the time we went over to see Monte Ventura’s apartment om Kings Road and to see him and Richard’s aunt Marge  before she left to return to Fresno. We had dinner with them,  and Monte told us how there was a mix up in packages delivered so they didn’t get their boxes in until midnight and the land lady turned out to be a real crab. I guess all the high expectations they had for he place went down the tube. That’s really sad  when that happens.

I drove Rich by the Mormon temple in Los Angeles before heading back to Garden Grove. It was so beautiful.

16 June 1972  Friday

Today is Grandma Johnson’s 73rdbirthday, I went into work at midnight and Cindy Paulsen went home after I showed up. Patty Walls was scheduled to go home at 1 but we were so busy  because of high school graduations that she stayed as we were super busy until 4 in the morning. I then sent Patty home even though she said she was willing to stay and had started to  clean up. I was really behind when Duane Pickett  came in, but he understood. In fact, I think he expected me to yell at him for us being shorthanded,  but I didn’t.

When I left work,  I went right home to bed and slept until 5 in the afternoon when I then got up to get something to eat because Mom fixed dinner for Grandma and Grandpa Williams came over to visit with Aunt Bonnie Fagan and Minnie Williams

 I talked some with Richard Ventura  but mainly read this book called “Night Fall at Nauvoo” which is a really super good book on early Mormonism.

It sure was hot today and when Grandma and Grandpa Williams were over, I was running around in my pajamas.

17 June 1972 Saturday

 I went into work at 1 this morning and stayed until 9 when Patty Walls came into to relieve me. It was another busy night but not as intense as yesterday.  I sent Joseph Knight home about 5 .

            When I got off work , I just went home and slept until 5:30 when then I was up to get ready for my date with Patty Walls.  I had the Pinto washed then picked her up a 7 over in Fullerton.  I took her to Bob’s Restaurant where we had dinner and talked  a lot about life.  I think I got to know Patty a little better than I did before. 

Afterwards we went to Knott’s Berry Farm where we had a lot of fun. We went on most of the major attractions  and stayed until the time Knott’s closed up at midnight. By the time I took Patty home and got home myself it was a little after 1 in the morning.

            I haven’t been praising my Lord and Savior as much as I should. Oh, how glad I am that he took me out of the darkness of who I was  into his marvelous light.  

18 June 1972 Sunday

I was up at 5:30 this morning to get ready for Priesthood Meeting . I went so as to pick up Elders Fielding and Christensen to take them to church with me. In Priesthood we discussed what the Gospel had to say about the death of a child. It was said that a child under the age of 8 would die a sinless death  and go on to Celestial glory.

            After Priesthood  which was at 7 came Sunday School at 9. Then at 2:30 was Sacrament. When I got out of Sunday service at 4 m I came home to Dale Street and then took Richard Ventura into Los Angeles so he could stay with his cousins Monte and Tim  to spend the night. He wants to see about the job that is in Century City.

            It was a long drive  into West Hollywood, so I just dropped him off and headed back home. On the way back while going through Long Beach I was moved by the spirit to go visit my lesbian friends Nancy Wilton and Sandy Burns which I did. It was so good to see them again. I do love them, and I humbled asked the Lord to watch over them and protect. them.

It was midnight when I finally came home to Dale Street.

19 June 1972 Monday.

I was up about 11 this morning to get ready for the first day of summer school. My first class is Ceramics taught by Charlene Felos  from 12:30  to 5 in the afternoon  and them a Marriage and Family Class that goes from 5:30 until 7:45.  I also signed up for a Genealogy class at Cypress’ Institute of Religion. My old friend Kent Larson is talking the ceramics class along with his married next door neighbors Tom and Jean Johnson.

            Charlene Felos let us out early  so I went to the beach just to get away before going to my Marriage and Family class. The instructor is Mr. Carlisle. After class while driving home I was moved by the spirit to visit with Cunningham brothers, Andy, and James at their Apartment behind the Stanton Plaza.

 James was out but I visited with Andy for a long time almost until 12:30. It was a good visit  and it helped me learn more about John Cunningham’s life which is the real reason I stopped by. 

John is still a powerful force in my life for some reason. I think about him all the time. Will he still be next year as I grow closer to the Lord?  Will he still be a part of my life after I die? Did our spirits dwell together  in our pre-existence with the Father?  Am I to be a god or a ministering angel because of my feelings for him.

Additional Material

Grandma Johnson wrote Mom a letter that came on this date. She wrote, “Dear June & family. We come up yesterday to get out of the heat, was 104 at Haskell. Sure hot  & dry here. No prospect of rain. Everybody well. J.W.  Irrigated his cotton. They had a fire in Littlefield last Sunday liked to have burned everything up.

Got your pretty cards & letter before we left. Thanks a  lot and it makes me feel good to know that Donna’s happy again. Just hope he is a good guy & will be good to her. All way felt like she would meet some one that would  love  & appreciate her for what she was. Never was a better one than Donna & I’m happy  for Charline. Dennis is such  a good fellow. Loves his home and family. Hope they can have a boy to carry on the name. Yes, James & Denise will take over. I can just  see Denise talking to him.

How’s Edgar liking his job. So glad he got rid of them headaches. Daddy working his orchard. Will have a handful of peaches but a lot of grapes. 

I hanted [hated]  to come up & miss the old cowboy reunion  & rodeo. But the hot weather was getting the best of us.

June, we went to see Mama’s half-sister that time. Mettie Worley. She’s dead now. Got kids living there. I don’t know what their names are. Essie forgets who wrote her & who doesn’t. I write her & she answers, sent a birthday card. Had one from Ada. They’re  in  such a shape way to bad all their legs are giving way on them. Nothing strange about it. Feebleness is coming to us all. My old pegs are not nearly as strong as they once was.

 But if her and Jr. have located some of the Fenters there she can & talk  to, she got it made. Like I told Jr., I didn’t know anything about my kin & couldn’t care less.

I sent Jess a card . He’s down in Oklahoma watching oil well, guess more for company  for that that fellow  that is working  good. He’s down there for a change. I know he gets so lonesome alone.

Our meeting begin next Sunday. Bro. Keith Everetts will be preaching.

Haven’t heard from Alice in some time. Hope they have recovered over the letdown  of Steve disappointment in marriage

Guess had better get this in the mail. Write soon. Love from  all here. Mom  & daddy.”

20 June 1972 Tuesday

I was up at noon so I could go to the store  to buy some tools for my craft ceramic class which I have form 12:30 until 5. In that class  my first assignment was to create a coil pot 12 inches tall. I hope  mine turns out. It started to rain during that class, and it’s been raining off and on ever since though it’s still hot and sultry.

            After Ceramics I went right to my Marriage and Family class  where these tow Mormon kids named Sheena Clark ad=n Keith Anderson  got together  to decide on what to do our class project on together. We decided to do it on Mormon marriages. I didn’t stay for the entire class period because I haven’t been feeling well  like I have a cold coming on. So, I went home and found that Richard Ventura had come back to the house because he didn’t get the Century City job after all.

I left the house at 7:30 and went back over to Andy Cunningham’s apartment  to give him the address to the Teamster Union so that he could sign  up.  He asked me into talk again because I think he’s lonesome without John and James is such a narcissist.  I stayed and talked  until 10:30 and I am learnings so much, so fast, about Andy and John since the last time I had seen and talked to John as a companion.

21 June 1972 Wednesday

Today is official the first day of summer and I woke up early but actually don’t get up to get dressed util 10 this morning. It was a beautiful day,  but I am still feeling crummy from my head cold.

I went to Cypress College and finished my coil pot  in my Ceramic Class. I’m now  trying to come up with a design for a set of cups which will our next assignment.  In class I  met a new kid named Ken Andersen  who was very friendly to me and maybe we will become close friends. Who knows? 

In my Marriage and Family class Keith Anderson was gone but Sheena Clark  and I discussed what we are going to do for our class project.

            When I came home to Garden Grove  at 8 this evening, my sister Charline, brother-in-law Dennis and the kids were over, and James decided to spend the night with Mom and Dad. My sister Donna has finally moved out with her hippy friends for the summer.

            An Elder from the 6^th Garden Grove Ward  called me to say that I have an appointment with the Bishop this next Wednesday. Then Rosie Medina called, and I talked  with her some. She said how she is reading Holy Scriptures now and saying prayers to our Father in heaven.  This warms my heart more than anything she could have done. However, she is still kind of hung up about Gordon Townsend  because she talked about him a lot,  but I told her that we might not always get want we want but we get what we need.

22 June 1972 Thursday

 I was up at 11:30 this morning  sleeping in as late as possible  because I knew that it would be almost 24 hours before I get anymore sleep.

            I went to Charline Felos’ Ceramic class and started in on making some cups which is our first real project. I’ve come down with a full-fledged  cold and its settled in my nose and chest. Hack and Wheeze.  I wasn’t in the best of moods today because of it.

            At 6:30 I went to my Mormon Genealogy class, and I think it’s going to be really interesting. It’s taught  by Bro. Young who seems rather inexperienced  but likeable. I learned about the Family Exaltation  plan of the Lord in that class tonight which is the reason we keep our genealogies.

Oh Lord another burden I shall try to bear. I now have to live righteously  for my future children’s sake  and for all my forefathers who have died without knowledge of the true Gospel.  Day by Day by Day, Please Lord these things I pray. To see people more clearly, to love people more dearly, to follow people nearly day by day by day .

            I went to work at Taco Bell at Midnight

23 June 1972 Friday

I worked from midnight until 8 in the morning  and it was a pretty busy night. I am still sick with a cold and for most of the night I had a runny nose and cough in my chest. I had Joe Knight work the counter with the customers  until he left at 2. He wasn’t supposed to have left until 3 so I fell behind on all my work, I was sort of mad at him  for the rest of the shift for so som. Well, I hear he’s quitting and will be leaving soon enough  so I shouldn’t complain. I guess he tries.

            When I got off work,  I hurried home because there was a lot, I wanted to do  in the evenings o I made sure I got some sleep,  However it didn’t turn out that way. I was woken at 1:30 in the afternoon by a phone call  and I never was able to get bac to sleep after that. George Matthews called to let me know that he’d be moving so I should try and get my security fee back.

            Later my Elders  came over  to check up on me and we visited or a while. In the evening Richard Ventura and I went to the Fox Theater where George Matthews work and we saw the movie “Willard” about a rat named Ben who attacked people who bullied Willard.  We were home by 9:30 and I called Rosie Medina before going into work. I received a letter from Laura Edmunson today saying she is back home in West Covina.

24 June 1972 Saturday

I went into work at Taco Bell at 1 and worked with Joseph Knight  and the new kid  named Richard  Jenhke.  I stayed until 9 this morning and was just too tired and groggy from my cold  to be much of a worker  last night. I am still tired and sick. I hope I get over this stupid Summer cold  soon.

            When I left work,  I came home to Garden Grove and slept until 7 in the evening. I was really pooped. When I did get up,  I ate some dinner with Richard Ventura. Mom and Dad had gone out for dinner and to the show. They went to see “Cabaret which I know Mom will enjoy but not dad.

Rich and I were going to go up to Glendale  to see Phyllis Lewis and Dave Gubser  but we both felt we better wait until we are both better. Rich has come down with something too

About 11 at night Mom and Dad called and said their car had overheated and to bring Dad some tools  to fix the problem.  I did and then went to bed about midnight  still achy from the cough in my chest.

I guess my sister  Donna is having fun being out on her own. I’d like to come over to see her new place . I can’t hardly wait until this fall when Rich, Paul Blankenship, and I move out together.

Grandma Johnson wrote mom a letter, “Morning June and Family. Hope all are well. We are doing well enough except it sure  getting hot. Know we can’t stay with it much longer till  the 4th.  I hope. Anxious to hear from Pauline to see if Kay  and Guy made it to DC. I can’t feature little warts  like them doing  such a thing. Kay has a mind of her own though.

Thanks for the pretty cards. Who has Jr. brought in. Is he working since school is out. And Donna moving. Hope she don’t get in with a rough bunch. You never know anybody any more.

Know we haven’t seen or heard of the Huskeys. Can just see the top of the house. Weeds and grass have taken over.  They may be at Jacksboro building them a house and move down there as she was trying to get a school there last I heard. She fell heir  to some land when her mother passed away  and  got some cows down there. Well times changes everything We may not ever see them anymore.

John may be down for the Rodeo. Havent heard from any one so don’t know anything new.

How is little James and Sissy and did Pam have her twins. I pity her if it’s as hot there as here. How is Milton and Marie. Do they like their new home. Don’t supposed I’d know their kids. They will grow up. No don’t seem Bonnie’s boy that old.

JW said he didn’t have to plant over. Sure  had rain. The old lake  was over the road north of the house. Was going to move the cows.

Write when you find the time. I’ll get this out in the box. Its time. Love you all Mama and Daddy.

Additional Material

Grandma’s birthday was the 16^th and we went her birthday cards. My cousin Kay and her husband Guy Ballard had moved to Washington DC where she worked for the government. John Warren often came to see the Old Cowboy Reunion Rodeo held over the 4^th of July.  Pam is  the granddaughter of Edgar and Beulah Danforth

25 June 1972 Sunday

Today is my sister Donna Pierce’s 23^rd birthday. I slept in so didn’t attend Priesthood this morning  nor Sunday school because I was feeling still tired and sickly, My nose cold isn’t getting any better and my cough is getting worse. 

Sally Johnson of all people called me this morning to say hello and that she was home from Montana. The phone call was a surprise as she was like a ghost from my past and we had really little to talk about except what we have been up to since leaving the Bernstein House last year.

I did make it to my Sacrament meeting where I visited with the Missionary Elders.  I can’t write into words the wonderful fellowship  I feel towards the missionaries. Actually, they are t about the only ones who visit with me.

            After church I went to see Andy Cunningham at his apartment and stayed a while to visit with him and James.  They are the closest I can be with John anymore.  James surprised me by saying that he found God. That is a profound statement coming from a Cunningham  because all of them have told me before they were atheists.  I hope it is true but with James its more likely he found a girlfriend who is a Jesus Freak.  But seek and ye shall find.  I so badly want to give Andy a blessing  but until I receive any Priesthood,  I don’t feel like I have any authority,  so it is better to wait until then. 

I had to go into work at 10 tonight  and when I went in the place was a mess. Cindy Paulsen informed me that Richard Jahnke who was supposed to work the graveyard shift had called in sick and there wasn’t anyone to work with me. I couldn’t stay all night because I have classes tomorrow,  so I called Duane Pickett  and Rick Watson the owner to have them figure out what to do.

26 June 1972 Monday

I only worked until 4 this morning and Rick Watson had to come in and relieve me when I had to leave. When I left Taco Bell,  I went straight home to Dale Street and to bed. I got up at 11:30 to dress and head off to Cypress College . In Felos’ Ceramics I’m still trying to come up with some sort of design for  the cups that have to be completed by the end of the week. 

The class was over at 5 and I went to the men’s locker room in the gym to shower as I hadn’t had time this morning and I was kind of messy from ceramics.

            In my Marriage and Family class , Sheena Clark, Keith Anderson, and I still plan on doing our project on the Mormon concept of family.  Mr. Carlisle gave us our dates for the presentation, and we got stuck having to give ours at the beginning of July  on the 5^th which doesn’t give us much time to prepare something.

When class let out at 8, I went  home to Dale Street and visited with Richard Ventura  while getting ready for work. I had to go in again at 10.

            I’ve had a loose tooth lately so at work I had Cindy Paulsen yank it out with a pair of plyers. She only got it where it was just hanging  but couldn’t  get it all the way out. It didn’t hurt just annoying until after wiggling it for most of the time with my tongue, it fell out. Tonight, is the last night I will be working with Cindy  as she is taking  time off to go on vacation this Thursday. 

27 June 1972 Tuesday

I worked with Richard Jahnke, who came in at midnight  and who I had to train until I left at 4  in the morning. I showed him  how to cook the meat and beans and slice the cheese and lettuce. It was kind of busy until after 2  when it became kind of slow. I visited with him all about my Latter-Day Saint faith. He seems to be  pretty nice although  Patty Walls and Cindy “Mc”, don’t like him.

            Patty and he just  aren’t getting along,  and he was so discouraged, so I said I’d talk to Patty  about being so bossy and critical only if he made an effort to be nicer to her too. He said he would.

            I drove straight home to Dale Street  and got into bed about 5 in the morning . I was too tired  to make it to Felos’ ceramic class. Instead after getting up, I went to Fullerton to my old apartment complex at the Sycamore Village  to see about getting back the $75 deposit I paid last December. I don’t think I am going to get it back  and the joke on me is that it wasn’t really require so I was taken advantage of.  I also went on campus to the financial aid office at Cal State Fullerton  where I picked up another application for a student loan for school this fall.

            I made it to my Marriage and Family at Cypress but just stayed until the first break then I returned to Dale Street to rest before going into Taco Bell  at 10.  There I tried to talk to Patty Walls  about being a little more friendly and courteous to Richard Jahnke and less rigid and demanding in her management style. She just shrugged off my concerns like it was a  joke and stupid idea. I responded by saying it wouldn’t hurt  any of us  here to try and help one another do our jobs  instead of being critical all the time. She was not having any of it  and it soon the conversation got out of control,  and it turned into a shouting match. Patty hid behind her authority as night manager to silence me even though I had way more experience working with people at various Taco Bells. I resented her attitude immensely.

28 June 1972 Wednesday

Richard Jahnke came in at midnight  and I worked with him only until 3 in the morning  before going home where I tried to sleep some before having to go to my ceramic class. My sister Donna and Rich Ventura went to the beach today while I was stuck going to school.

My Aunt Marie Williams called me this afternoon about a job opening  at a Junior market near home where she works as a bookkeeper for them. The place is on Katella between Magnolia and Gilbert.  I said that I would think about  it because I am getting so tired of working graveyard at Taco Bell.

I was supposed to meet with Sheena Clark and Keith Anderson at 6 at Cypress to go over what we planned to do for the Marriage and Family project but at home before leaving, I had a phone call from my boss Duane Pickett . He said that Patty Walls  told him that I was causing a commotion at Taco Bell, and he wanted to hear my side. I was furious however that Patty would tell Duane Pickett  on me like a petty child, so I was determined from that phone call to look for other employment . To Duane Pickett  , Patty is always right.

I missed  not only my appointment with Sheena and Keith but the class entirely  because of the phone call took so long

I just instead went to my appointment with Bishop Larry Juchau of the Garden Grove 6^th Ward who said he wanted to meet me as he didn’t really know who I was. Instead of an interview I saw a dumb film with some other Mormon kids. I felt really out of place since they were all teenagers.

I didn’t have to go into work tonight and finally went to bed after 1.   

29 June 1972 Thursday

I didn’t get up until noon and it was gloriously sinful to sleep in so late. I could have slept on and on, but I have several things that had to be done. I went to the Cypress College administration office and dropped my Ceramic Class. I just wasn’t performing as well as I should have just because of my constant working. I talked to Charlene Felos,  Tom and  Jean Johnson, Kent Larsen, and Wendy Weaver to say so long but that I would come back and drop in to see them again.

Back home, Richard Venture was back from Knott’s Berry Farm with Charline And the kids. They went there to see a puppet show.

Before going to my genealogy class at the Cypress Institute of Religion tonight which finally started, I called Sheena and explained why I didn’t show up for our meeting yesterday.

At the institute, Bro. Young taught us how to file our genealogical papers so as not to lose any of them.  After class that ended at 9 tonight, I drove home, and Jerry Smith called and asked if I’d take him down to a gas station to have his Volkswagen Bug’s car battery charged which I did. Then I had to go into work at Taco Bell  at midnight. In the news the Supreme Court did away with the death penalty. Hurrah The Law of Moses is done away with.

30 June 1972 Friday

I went into work at Taco Bell at midnight and Patty Walls was in the office  and we  spoke not at all. Helen and Joe Knight were working with me on the front counter because of a late rush. When Joe asked me if I was thinking about quitting because of the fight, I spoke honestly and said yes. Helen immediately became furious because she inferred that the only reason I was leaving was because of Patty and that was untrue.

            Joe worked until 3:30 in the morning leaving me by myself until 8. When Duane Pickett  came in, I told him that I was quitting and gave him my two weeks’ notice. He was surprised and not happy not only because he’s have to fill a graveyard shift, but I was damn reliable and a good worker.

When I got home to Garden Grove  I went straight to bed  and slept until 5:30 in the afternoon. Then I got up finally.

Richard Venture didn’t want to do anything this evening because a movie he wanted to watch  was on T.V.  It was the Loves of Isadora about the dancer Isadora Duncan on channel 4.  I just watched some of it with him and read some before getting ready to go back into work.

I  had an amazing dream  about the Advent of the Lord. As I went out of the house with my friends, we looked up into the sky and queried about the fact that while it was in the afternoon, all the starts were out against a creped colored sky. Then the clouds, the moon, superimposed themselves over the sun  and silenced it’s light until there was only darkness in the land and moon then turned to bright scarlet red.

So here it is the end of June, which was a special month for me, full of trials, victories, goodbyes, and a new fellowships. The most dramatic change I guess is that the Spring Semester at Cal State Fullerton is over and I’m back at Cypress college taking a summer class.

All my dormitory  and college friends from Cal State Fullerton went home for the summer except Richard Ventura who has come to live with me at my parents’ house on Dale Street. Richard is a typical Capricorn, silent, stubborn, but fair and sensitive. He’s of Portuguese ancestry and is from Fresno. He is an extrovert, liberal, sleek, and terribly sardonic which I appreciate because he’s a good honest friend.

My sister Donna moved out in June with some friends of hers to a commune in Anaheim for the summer. That gave Rich Ventura his own room.

At work  the last part of the month brought a bit of trouble to Taco bell and I guess I’m going to have to quit because of all the drama. Although my Aunt Marie Williams said she had a job lined up or me if I want it, God will help and direct me in that decision.

This month I’ve found new fellowship in the Latter Day Church, and I know that this is the true church  and Joseph Smith was a prophet.

             Financially I’m pretty much in debt  though I hope to pull myself out of it by August. On the whole, June was a very good month.