April 20 to April 29, 1962

Tony devours one book after another,  a chain-reader.

Every day he plays team sports -- baseball in spring and summer, football in fall, basketball year round.  He records statistics, from touchdowns to runs batted in to free throw percentages   and writes game summaries and scouting reports.  He is a sportswriter covering first and foremost his own career….

Every day he does chores around the house and yard.

He dabbles in TV sometime-- dramatic series on weeknights, Red Sox baseball and pro and college football and basketball on weekends.

He works his weekend job cleaning the offices at Simsburytown and counts (and meticulously records) his meager pay. 

Much of this detail fills the journal day by day and must be omitted to avoid mind numbing repetition.

At the same time, sweeping and dramatic statements are sometimes unsupported by any detail at all….

Friday April 20, 1962

One of the year’s ten worst days so far.  Good for building character though.

Saturday April 21, 1962

A perfectly bad day.

One of the year’s ten worst.

Shagged flies at Tootin Hills School, making some Willie Mays catches.

Watched Red Sox down Tigers 4-3  behind big Don Schwall.  Kaline and Cash homered for the Bengals and Frank Lary was losing pitcher.

Art Quirk won for Baltimore.  Saw him in the Cape Cod League a couple of summers ago.

Called 8 kids for baseball and got a grand total of 0.

Dined on steak.

Watched DEFENDERS on TV.

Read FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

ED. NOTE:  Author spent over an hour one on one with Al Kaline in 1980.  Very fine man!

Easter Sunday April 22, 1962

Dawned beautiful and warm.

Church smelled flowery.

Uncle Jim and his family came for Easter dinner. 

Played baseball with brothers and cousins.  Then watched baseball with same.

Talked to Mike Evans on the phone for over an hour.

Lincoln Dairy for ice cream with fambly and Jay Kerr.

Watched SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL.

A fair day…

Good night.

Monday April 23, 1962

Over to Rotondo’s early for breakfast.

Over to Evanses where met Tommy, Noel Verillo, Bob Blanthin.  Mike drove us around.  Met Fuzz and Little Fuzz (Hendrickson) and rode around some more til we split up.

Hit low point of the day, a horrible day.  Plotted against society all afternoon. 

Hacked around with brothers and Pope brothers.

Rotondo and Evans came over til 10:15pm.

What does it all mean?

Tuesday April 24, 1962

Horrible day.

Read great chunks of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

Worked all day at various irksome tasks.

Shot baskets at Hagans’ with Tommy Reidy.

Went to WEST SIDE STORY in West Hartford.  A terrific show.

A truly philosophical day.  Probably one of year’s ten worst.

But movie ended it on a good note.

Wednesday April 25, 1962

Original manuscript:

Thursday April 26, 1962

Drove to Cape with Dad.

Worked on The Deck.

It was very cold and windy.

Dinner in P-town.

Started TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

Friday April 27, 1962

Awoke at 2:30am when bunkmate (Dad) got up to add wood to the stove.

After breakfast, beachcombed.  A glorious morning.

Packed and headed home after lunch.

Followed the whole trip on the map and knew where I was at all times.

Polished off TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and

Early to bed.

Saturday April 28, 1962

Off to Simsburytown with no breakfast.  Did fair job surviving on stored up body fat.

Lunched at Doyle’s.

Collected donations for Babe Ruth League with Dan Buettner.  First we set up in front of First National.  Then we visited various merchants in the area.  Netted $60.

Watched Sox lose 7-6 to  White Sox.

Cook out at Quorn Hunt.

Bathed.

Figured statistics.

Toiled at homework.

Watched DEFENDERS.

During night lost an hour due to daylight savings time. 

Sunday April 29, 1962

Wrote 4 assigned history reports before church.

Church.

Read Sunday paper.

Watched Sox blow another game against Chicago 2-1.  Pumpsie Green fanned with 2 on to end the game.

Talked with Joe Bonczek for awhile, mostly about girls.

Beautiful roast beef dinner.

Really polished up the play I am writing. (???)

Watched TWENTIETH CENTURY and WALT DISNEY.

Vacation is over.

I’m bigger, better, and more mature than when it began.

April 13 to April 19, 1962

Friday the 13^th of April, 1962

Up early to study French (which paid off—I got 100% on the quiz.)

Got bawled out by Klingler in homeroom.

Drew several cool cartoons.

Read more EDUCATION OF H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N.

Listened to Oldies But Goodies on radio.

Peter and Biff came over.

We cut up comic books and pasted them back together for laughs.  Fun!

Went to Mission. (Dressed for in 3 minutes and 12 seconds.)

Brought home Rondo.  We wrote a song—I GOT A ROSE BETWEEN MY TOES (from walking barefoot through the hothouse to you, baby) and coined many phrases.

A truly active day of creativity, but my mood is below average.

April 14, 1962  Saturday    

Job at Simsburytown followed by lawn job in Bloomfield.  Several amusing blunders but earned $17.

Watched final inning of Bosox 3-0 loss to Baltimore and final innings of Yankee win over Detroit.

Played catch with Timmy, Gary Smith, and Larry Marino.

After dinner, went to Mission and struggled to stay awake.

After that went to dance which was a mistake.  In the world of Twist, Watusi, and Mashed Potatoes there was little opportunity for talk.  Talk is what I like to do best.  So I caught first ride home I could with the Newitts.

Read H*Y*M*A*N which could not appreciate.

Signing off at midnight.  Glad today is over.

April 15, 1962 Sunday

April showers.

9 am Mass.

Hearty breakfast which I shall attempt to describe:

Orange juice to clear the cobwebs

Sausage

Bacon

Pancakes with butter and maple syrup

Cold milk

Scrambled eggs (Ted Connor style with Worcestershire Sauce and cottage cheese)

English Muffins

Raisin cinnamon toast.

Lay around after digesting and reading Hartford COURANT.

Worked in garden and on lawn, hoeing, shoveling, planting, fertilizing, mowing.

Read NIGHT FLIGHT.

Napped for two and a half hours.

In evening, went to closing session of Mission (“Papal Blessing”).

Enormous dinner which rivaled breakfast for deliciosity.

Rare steak

Mashed potatoes with gravy

Waldorf salad

Wax beans

Bread and butter dipped in steak juice

Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Watched GIVE US BARABBAS.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215807/

Did homework for an hour.

Watched some DIZZY WALTER (ed. Note: Walt Disney) and INDIAN FIGHTER (a movie I saw in fourth grade in Falls Church, Virginia).

Long hot bath.

Finished H*Y*M*A*N.

Bed at 10pm.

April 16, 1962  Monday

16 is a favorite number, a perfect square of a perfect square.

Nellie McGrath in fantastic form today! 

At baseball practice did well in field displaying strong accurate outfield throwing arm.  Did not bat though, as practice was called off early when it started to snow.

Walked downtown in the snow, singing Christmas Carols.  Had tea at Hofferts.  Connie Ingram bought me a lollipop.

Began FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

Homework til 9pm and hit the hay.

April 17, 2012 Tuesday

Was afflicted with sore throat, so stayed home from school. 

Read A FIGHTING CHANCE (222 pages in 2 hours and 22 minutes). 

Napped.

Read FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

Revised my play about Mr. Klingler’s English class—ROOM 219.

All day, had restless urges:

1.     to write, all sorts of ideas (none of which panned out.)

2.     to walk on the Mountain (but the day was cloudy and cold.) This urge was inspired by FWTBT which takes place in the mountains of Spain.

Finally, went over to Hagans’ to play basketball.

Then went to school to pick up a coupla books and my brother Teddy.

Bob {Rotondo} and Mike {Evans} came over.

Patty came home from college on spring break.  She brought a book written by her English professor—THE KINDERBEAST PRIZE.  Started reading it during breaks from doing lotsa homework.

April 18, 1962

Got C in geometry.

Got 98% in French.  He added points on  a sliding scale.  If you scored 50, he added 20.  If you scored 70, he added 14.  If you scored 95, he added 3.  Does that seem fair?

Took MEH test and felt a few pounds lighter when done.

Baseball practice.  Right field is sloped, terraced, and rutted.  This hampers my fielding but not my throwing.

In bad mood all day but tried to conceal it.

April 19, 1962

Coderre didn’t feel like class, so we didn’t have one.  I drew cartoons.

Went to library twice and looked up several authors.

Ran around after school and barely caught bus.

Read, nap, play baseball, hack around.

After dinner, took walk with Teddy.

Went to:

1.     Farrell’s.  Greeted Michael playing pool.

2.     Jones’ bomb shelter.

3.      Town Pool.

4.     Town garage.

5.     Huck’s.  Played basketball.  Bob and Mike came over.

Went home at 10:15pm and incurred wrath of authorities (Ma and Pa.)

A day of thought, but feeling empty.         

April 12, 1962

April 12, 1962 Thursday                

Up at 5:30am for early Mass

Hearty breakfast.

Bosox beat Indians 4-0 on Hardy’s grand salam in the twelfth.  Monbo hurls 4 hitter.

Collected a page of gems in Nellie’s class.

Fun baseball practice in pm-- inter-squad with varsity and jayvees mixed.  Played rightfield and batted seventh.  Walked twice with full counts vs Blanthin.  One inning, he struck out the side on 10 pitches(Ron Krogh, Eddie Cannon, and Joe Garrity.)  I stole a pair of bases and scored a run.  Coach moderately pissed off, but not at me.

Janitored at Simsburytown and got $3 tip for emptying extra trash.

Hung around Doyle’s.

Over to O’Rondo’s for O. U. T.

Steak for dinner.

Went to library where I finished my geometry homework. 

Then walked through cold rain to Mission at Saint Mary’s which was excellent.

More homework at home.

April 11, 1962

Tony is religious.   Orthodox obedient Roman Catholic;  but serious about it.  This naïve faith supports a profound sense of security.  He confesses his small sins to the Priests and emerges from the Confessional feeling beloved and immortal.

At school and in the neighborhood he playfully tests his growing power at every turn.  Failing often, he is learning to find the humor everywhere even at his own expense.  Someday, he will learn to listen more and observe better.  In the meantime, he prefers to create and star in his own story.

  

   April 11, 1962 Wednesday

Rose casually at 5:25am, dudded up, walked to corner at 5:45am, and…missed my ride.

Undaunted, returned to my castle, and read THE EDUCATION OF H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N which is a funny little book! 

Then did some French homework til Ma woke up and drove me to church.

Mission stuff.  Confessed and communed.  Went to Doyle’s Drug after for break fast.  Closed.  Thence to Hoffert’s.  Thence up Plank Hill to Uncle David’s where had a good and big breakfast.  And then walked to school.

In geometry, discussed perfect squares.

Fell deep asleep for a few minutes in Modern European History.  Good thing I did not tip the desk over.

In study hall I was caught climbing out the window.  No damage.

At lunch, I bought out the entire cupcake stand and then set up my own at an adjacent table.  Tried unsuccessfully to raise price.  Ended up offering half off.

Hung around with cool Susan Delaney.  Cool!

Baseball practice was ok.

Read AMERICA.

Bathed.

Read THURBER CARNIVAL.

Watched opening day of National League, Cards vs. Mets.  First Mets game in history.  They lost.

April 10, 1962

April 10, 1962 Tuesday

Initiated the idea of sophomore hooky day which got around to almost everyone.

During home room taught the Noogie game to an eager group of classmates.

After school hung around Coderre’s Paradise with Wendy MacDonald.  Got my composition corrected.

To baseball practice game where I hit one good single and struck out looking on 3 pitches.  Also misplayed a fly ball.

After practice, invaded the tennis courts where I passed time with the Ferraresso twins and Jessica Chambless.   Then took a walk with cool JC.  Then over to Bonczek’s, hitchhiking and faking a limp.  Got a ride with his aunt.

Mooched dinner.  Played basketball.

Went to Mission at Saint Mary’s.

Back at home, no homework; so read in tub.

Played croquet with Dahmer and Shaw.

Read more in bed.

The Lord is treating me okay!

April 9, 1962

April 9, 1962 Monday
Practice was rained out, so we had a chalk talk.
Rode home on the Activity Bus, conversing with Sandy B.
Read James Thurber.

April 8, 1962

April 8, 1962 Sunday

Church and communion.
Robust breakfast.
Work in the yard for one hour.
A THURBER CARNIVAL.
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.
Basketball at Hagans. Shot 80%.
Mission at St. Mary's.
Talked one hour to Rotondo.
Late to bed.