On his birthday, early journal entries about my dad with the spelling errors intact and my commentary in blue

1979

May 16—I got the new hamster today he has funny ears. My Dad gave me the idea to name him Bunny. He had long ears. The hamster, not my dad.

1982

September 5—By the way I am 5'1 brown hair brown eyes, slim built like my dad, and I look like a hardymon. Hardymons were my dad's mom's side of the family.

October 6—I was home from school sick.  I taped my music.  We had a birthday party for Dad.  We did a skit.  No one liked it.  I went to piano lessons.

1983

January 21—Heather & I went downstairs (Almost 12:00) to make a special drink for the McLittle Theatre's party. Dad came down & Heather saw his Head Around the door & screamed. I turned & saw Him & screamed. Our drink is milk vanilla extract & sugar.

March 20—We made mom & dad lunch while they were out. We made Salad, Hours durves, & an Entrée (crab & chease in French Bread). Heather went home. I saw "News Break," a fiction T.V. movie about an explosion. It was neat.

April 7—I'm also running against Julie F. for Hattie Bates (play) I'll tell you if I ever get to do tryouts. I was trying out for the lead in the class play even though I was the shyest kid in class. I went to Mrs. Lindstroms for a workshop but she wasn't home. The 2nd draft papers are due tomorrow. Dad typed my whole paper out for me on his computer! I wrote it & he copied it. I have the best dad in the world!

April 8—We had try-outs. (Class play stuff again) I got in the top 3, Julie, Audra & me to try out again next week. Mr. A said I did excellent! and everyone commented me. When I "interrupted Clapper" like dad said, Mr. A gave me the "O.K." sign

(The fact that Dad coached me - and particularly the suggestion that I interrupt the "Clapper" character, was why I ended up getting the part.)

1984

Well, it was Friday the 13th, today. Because I forgot to set my alarm, the night before, I woke up at 6:30 because my mom came in, thus gaining a half hour of valuable sleap. Because of my lateness in awakening, Dad drove me to school at 20 min. to 8:00, instead of the usual 7:15 buss. First period, Algebra, was fine. Next, Geography, I had a map test. I hope I did well. English was nice, as usual. Then, at lunch, I went to the lecture hall to get ready for my mime final. Odallas Lopez, another doing hers today, met me at the door. The last, Bart McHenry, came, a few minutes later. We did our faces and waited tensly for showtime. Being first, I did my mime, the Golfer, to the tunes of "Chariots of fire", "The Lone Ranger" & that little ditty you hear when something bad is coming in a cartoon or movie. The Odallas and Bart followed. French was fine. I got a critique paper. At home, We ate from McDonalds. Then I & Edina, went to Foot Hill's Drama production of "Up the Down Staircase" which was excellent. Back home again, I put my purse upstairs, Called Gayle to talk over araingments for tomorrow & went back down. Comming into the pool room, I heard sounds of music and dingings. Dad had the Jukebox on, playing pinball and so we ended the day with a long round of pinball (He got over 1 million on one game) to the jukebox. Whoever said that Friday the 13th was bad luck? Well, days like these really show me one of the meanings of life.

9/19/84 (10:02) We (mom, dad & I) have just sat down to watch the 1st St. Elsewhere of the year. Dad & I just worked on many computer things. He made me copies of each Toybox disk & a Dos 3.3. Now, we're working on a copy of the apple writer-disk. Toybox was a novel I was writing. 

Oct 7, (9:46, PM) Dad and I went to a football game today, (Rams against Atlanta) It was a great game. It was really close all through the whole game. Today, was when I was first introduced to "the wave". It was really neat. At the end of the game, the score was Rams-28, Atlanta-27 and there was about 7 seconds to go. Atlanta had the ball and had perfect position for a field goal. The croud shouted the seconds outloud but it was no use. They won. We all watched the debate of the President Reagan and Walter Mondale. From what I know, Mondale seems far better than Reagan but, most of the time, I don't know what they're saying.

Dec 9, 10:20, PM. Dad and I went to the best Rams' game today. Of course the Rams won (They played the Houston Oilers) but, that's not what made it so exciting. One player, Eric Dickerson, broke a record today, made by O.J. Simpson some 15 years back having something to do with how far he runs in a season. We were yelling 'Er-ic, Er-ic," until our throats were raw. I cheered and screamed so much. It was also the last season game except they won and get to go on playing. We drove home in the convertible with the top down. It was the greatest game!  

1985

4/20/85  Saturday. A long entry about other things, and then... Afterwards, the whole family plus Tina Anderson went out to see Beverly Hills Cop. I absolutely loved it. But, half way through it, of course, I had to go to the bathroom. I held it until the movie was over. Then, I learned that we were not allowed back into the theatre. We had to wait until we got home. When Mom, Dad, and I got finished with the toilets, back home, Dad turned to me and said:

“Mom and I agree that there is no feeling as good as a good pee.” 

 I agreed