cNHSTC Carrington Autobiography (1957-1960)
New Haven State Teachers College 1957-1959
Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. --Mark Twain
Photo by Bessie Shove
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Stories Written: "Cricket", "A Day in Seattle", "Kilroy Was Here", "A Long Way", "The Pardoner's Tale", "Starwatcher", "'Twas Brillig"
Plays Written: "Candles Really Glow", "Home Is Never Far Away", "The Lights on Precipice Peak"
Songs Written: "Lorraine", "Walkin' Down the Railroad Tracks"
Theme Music:
When Your Lover Has Gone (Sue Raney), For the First Time...Johnny Janis, Autumn in New York (Dick Hyman), English and Scottish Love Songs (Ewan MacColl & Isla Cameron), Blues For Tomorrow, West Side Story, The Music From Peter Gunn, The James Dean Story, Soft Sands (Oscar Peterson),"Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis), "That'll Be the Day" (Buddy Holly), "Big Man" and "26 Miles" (The Four Preps),"At the Hop," "Get a Job," "Tequila," "All I Have to Do Is Dream," "Bird Dog," "The Happy Organ," "Mack the Knife" (Bobby Darin), "Raunchy," "At the Hop." "Wake Up, Little Susie," "Honky Tonk," "The Great Pretender," "Breathless," "Tom Dooley," "The Purple People Eater," "Rumble" (Link Wray), "Poor Little Fool" (Ricky Nelson), "Love Potion Number Nine," "Charlie Brown," "Poison Ivy," "Come Softly to Me," "Come In Stranger"
1957
On the Road published
West Side Story opens
Sputnik launched (10/4)
I worked at North Haven Brick Company again in the summer of 1957, driving my father's gray 1947(?) Plymouth.
One day, while I was working inside the shed, alongside the kilns, stacking wood, a passenger train went flying past, making a "whoosh" sound. I looked up to see wood flying. Someone said, "She hit something." People started running toward the front of the building. Not me. I was in no hurry to see what had happened. A truck had been crossing the tracks with a load of wood for the brick company. The train had hit the rear of the truck and peeled the roof of the cab back and crushed the passenger side. The driver crawled out of the top of the cab, unhurt except for some cuts and scratches. His assistant, who usually would have been on the passenger side, hadn't come with him. The train coasted to a stop a mile down the line. A fireman had a broken elbow from a piece of flying wood.
One day, I spent an hour or so stacking wood outside a kiln that was firing. It was a very hot day and the temperature near the kiln probably was over 120. After a while, I began to feel sick. I kept working but someone noticed and Walter Gawrych called me into the office and made me sit there until I felt better then sent me home.
I hung out with Bobby Wing, Artie and Tord Johnson, Sally Ward, and Diane Orth. Both Diane and Sally had written to me while I was at Caltech. Unlike the previous summer, I was able to handle the hard labor and still go out late at night frequently with my friends. But the last two weeks I spent working at the Stiles Brick Company's yard in North Haven, the yard where my father worked. I spent those two weeks stacking cinder blocks all day. Unlike the previous work, this had me so exhausted I was ready for bed almost as soon as I got home.
My sister married Charley Esposito on August 10. While they were on their honeymoon, I got to use their tickets to the Oakdale Theatre and took Diane Orth. I think the play was "The Boyfriend." When driving to the Oakdale, the car stalled on a railroad track with a freight train coming. As I cranked the starter, the car started rolling back on the steep crossing. I let it roll until we were well off the tracks. Diane said I was white as a sheet.
I also got to take over the downstairs bedroom, which my sister had taken over when she went to New Haven State Teachers College.
At the end of the summer, I flew back out to Seattle for two more weeks with Shannon. We went to see "The Delicate Delinquent" with Jerry Lewis at a drive-in with her brother and his girlfriend, Jackie Dahlbeck. We didn't see much of the movie.
I had bought a paperback, The Young Lovers, which I liked very much and brought it to Seattle with me. At one point, we went to a beach. Shannon was reading the book while lying on her back. I got my head between her and the book and started kissing her. Her mother looked over at us and said, "Are you reading that book or writing it?"
Then I flew back to begin classes at
New Haven State Teachers College (now
Southern Connecticut State University), which had accepted me as an advanced freshman. My plan was to get my marks up so I could transfer to NYU's drama department.
Since it was obvious I wasn't going to become a scientist or an engineer and since Shannon wanted to be a dancer, I had decided to become an actor. I suppose that's as good a reason as any for choosing a career. To my parents' credit, they never complained about my not becoming a scientist after all.
Among my classes was Speech, taught by Professor Jay Foley, a rather thin man. The highlight of the class for me was a young lady named Diane Zmyeski, from Naugatuck. I was infatuated with her all through college but had a hard time talking to her. She was almost as shy as I was. About 40 years later, when my sister (who graduated from NHSTC) got an address list of graduates, I found that Diane was still living, unmarried, at her parents' home in Naugatuck.
I auditioned for the fall production at NHSTC,
Moliere's
The Imaginary Invalid and got a part as the invalid's brother, Beralde. I had run into Fred Way in the cafeteria. Fred had just graduated from North Haven High and had been in Annie, Get Your Gun with me there, so I talked him into auditioning as well.
The Imaginary Invalid, From left: ?, ?, Lorraine George, Fred Way
Through Fred, I met a couple of his classmates, Ray Locke and Bessie Shove and the four of us hung out together a lot. Ray and Bess eventually became an "item." Ray was from New Haven while Bessie was from Cooperstown, NY. She drove a jeep and was living with the Johnstons as a housekeeper--Mr. Johnston was a professor at Yale.
In November, shortly before the play opened, Fred and I went to Hackettstown, N.J., where he had a date with Martha Beach, a member of his high school class (and daughter of North Haven's first selectman, Joel Beach) who was going to college there. She rigged up a date for me with a girl named Bonnie, who was homely as sin. I had been writing Shannon every day and, when I got home (on November 18th), I called her long-distance. "I love you," I said when she answered the phone. "Don't," she said.
I don't remember whether the play ran one weekend or two. It was performed on the stage in the gym, just as our first plays at North Haven High were performed. Opening night, I finally understood one of my lines. A man (Henry Coe, I believe) had come to give the invalid an enema and I said to him, "Come, come, sir. It's quite clear you're not used to talking to people's faces." Since I finally understood it just as I was saying it, it came out very natural, and got a huge laugh. The
remaining performances, I punched it and it went over like a lead balloon.
I worked part time in the stock room of A.B. Hendryx, a pet supply firm on Audubon Street in New Haven during their Christmas rush period in October, November, and early December. My job ended with the end of the holiday season (actually several weeks before Christmas) and I worked briefly selling storm doors door-to-door.
1958
Mao Tse-Tung retires
Mel Ott and Tris Speaker Die
Khruschev Becomes Premier of Soviet Union
DeGaulle becomes French Premier then President of Fifth Republic
Breakfast at Tiffanys's published
Van Cliburn wins the international competition in Moscow
Van Allen Radiation Belts Discovered (July)
In the spring of '58 I began working nights as a timekeeper at Burndy Corporation, where my brother-in-law Charley Esposito was working. So I was going to school full time and working full time. I got home after one a.m. and I had nine and ten o'clock classes four days out of five. I never felt it till the very end when, driving to school one morning, I just wanted to close my eyes. However, either Fred Way or Ray Locke said they were wondering whether or not I was going to make it through the semester.
The job itself wasn't that bad. I worked about 3 hours out of 8, so I was able to do my homework on the job. I sat at a keypunch in the empty glassed-in office. Workers on piecework would call in with the job they were on and I would punch it the code for the job, the standard piecework rate for it, and later, when they went off it, the time they'd spent working and the volume of work they'd done. It was busy at the beginning and end of the night, when everybody called in at once. It was a job that I thought would be of no use to me as an actor but it proved to be very useful when I started work as a computer programmer at Goddard Space Flight Center in 1962.
A lot of the people in the assembly area were women and some of them would give me a hard time. Mary Dombroski was quite attractive and every once in a while she would try to get me to bend the rules. Then there was Jenny Polansky, a blowsy blonde who was always hugging me and trying to get my face down to her large breasts, enjoying my embarassment. Marie Brunette, who ran one of the presses, was very attractive and her husband, Rene, was one of the supervisors. Lorraine Cusano worked in the same office I did during the day shift.
Because of the job, I wasn't able to be in the spring play but I joined the chorus (led by H. Harmon Diers, who lived near the farm in Bethany where my father grew up) as a bass and I was in their play, The Lowland Sea as a member of the chorus (and baritone in the quartet).
The Lowland Sea
Men's Chorus (GC 4th from right)
<>George Wagner<>I also met George Wagner, the best of my best friends, during this time.
<>Mary Lou Rubano; Leola<> I finally got a girlfriend for myself in the summer of 1958, Mary Lou Rubano, whom Ray Locke introduced me to. Among other things, we went down to New York to see the original production of
West Side Story. At the end of the summer, we broke up. Mary Lou's younger sister, Caroline, was one of the most attractive women I've ever known. During the summer, I bought my 1st car, a 1953 green and white Chevy Bel Air hardtop.
My 1953 Chevy Belair hardtop
Fred Way also got me a date with a girl named Leola, a friend of Fred's girlfriend, Haydee Woodford.
The night shift at Burndy's was laid off at the end of the summer.
<>Football<> If Caltech had one of the worst football teams in the country, the New Haven State Teachers College Owls, coached by Jess Dow, had one of the best small college teams in the northeast. I think they went undefeated in 1958. In one game, they played American International College in Springfield, Mass. At the time, AIC had the #1 leading passing quarterback in the northeast, while TC had the #2 quarterback, the #1 and #2 leading rushers (Hank Luzzi was #1), and a 3rd runner who had an average of nearly 40 yards per carry! (He only carried the ball 2 or 3 times a game but, with everyone keying on the other two runners, he had a lot of open territory in front of him. He was the only one who went on to professional football, playing a couple of years in the Canadian league.) TC won the game by a score of something like 78-53, still (I believe) the highest scoring game in college football. And TC now had the #1 Northeast quarterback.
That year they went to a bowl game in the south and got thoroughly defeated.
In the fall, I went back to work in the A.B. Hendryx stockroom for the Christmas season.
I played Ford in the Crescent Players' production of
The Merry Wives of Windsor. I dated Sandy Hart, who was in the chorus with me and worked backstage on Wives.
In November 1958, I began a journal. At first it was episodic but eventually I began writing it practically every day. It began on November 28, 1958:
The morning was beautiful. At 6:30, the clouds were still rolling eastward to close a clear night. The eastern sky was lemon yellow, a pale delicate yellow, directly where the clouds, like puffs of smoke, converged like a funnel of migrating birds. As I drove to work at 7, the sky was entirely clouded, but the eastern skyline was crowned with a fuzzy, delicate, rose pink.
Around 11, we received the first snowflakes of the season, a handful of flakes as if someone had been burning papers.
Around 4, I stood up too quickly under the conveyor belt and tore my back on one of the metal supports. For a few seconds, the only thing I felt was the sharp, overriding pain in my back and I doubled over. Although this sharp pain quickly subsided, it was replaced by a stiffness in the area where I had struck myself. For a long while there was no pain besides this stiffness, then sharp, defined pain came back with the warmth of blood to the injured section. It left a 2 1/2-inch long scrape.
Around 8:15, from the front porch, in the wind and rain (52 mph), you could see a red glow in the northwest. Then it flared up 2 or 3 times. It was a fire in a transformer. All the streetlights and traffic lights in the Center [of North Haven] were out but house lights were on. Sackett Point Road was strewn with twigs and one large bush-like branch covered half the road at one place.
November 29: Just along the eastern horizon, the sky is a pale orange-pink shading off quickly to a faded yellow, white, and finally blue. On this horizon float a few wisps of cloud and one big misshapen blob, a dark grayish-purple. The roofs of houses, TV antennae, the skeletons of trees, are all outlined in black against the pale powder blue of the eastern sky.
Yesterday, talking to Dick [Embler], I remembered when, as Scouts, we had a Camporama at the New Haven Armory. I can barely remember the seats and entrances--they seemed so large! And the chameleon I bought that died by the time I got home, the large tower some Explorers built. It must have been 7 or 8 years ago.
On November 30, I went to see the New Haven Blades play hockey at the New Haven Arena: The air was thick with the smoke from a thousand cigarettes, and it stung everyone's eyes. Like a cloud, it hung over the ice, where the ten men in red-and-white uniforms piled against the boards with dull thuds, rattling the wire fence with their bodies and sticks. The puck bounced off the sticks hollowly, as though they were broken. There was a scramble around the Presidents' goal, then
their goalie was on his knees and collapsed to the ice. They carried him off, holding a towel to his face, leaving a carmine stain on the ice. Minutes later he was back, white adhesive on the bridge of his nose. The Blades won, 4-2.
December 4: In the nightlight of the street lamp, the trees and bushes and grass gleamed with a light of their own, a cold, icy light. The tree skeletons gleamed in the light, as frozen statues of ice, delicate and menacing. The branches showed dark in the light, with icicle twigs radiating in all directions.
December 13:All good things must come to an end. Tonight, for all intents and purposes, ends one of the most hectic and wonderful months of my life. We put on Merry Wives of Windsor tonight and it was great. I feel exhausted and sorry things are over. I wonder just how Sandy [Hart] and Judy [Pocoski] feel about me. Doubtless Fred [Way] and Bess [Shove] are mad after the way I "snubbed " them after the play. I'm sure that I'm back in the good graces of Henry Coe and Lorraine George. Life is beautiful . It's a shame the play's over. What a hectic, wonderful life. Why must it come to an end?
Mike Caciopoli, Harry Kunesch, Eddie Bader on stage
Dr. Kendall, GC in background
Harry Kunesch, Eddie Bader, and others
December 14:Well, it's all over. Yesterday afternoon's performance of The Merry Wives was a bigger farce backstage than it was on, but somehow we covered up all our goofs and no one was the wiser. I forgot both my props, the money bag and keys, and am proud of myself for covering them up. Afterwards Sandy [Hart] and I ate at Jimmy's at Savin Rock. The evening performance was fabulous, with my expression and intonations getting several laughs, Scene V coming off riotously, and the audience loving Henry Coe. Harriet Fried was scared to be initiated [into the Crescent Players]at the cast party but she was, along with me, Sandy, and Marilyn Levine. I spent much of the evening with Judy Pocoski while Sandy spent it with some other kids she knew. Afterwards we went over to Judy's and Harriet's for coffee and stuck around till around 5. I slept till 2:30 and that covers it.
December 15:What a crazy day! Spent most of the morning packing stand bases. Test in Psych, finished at 12:30, spent half an hour with Peg Heeney ("I'm tiddled") in the cafeteria, then with Eddie and Bessie. Goofed off during chorus and report in Social Science. ("Mr. P. -- spelled . . . P, period -- for those of you who're taking notes.") Asked Sandy Hart to see Redhead" with
Gwen Verdon at the Shubert Saturday night -- World Premiere. Got tickets -- 2nd balcony, watch dropped off at Savit's, and read some of
Tagore's poems -- great! "Thou hast made me known to friends whom I knew not." "Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bond of creation."
Saw
Man With a Golden Arm" with Mary Lou last night. I've had it! Kim Novak (ruff) and Frank Sinatra. I think I'll stick to comedies. My heart gets too involved. Mary Lou and I are through. If she'd stop treating me like a kid. Everyone congratulated me on my performance in the play.
December 21: Saw the premier of "Redhead" with Gwen Verdon at the Shubert last night with Sandy. Pretty good, especially Leonard Stone, the guy who played George. A little too farcical for me but all in all not bad. Will probably make Broadway.
Finally kissed Sandy last night. "Where do I stand?" "Dancing merrily on a string like all the others." "Well, I'm not merry." "Oh, you're not? Why not?" "I'm Grant." That's the way it goes. Now I'm more confused than ever. Tom [Embler] got home Friday at noon. [From the University of Toronto]
For New Year's Eve, Haydee Woodford, Fred Way's girlfriend, got me a blind date with a friend of hers, Leola.
1959
Alaska becomes the 49th State
Ben Hur Opens
The Naked Lunch, The Haunting of Hill House, Goodbye Columbus Published
January to March, 1959
January 21--Cecil B. DeMille dies
March 3--Lou Costello Dies
Goldfinger Published
Fidel Castro Takes Control of Cuba
Heavyweight Ingemar Johanssen Defeats Floyd Patterson
Buddy Holly, Richie Havens, The Big Bopper die in Iowa plane crash
January 3: Well, today I made the first goal of my hockey career. Playing with some kids at Harten's Pond, there was a scramble at the goal mouth. I backhanded the puck in from about five or six feet. Also made several saves as goalie. [All this without pads of a facemask. It's a wonder I made it through the winter with all my teeth. Harten's Pond was at the corner of Middletown Avenue and the street that went past Montowese Grammar School.]
January 4: What a lazy day! Haven't left the house yet. Last day of vacation. Finished Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse." Blah. Someone underlined this sentence: "the Lighthouse one had seen across the bay all these years; it was a stark tower on a bare rock."
Finished first draft of
"Starwatcher" this afternoon. In the evening, played Wayne to 14-14 tie in Foto-Electric Football then Pop and I traded games of canasta with Mom and Wayne.
March 12: Beautiful Spring weather! It snowed Tuesday and it snowed today--about 4-5 inches, then hail the size of small peas. Just finished shoveling the driveway with Pop--hair wet and right side of face cold and red and numb and feels really just wonderful. I'm thirsty-- for water. It thundered once or twice but now it's raining or hailing again. Dr. Kendall's voice don't sound at all the same on the phone--no rehearsal tonight.
In the spring I played my one lead, Pat Farley in
Hotel Universe. For this play, I learned to play guitar again for a song at the beginning,
"Le roi a fait battre tambours."
Mr. Diers helped me work out the chords for it. The guitar cost me $15, which was cheap even then. The guy I bought it from was going to make it into a planter. As I said later when I learned more about guitars, "The action was so high you could drive a truck under it." (The "action" being the distance between the strings and the bridge.) It was painted black with some white curlicues. Years later, I sold it to John Johnson in Gainesville, who was learning how to rehabilitate guitars and he sanded it down and made a pretty nice little guitar out of it.
April, 1959
I began my journal in earnest on April 12: What a lazy day! No homework done except I filled out the Psych mimeo sheet for Donnie. [I was doing a paper on Donnie Embler, who was maybe 4 years old at the time.] Larry, Cliff, and Clara visited this evening. [Clara McDonald was my father's cousin, Clifford her husband, and Larry her son, who was my age.] Dead night. Some slight snow this evening. Took bandage off finger--where the rat bit me Friday is purple--doesn't hurt bad though. [A couple of days earlier, I had stuck my finger into the cage of a white rat in a biology lab and the rat took offense.]
I started the day feeling rotten and wound up high-hearted. Started Volume IV of Churchill. [His history of World War II.] Harriet Fried's 21st birthday today--Bill Gruner suggested a cake so we went down to Hamden Plaza to buy one. Wonder who that girl in chorus is who knows my name? Meeting of Crescent [literary magazine] to reject some manuscripts. Did "High Tor" in Acting and Directing--Harry Kunesch great as Father Day. Fazzino took in play rehearsal.
A tremendously beautiful day. Up around 6:30 and had arguments with Fred about guitar when he wanted me to get it at home when I picked him up. I was kind of peeo'd over its being out of tune last night and I blamed him. God, I'm a rotten bastard!
In gym, Barrows ran us through tumbling, the rings, and the trampoline. When I came off the tramp, Jack Davis said, "good." Too bad my tumbling and rings work weren't as good.
Letter from Tenny. [Tenaya Stewart]
In the parking lot next to the Fine Arts building, I met Harriet Schechter and she asked me if I cared to go for a ride with her--she had to go home and pick up her license, she left it home. So we picked up Bessie and Frank and went over. Her sister and nephew Jan (4) and niece Eileen (6) were there and I don't know when I've enjoyed myself so much. Jan was the cutest little fellow. Got back at 11:25 too late for Math 326, so cafeteriaed around with Harry and Judy K. and returned the rejected manuscripts [by The Crescent] to the kids' mailboxes. No Eng 131 class so I hung around with Wagner, Fazzino, Gruner, and Beggs in the Laurel Leaf office.
Bill Gruner John Fazzino, Terry ?, Pat Cox
Pat Cox wrote out a petition for "Louis Andersen" for Student Senate President and we got the 20 signatures for it. Spent some time with Gen [Genevieve Bukowski] and with Lorraine George, Faith Svajon, and Wagner.
Down to Unemployment and home. God, I feel just fabulous. Rehearsal went fine except for last part of IIIB--with Gen, Dr. Kendall, and me. Gradually getting "Le Roi" figured out.
Spent half an hour in cafeteria screwing around with Stetson [Blake] and Gen. Spent hour with George Wagner in the afternoon then later short time with Ray Locke and dorm girls, then finding dirt roads in Woodbridge. Rehearsal fine--getting tune down. Behind on homework-- especially Analyt. American Bard accepted "Prayer of Thanksgiving."
What a rotten day. Pretty fair argument with Fred on way to school this morning. In gym, worked on rope and chinups then game of something or other. Went to Three Judges with Harriet Schechter, Nina, Diane Zmyeski's girl friend, Bessie, Frank, and another girl. Test in Math 326. C on Idea Essay for Osborne. Killed time in the afternoon with Gen, Lorraine, Stan Campbell, Carol (that's Diane's friend), Angela Scaramella, Sheilah Ross, Carol Brokate's friend, and on and on. Rehearsal went along pretty well. I've got "Le Roi" down pretty well.
Another lazy and frustrating day--or maybe it's just my outlook on life. Skipped Analyt and spent the two hours with Bessie, Judy Trijonis, Harriet Schechter, Anne Lawlor, Judy K, and Harry. Spent the afternoon on West Rock with Illyria Costa. Part II of play--not too good. Sorority's Jazz Hop was fun though. I only danced once--with Illyria. Still, that's an improvement. Tried to get Sissie to dance but she wouldn't. Expected Rose Marie Porto but she failed to show. This morning read Shan's letter for 1st time since we broke up.
Woke up at 10 and spent morn reading and fooling around with basketball. Did child study with Donnie Embler and watched TC ball game against Bridgeport. Spent evening listening to
Alan Freed, doing homework. Mom had free tickets to Minstrel Show at North Haven High School but no one to go with. Thinking a lot today about Rose Marie.
Nothing! All day indoors--reading papers, Churchill, Mad--playing basketball, doing revision for Osborne, homework, tape-verbatim account for Dowd, sending picture to Tennie, listening to records. [Osborne was an English professor, Dowd was my Psych professor, and the tape was of Donnie Embler for my project.]
Another rotten day! On pins etc. with Fred, spent break with Harry, did Analyt homework for 1st time in weeks, Crescent Magazine meeting, watched Eddie Bader's rehearsal--did Part I and Parts of II and III in rehearsal--Marion and Georgia absent. It's a "jinx" play--Marion's been sick for a week and Georgia scraped her ankle. I gotta get up enough guts to talk to Rose Marie or Billye. [Marion Riggio and Georgia Babey were in the play. Billye Glen Marsh was a blonde a lot of us found very attractive. She was in chorus with me.]
Billye Marsh and Bill Mazucco
A lazy day, but pretty good. Fred's on my nerves. Badmitton in gym. Spent break with Bess and those 2 clods in my Math 326 class then Diane Zmyeski and her friend Carol. Filled out slip for next year's "Laurel" for "Neil Thomas, Middlebury." Spent afternoon break first with Wagner then with Beggs and Cox, studied, walked around lagoon with George (left note on Beggs' desk), ate with Harry Kunesch and the Gleesome Threesome [Judy K, Sissy, and Anne Lawlor] then Nancy Lou Burgey and her friend Gail. For the first time, Gen kissed me at rehearsal. Had a mob in tonight: Hari, Mrs. Bean, Phyllis Gibraltar, Bob Drobish, and some other guy. After Gen kissed me, she forgot her line--then got so flustered she fell over.
Wonderful! Something's in the air! On better terms with Fred. Spent break with Sissy and Judy K then with Lorraine and Sandy Evans--put Crescent Player notices in mailboxes. Couldn't stop laughing in chorus--rotten. Spent half-hour or more being analyzed by Keith Beggs. After wasting time at school, went to Hamden Plaza and bought 2 albums: "Autumn in New York" by
Dick Hyman and "When Your Lover Has Gone" by
Sue Raney. Listened to Oscar Peterson's "Soft Sands." Shades of Shan! Rehearsal was pretty good. In 1st scene with Anne, actually felt it but 2nd scene was terrible. It's funny how that scene was the important one and it's gotten progressively worse for me. It completely broke up tonight and I was never in it for the rest of the scene until I got offstage. [Anne was the name of Judy Pocoski's character.] Rehearsal went pretty good--ran through it without getting completely out of it. Have done better. Lot of kids asked me what was the matter today. Gotta get rid of beagle look. Be cooperative, cheerful.
The moon, russet-red-orange, rose at 9 tonight in a clear sky. Went to school alone today. Pat Miller's getting married tomorrow. Spent break with Harry K, Stetson, Lorraine George, and the Gruesome Twosome. Not much, nor in Psych or American Lit. Got B/C on term paper. No rehearsal tonight.
Stayed up till 1 last night reading and writing. Wrote to Ivoryton Playhouse, sent "Wonderings", which I wrote at 1 this morning, to American Bard, "'Twas Brillig" to Audience, "A Day in Seattle" to Antioch Review, and
"Pardoner's Tale" to Canada [The Canadian Forum, which published it, my first non-college pub, but no money]--also "The Lonely Pinnacle" to Penny Poems. Found letter I started to Shan over a year ago, never finished. This evening went over to Beggs' apartment for tests. Showed basic part of personality in intellectual areas and comfortability in aloneness, also hostility and drive, depressiveness. On TAT test, obsessed with death,avoided violence, sex.
Chorus went off well and did skit in Acting class. Dr. Kendall said it's the best I've done. Did frat initiation with kid jumping fireplugs, etc. Rehearsal was best ever. Felt both 1st scene with Anne and kids' scene. Hari said end of 1st scene with Anne was great. Still it can be improved--a lot.
What a day! No gym today because of assembly. Drove Georgia in and went to assembly with Pat Mara. Frank Brieff and New Haven Symphony. Skipped Math 326 and hung around with Harry etc. Eng 131 was out in time to get 30 kids crammed into Bessie's jeep.
Bessie's jeep
Me, Eddie Coffey, and Cathy Allen brought Crescent Player ticket booth over to Main Building. Spent most of afternoon with Isabel Talmadge--some kid, pretty legs. Talked with Nemo then drove Fazz and Pat Cox to New Haven to printer's office. Drove Lorraine home and went out to eat with Harry and Peg Heenie--Mike's in West Haven--great cheese ravioli! Rehearsal was good--last scene, with Dr. Kendall, was really fabulous. This just may be a smash.
Rough, what a day! But enjoyable. Up at 7:30. Applied for job at Pepsi. Got letter from Tennie yesterday. Spent afternoon making sound effects tape with Mr. Diers. Rehearsal was swell, except sound effects were off. Sandy [Hart] got mad at me (!) Last scene with Dr. Kendall great.
A beautiful, beautiful day. Fred didn't go in with me today. Started elimination tourney [in badmitton] in gym. My partner is Tom Gersz. We won all four games, best two-of- three. Beat Bob LaBreche and friend 15-3 and 15-6. Applied for job at Hood's, got tickets for tomorrow night for Mom, and spent time in cafeteria talking to Hari. She was worried about the way I acted last night, behaved-type acting. Finished letter to Tennie. Did some tests for Beggsy. Letter from Ivoryton
says job prospects good--put Dick Hyman on tape last night. I'm afraid that sound effects is going to ruin all the work we put in on the play. I don't think Elaine [Yudkin] likes me.
Dr. Kendall Mr. Diers
May 1959
Frank Lloyd Wright dies
Beautiful. First performance was great! Audience loved Dr. Kendall--I was a rat, but later good. Test in math. Fred hung around car all day. Sealtest Milk say no summer job. Rerecorded tape and Sandy ran it fine. Ate at D'Andrea's with Harry. During play heard comments that indicated they liked Harry, Henry, Marion, and Gen--and in my last scene with Dr. K., me (finally). Dr. K. stole the show.
Performance was great--at least the crowd loved it though everything went wrong. It went over bigger than last night. Sound was more off than last night (louder), "Le Roi" wasn't as good, Dr. K. missed a cue, Judy missed a line and Georgia had to ad lib, then Judy broke the strap on her dress, Gen and Stetson missed their entrances at the end of the 1st act, I goofed my lines terribly in the scene with Anne, I sat on an ashtray, a guy broke a glass and sat with his foot on the wall. Afterwards 10 of us went to Jimmie's--drove Pegrit and Sandy home--home at 1. Bought Oscar Peterson's "Soft Sands" this afternoon. Joe [Cohn, owner of the Music Box in Hamden Plaza] said "You're a quiet guy, aren't you? . . . I can tell. . . . You ought to get a good player. You like music."
Letter from Tom Tebben yesterday.
Got 88 on Analyt test. Went down to Sealtest where another fella was looking for work. He said he had a brother at TC but I forgot his name--knew Corrinne Fappiano. We talked awhile. On way back saw Fazz and drove him home. When I got back to TC, Rosie and Nina and Fred were on the lawn--I should stayed longer but I didn't. Test in American Lit. Talked it over with Marion Riggio--she's a swell kid, and Bob Drobish--he's the greatest. No rehearsal till Thursday.
Lost to Ray Frosti in badmitton. Went to Hood ice cream, told to come back. Hung around with Nina and Carole Polletta, later Bess. Took test in Math 326--a real bastard, then loafed around with Harry and Judy K. and Bob Drobish. After a short Eng 131 class, I spent time with Marion and her friends--one's a real chick--and Pegrit, Lorraine, et al. Spent some time both with Is Talmadge and Rosie Porto. Did child study on Donnie, fooled around with kids, bombed around for half an hour, and finished Huck Finn.
A day like all days filled with those events etc. Down to Unemployment and hung around school after--mostly with Carole Polletta. 88 on Analyt exam. Spent break with Harry K, Stets, Lorraine, Faith. "Sangvitch Serenade" today came off pooty good. [Probably chorus.] Finished test in American Lit and killed time with Bess and then Carole. I like Carole--I saw her after Social Science but didn't speak to Diane. Exchanged etc's with Rosie and to Acting&Directing--did Archie Lee scene with Marion and Conniff. Dull but easy party at Mike Caciopoli's--Vardry, Frank, Ellie, Carol Brokate, Bess. Mike is
a high school senior, friend of Brown's. And so goes it.
Brock-Hall's had nothing for me. Me and Gersz won both badmitton matches, including LaBreche and Davis. A week ago the trees were bare, now they're all completely green and dark. Fooled around with Cathy Allen, Carole and Diane, then some time with Bobby Latvis--up to West Rock, drank (he had a bottle of Southern Comfort) and talked. Drove him home. Rehearsal tonight was terrible. Nothing went wrong; we were just lazy. Drove Harry home.
Something's up. Got 2 jobs today--at Good Humor and Ivoryton. Dr. Coles was at the play. It was much better than last night, but something was lacking. Spent time with Cathy Allen, Faith Calling and friends. Mr. Diers was there tonight. Went out after the play with Henry, Harry, and Stets. Dropped anonymous poem "A Critic's-Eye View" into Laurel Leaf box--Gerry Robertson. [My review of the play under a pseudonym. It didn't get published.]
A really bad day. When I looked at that letter from Ivoryton again, I found he meant he'd be at the theatre today--too late! Play was cockeyed and rotten but I don't think the audience knew. Initiated Marion, Gen, Ginny Todd, and Elaine Yudkin [into the Crescent Players]. Drove Sandy home. Snowed under by 3 beers.
A lazy, nothin' day. At 10 somebody showed up--Mr. Tomassino Embler! So we went to McDonald's and Jimmie's and back by 11:30. Seems like he'll be going to Fairfield [University (in Conn.)] this ete [French for summer]
Didn't go in with Fred but drove Tom [Embler] to New Haven. Spent 1st break with Wagner and 2nd studying. Fooled around in Acting & Directing with improvisation of mad painter. Drove Judy Trijonis to dorm, spent time with Wagner and Ray Locke. Saw show on Desilu Playhouse, an adaptation of
James Gunn's "Cave of Night." Pretty good. Next they have to do "Kindergarten." [Both were stories in Galaxy, by James Gunn and Clifford Simak.]
In softball, hit into force play, got doubled off 2nd, and made 2 catches in right field. Spent break 1st with Nina and Rosie then Carole came down. We spent my math class on top of East Rock. Composition read in Osborne's class. Spent break with Lorraine, Frank Pacific, and Julie Valesquez then got into knock-down-etc. argument with Latvis on religion. Then to Carole, Carol Brokate, Bess--then left, Wagner, home and study. Went to Hamden Plaza and bought
The Subterraneans .
All sorts of hell broke loose at Unemployment today. First of all, I was sent back to the desk to get my card stamped and then they had a job for me--this wouldn't have happened had I gone in earlier--and it had just come in. Got new check and cashed. Loaded now--over $50. Gave sob story on how I'm going back to Burndy's. Spent time first with Judy Trijonis and friend, then with Harry Kunesch, Stetson Blake, Judy K., and Sissie. Then over to Wagner, Chieffo, and Fazzino. (Late for Analyst.) Drove Fazz to Oakdale and back too late for Psych. Talked to Fazz on Oakdale's, Ivoryton, Burndy, this new job, and Good Humor. He suggested taking off at the end of this summer if both of us aren't going back to school--he wants to see California. Finally found Carole Polletta, with Diane Zmyeski and Harriet Schechter. We talked about plans to go to Hamonasset next week--I gotta furnish guys! Drove Carole's car down to New Haven--looking for gift for priest. Then to Acting&Directing and home--talked to Charley about going back to Burndy. Homework and The Subterraneans.
Just a few minutes ago I was traipsin' through a woods and swamp in Northford with Tommy Embler. I caught a great big bullfrog and heard another one croakin' away to his heart's content. There were ta-witchies and catbirds and redwings. One catbird was makin' so many different songs that maybe it was a mockingbird. We crawled through and climbed over a barbed wire fence and through a gate made of logs and up a hill and run down it pell mell. There was a great big boulder at the top
and little red flowers that hung like bells with yellow inside and tiny pale violet ones and white ones and buttercups. How can I ever describe the feeling within me? Truly I am the lucky one. I'm more than human after all--both adult and child in one, what have I done to deserve this, what can I do to show my thanks? An actor, no, this is where I belong, may I never outgrow it. And it was
because Tom was with me, it couldn't have been alone--Tom felt it too, though I don't think as strongly, he talked about New Hampshire. How could I ever share this with anyone else--not Dick nor Art nor Wagner nor any woman. Truly I am the lucky one. 'Twas a wonderful day but, compared to the capper, how can I talk? Spent break with Fazz and Bess and Carole and Stets and Angie Scaramella and Sheilah Ross. Then Tema and Wagner. Talked with W for about 2 hours--from girls to kids to everything. But it's not important. How can anything ever take the place of the woods, the wonderful wonderful woods?
A crappy day. Maybe it's The Subterraneans--it sure is a depressing book. Went down to Good Humor and told 'em I wasn't workin' for 'em. Carole was with Ed Nurocki downstairs. Lazy loafing Analyt and break with Harry K. etc. then upstairs. (Submitted "Song of the Frosh") to Laurel Leaf early 1st thing.) Saw Carole again. After Am Lit she asked me "Why don't you smile?" Walked her up to Psych--waited around with Judy K and Sissie and Cathy Allen and then Beggsy, Lopath, Mr.
Diers, Cox--but Carole didn't come downstairs. Walked Judy T. to dorm and home. Finished The Subterraneans, got letter from Ivoryton that says I'd have to pay own room and board, so that's out. Charley says to come down to Burndy's Monday. Went with Tom to Cinema Nite at TC, experimental movies, inculding one by Nemo. Pooty good. Ed Nurocki there, Murch and Val, Austin, John Anastasio, Gruner.
A nothing day, but better than yesterday. Yesterday I just couldn't seem to get going--it was me. Started McTeague--went to stock car races with Tom after finishing child study. Final race had to be restarted 3 times. Spin-outs on the first turn and couple of cars cracked up in front of finish line. Then to Coco's for pizza and home.
Well, I saved a life today--that of a little field mouse that ran across Bishop Street in front of my car. Day spent reading McT and newspapers. Tom over at 7--played badmitton then over to Mockingbird Swamp in Northford--walked around it on the hills. Watched thrush singin' his heart out and a towhee and a duck, frogs, redwings, yellow-throat, ovenbird. On the way back to the car suddenly I had the feeling that everything was possible, the world's on my side, I can do no wrong. I still have it. Then drove up to Middlebury with Tom. Cute little town. "Guess where we are." "Gee, and by pure accident too." "I bet." Finished McT. [Some girl I was interested (I forget who) probably lived in Middlebury.]
Went down to Burndy's first thing and got temporary job till Mike gets back. Carole wasn't in school today. Found out Diane's thinkin' very seriously about her guy. Went through galley proofs for Crescent. Drove Illyria and Jett to dorm and Lorraine to her house. Some girl called up but wouldn't leave her name. Actually an enjoyable day--not good but not bad either. So it goes.
In gym today took 2 showers--one came down in the middle of the game. Played 2B, went 0-for-2, ROE, and popped into DP--scored a run. Went 3-for-4 in the field, 2 assists, a putout, and a throwing error. Carole was in today--she has a cold. Went for a ride with her, Bess, Harriet II, and Joan Rooney. Got 55 on Math 326 test. Hung around with Stan Campbell and Ruth Jones for awhile, wandered around, and home. Decided with Carole to go to Hamonassett on Saturday. Vardry and Fazz can't go on Sat. so I got Tom. Don't know whoall else. Learned West Side Story speech for Acting&Directing--Lt. Schrank.
It's a lovely day today. Warm with the promise of a good day Saturday. Saw movie on "Shyness" in Psych--did West Side Story skit in A&D. Spent 2nd break with Carole, talkin' and goin' over skit. Ed Naurocki and Frank Carrano can't go Saturday, Vardry isn't sure. Carole, Carole, Carole. Worked whole 7 hours.
Voom! Work [at Burndy Corporation] was a solid mess today--worked full 8 hours and then some. Finished 1957 Crescent. Talked to Locke and Vardry about picnic Saturday. Nothing definite--spent loads of time with Carole, some with Diane (I love her) and Harriet Schechter, Brown, Latvis, Faith, Judy Trijonis, from one to another. In gym we lost 6-2. I went 0-for-2, hitting into a fielder's choice and reaching on a 2-base error. Went to 3rd on a grounder to the 3rd baseman and scored our first run. Went 3-for-3 in right field, making 3 catches.
Drove Haydee to Ways' this afternoon via Fred's request in the morn. We talked on just about everything and 'twas very interesting. Got up at 8:30 and nothing much. Spent break with Wagner and Chieffo. Quiz in Psych. Walked Carole to class after American Lit, talked to Vardry--he's goin' tomorrow, Ray in the eve and home with Haydee. I guess they musta thought I was a grouch today--and I was for the 1st hour. I hope Tom calls at work. It has been hot these past 2 days--I hope work is easier tonight.
A sunburn and a wonderful day. Woke up at 10 and mentally cursed everyone because I had to leave at 10:30--managed it though in time to Angie's so we could wait 15 minutes to find Vardry wasn't going. So the 5 of us--Tom, Angie, Carole, Diane, and me--got to
Hammonassett at noon and lounged around for 3 1/2 hours soaking up sun, playing ball, listening to the radio, and not swimmin'--ze vater vas colt, Cholley. Heard new song by the Kingston Trio about Boston Subway
(The MTA Song). Tom had fun; Diane was mo' or less out of it--though not too much. She has as pretty legs as the rest of her and a stunning swimsuit. All but Angie got burned. Soon to Mike Robertson's engagement party. Well, this is just one of those days. Angie, Carole, Ray, and I had a boring time--relations and people 10 years older than we. Did not get to cement relations with Carole.
A lazy day spent recuperating from sunburn. Played with cat and badmitton in the eve. Slept till 3 pm. Nothin'.
At five the itch came. This is the worst of sunburn. A nothin' day. Forced to spend break with Bess and Ellie. Crescent meeting. 3 Faces of Eve film. Very short time with Carole. Sat next to Judy T. and drove her to dorm. Itch, scratch, scratch.
Neva L. Cummings. Frosh. Couldn't get to sleep last night till around 6--birds singin', me scratchin'. Pop woke me up at 6:30 and the bad itch has been gone since--only the kind where the skin peels is left. Skipped gym and Carole wouldn't leave the library, so went home and picked up Unemployment check. Kept nodding off in Math 326 but I think I learned more today than in the past month. Talked to Neva in Eng 131, nice legs, cute kid, seems pretty smart, quiet, I like. Hung around with George and home. New Playboy has ad for Carrington's Canadian. Left car at garage and walked home 'neath a cloud-and-star-spotted sky, thinking of Neva and revelling the spring air. What dreams! I wonder who'll be next?
Damn! Nothing accomplished today. Didn't see Neva at all. Took Analyt exam and spent break in discussion with Camera, Wagner, and Fazz on lit. Skipped Psych. Nearly fell asleep in AmerLit. In chorus found we're gonna sing at convocations assembly. Spent break with Carole and Judy P. Sat with Judy T. and to work. Rejection from American Weave for "Spring Skies."
Up early and fighting. In gym went 0-for-2, hitting into force play at 3rd and grounding to 3rd. Made error on Dickie Arnold's liner to RF. Spent break for few minutes with Carole, then Fazz, spent 15-20 min. in hall talking to Dorothy Cervenansky, read newspaper in library, then down to cafe with Nina, Harriet, Bert, and later Diane. Nearly fell asleep in Math 326 and merely did test in Eng 131. Hung around with Wagner till his Sarason class. Watching Neva. After Wagner beat it, couldn't find her. To home and work.
Somehow I have the feeling that nothing happened today. Didn't get haircut today 'cause place was crowded (2 people), mailed several poems. Spent time with Haydee and Joan Harrigan, near Neva. Wagner, Chieffo, and Fazz all came down. Then to Analyt--41 on test--small runin with [Professor] Kossack. Spent most of break wandering around--Illyria. Nodded hello to Neva on way to Psych. Got quiz back--16/24 and note saying "Please see me for a discussion of your interesting responses on examinations." I'll see him Monday. Movie. On way to Amer Lit bumped into Faith. Berit was with her--didn't even recognize her. Late for AmLit. Hung around till 3:45 with Wagner, Illyria, Faith, and Berit. Got new "Crescent" from Taccardi. Nice. Drove Faith and Berit around. To McDonald's for a hamburg, etc., dropped Faith off at work at Topp's and drove Berit home. Home myself. Laurel Leaf pahty tonight. What a lucky son of a bitch I am! Yesterday Mr. O'Reilly told me they may create a new job in the office nights--so I can come back. And oh, just everything. I'm the luckiest sonofabitch alive. Dr. Kendall told me about the University of Vermont, which is looking for actors this ete. I think I'll write 'em. Rather enjoyed myself at the LL party, although I acted pretty much as usual. Dingwall and Wagner both got stoned solid. Not much to say.
Didn't get up till around 3. Washed car. Bought new automatic pencil, paper, and pillow for car--"Caution--Soft Shoulder." Played badmitton with Wayne. At one time I swung at the bird and just tipped it with the top of my racket. So there I was standing there looking stupid expecting the bird to be behind me when--plop!--it falls at my feet. Funny how my outlook on life and everything has changed. Especially when driving it's noticeable. No longer do roads remind me of places I've seen or movies or anything but how to exploit them--not to the detriment of others, but for as much gain as possible without hurting them. I've changed a great deal. I've got to get Neva somehow. Finished informal essay for Osborne: "The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant."
Nothing much. (Huh?) Got up and 1 and read paper, crossword puzzles etc. Sandwiched around a 15-1 game of badmitton with Harold were 13-13 and 14-14 games I won in overtime. Tommy's home again. Went down to Rock with Carole--went on all the big rides--Wild Mouse was fun. Virginia Reel not so hot. Finally kissed her in Old Mill, etc. Nothing.
June 1959
Goddamn! I just couldn't talk to Neva when I saw her in the cafeteria before 10 this morn. Didn't see her since. Long talk with Dowd about my attitude. Mike was at work--long night. Nothing.
How do you call this day? Spent whole morn looking for Neva after picking up gym clothes. Spent it with various people. Bitter over losting Best Actor Award to Eddie Bader. Neva was upstairs with her Yaley boyfriend in the Fine Arts building when I arrived. Talked with them and Gen. Wandered around for awhile, then over to Burndy's to find out I'm through. Really chewed hell out of Wagner and Camara, drove Latvis home, hung around with Cox and Wagner, over to Beggs and home. Discussions with Cox, Wagner, and Beggs interesting but nothing accomplished.
Well, I just flunked Kendall and Kossack. Finals started today and both Acting&Directing and Analyt were rough. Spent break with various--Riggio, Drobish, and company (she thought our A&D test was next week), Schechter, the LL's. That Jean--I dunno. Got haircut, saw Mr. Rockwell, sent letter to UVt about summer stock. Some Canadian mag accepted "The Pardoner's Tale." No pay, free mag. Dickie's home and Tom's working nights. Got "Tall Cool One" at Music Box. Fabulous. Wrote to Loren Phillips.
For your birthday, Mr. Carrington:
Your horoscope holds out some very pleasant prospects for the coming year. Within the next 12 months, you should find your energies at a highly constructive peak, and the outlook isexcellent for job advancement, business expansion, and financial gain. You will have to take advantage of opportunities to benefit by such good influences, of course, but the stars are on your side. Despite a notable rise in your status by October, don't be foolish and offset gains by going on a spending spree or speculation during thelatter part of that month or in November. Adverse influences discourageall risks then.
Domestic and social activities are generally favored for the balance of the year, and romance is governed by fine influences all of this month; also in October and December. You could be faced with a complex personal situation in late November, but you can avert it by being alert--and understanding of others' feelings. Look for some good business news late in December.
I'm legal [21] today. Funny but I don't feel any different. Received $3 check from Aunt Katherine and rejection slip from American Weave. Caravan wants me to revise
"Wonderings." Dropped watch at Savit's to have band fixed and found Coclin's doesn't want a stock clerk anymore. Letter from Tenaya. Spent before and after Eng. 131 test with Neva-- what a kid! She works in a physics lab. Smart as a whip! Bob Drobish--he went to Providence. Works in an atomic research lab. Eng.
131 final done in 20 min. Got for birthday pants, shirt, and ties. Picked up check at Burndy's.
Amer. Lit. test first thing. Took nearly two hours but I feel I did well on it. Carole was in the cafteria when I got out. Dropped books in car and returned to find Faith and friends--they were going to the beach. So I drove her home to pick her clothes up, then to Jean's and drove them all downtown where they were picking up Jean's father's car. Murch was hanging around with a buddy of his. Got A on informal essay for Osborne. Snowed under at first by Math 326 test--knew only how to do one prob. But did all 6 and was only unsure on one. Hung around with Wagner and Carole. Talked a little with Judy LaVorgna. Deposited check in bank--now have $110 on tap. This eve. shagged flies with Dickie over at the high school and walked over to the Pines. Home at 10.
Birthday card from Aunt Bernice and rejection slip from Beloit. Washed car and sent poems and short stories to various mags. Called Ray--nothing. Rained and thundered in the eve. Decided to go to movies but changed my mind. Mailed letters and bought Dairy Queen sundae.
An empty but pleasant day. Graduation party for Dick and Tom. All relatives but me and Edie--Tommy's girl. Their relatives are the greatest, esp. their uncles. Sang at Baccalaureate and drove Latvis to West Haven. He'd been drinking and we talked about everything under the sun from liquor to the girl that drove him to drinking. So goes it.
What a crazy, wonderful day! I wonder if anything's been accomplished? Woke up at 9 by gas meter reader and spent morn reading, burning papers, taking bath till Tom came over. Mailed short story manuscript. Went down to Unemployment in the aft. There was a real chick there--in an orange sweater, real built. Young. Hanging around with her were older folks--looked
Mexican. She didn't, though--she was a real doll. Light skin, pug nose, brownish-red hair, tight sweater. After she left, there was another kid--not as good looking--wearing pink pants. I stared at her and she stared back. Then she started laughing, finally walked away, and came back just as I was leaving. On my way to the car, I ran into Wagner, who was going down to Unemployment. So I stuck with him as long as possible. Driving down Chapel, there she was. Finally, at a stop light, she came up and asked if she knew me. But she was going to the bank, so no ride. No one at the school. Home. Drove around with Tom for awhile and that's it. In the eve played badmitton with Wayne and studied Psych.
How do you call this day? Took Psych final and only omitted one question. Got B on child study. Spent day with Carole, Diane, Angie, Drobish, lots with Cox, Fazz, Wagner, Jean. Fun but nothing in particular. Signed Jean's and Gruner's and Vigliotti's yearbooks. Drove Fazz home. But nothing. Called Locke and talked for some time. Enjoyable day--nothing accomplished but today who cares? Just remove the summer ennui another day. Hung around with Dick in the eve. Talked.
The curiousest thing happened on the way home today. Driving down the connecting road between Dixwell and Whitney, a squirrel was walking across the road! The cars didn't scare him; he walked very slowly till he was on the other side. After Knudsen said they didn't need no help, I hung around the school till 5, getting my yearbook signed. Spent half an hour or more with Neva, and I really wish I knew what that girl thinks of me. Mostly I spent the day with Cox, drove him down to the binders--a lot of time in the Laurel Leaf office, 15-20 minutes with Latvis. Letters from Tennie, Blue River. Very enjoyable day--seeing as how I talked with Neva, Judy Trijonis, I consider it profitable. Drove Sandy home. "Neva" is Russian for "snow." She was born on Dec. 29. Her name is Neva Lorraine, her sister's Neva Jean. Spent the eve. with Cox and Wagner at Beggs' apt. Listened to O'Casey and Irish poems. Got several ideas for short stories.
Charley just told me to see Mr. Woods about working at Burndy's days this summer. And I drove Rose Marie Porto and friends home. First today made phone call to guy about job--it looked pretty good. Cleaning an ice cream truck--mornings. Spent half hour or more with Neva. She'll be at TC tomorrow at 9 or 10. I don't know whether to make a move for her or not. Thought I saw that same girl I saw at Unemployment Monday--in Devon on way back from driving Rosie to show. Just a wonderful, well-balanced, achievement-filled day. Bess may throw a party. Shagged flies with Dick and made a couple of nice catches. Dick made a real beaut--a backhander going away. Fooled around at the track, the new Junior High School and Twin Lakes. Called Ray, watched end of Playhouse 90, and to bed.
Got a job at Burndy's for summer, letter from UVt and NHHS. Hung around with Pat Cox, Drobish, Rosie. Asked them to night beach party--Rosie's no dice, Neva maybe. Robins in back yard feeding 3 younguns. All over lawn. This party is driving me wild--Neva's going, Billye ain't, and on and on.
A nothing day. Loafed around for most of it. Got party set for Keith's apt. Neva can't come to picnic tomorrow. Rained for Commencement. Walked over to gym with girl whose name I'm still trying to find out. Drove Latvis to West Haven. Pack. Invited to picnic in Bridgeport with Rosie by Latvis.
Sophomore picnic a big flat 0 except for uno momento: I called Diane to ask her to the party tomorrow night. She wasn't home, but when I told her mother who I was, she said, "Oh, yes, she told me you'd call sometime." I never told Diane or anyone else anything like that. Carole was at the picnic with another guy. Bought stuff over to Beggs' apt.
Started work today. Party was a fair blast. I got high for the first time since Caltech and home at 3:30--have to get up at 6. Bruce Shattuck seems like a nice guy. Diane and Carole couldn't stay, Neva didn't come, Ellie brought girlfriend Diane, whom Bruce shacked up with. All in all, everyone seemed to have themselves a ball and I don't think Keith minded too much. Personnel: Marge Perry, sister, and friend, Ellie, Diane, Bessie, Tom E, Fazz, Wagner, Cox, Vardry Brown, Frank Carrano and friends, Dick and Paul, M.G., Al Randall.
Despite only 2 hours sleep, I was pretty much awake most of the day. Left jacket at Keith's last night so, after beating Dickie and Wayne at 4 games of badmitton each, I went over to pick it up. Wrestled with Keith awhile and talked--about (what else?) me. Out like a light when I hit the bed. Letter from Tennie.
Won 4 games of badmitton from Wayne. Copied short stories. Called Neva and Bess but neither home.
Again Neva wasn't home. Beat Wayne in 4 games of badmitton, and shagged flies and took a short walk with Dick. Watched ball game on TV.
Got check from Unemployment today, filled gas tank, got radio fixed, paid Tom and Mom and now I'm down to seven bucks. Painted north peak of roof and wound up with nearly as much paint on me as on the house. Brought Bessie's record over to her with Tom--he may go to NYU next year if he can get ze dough. Called Neva--no answer. Beat Wayne in 4 games of badmitton, watched Dick Clark. Tommy wasn't home when I went over--played ball with Donny. Folks went to drive in--called Neva, no answer. Called Ray--not home. Long eve. reading Reader's Digest. Around 11 went over to Embler's and talked with the boys and Hal Pierce. Hal is going to summer school at NYU.
Crescent Players Picnic a big Nothing--but pleasant. Stets, Harry K., the Gleesome Threesome and friends,. Dr. K's birthday. At Double Beach--rather picturesque spot, sailboats and motorboats littering a cove dotted with 2 or 3 rock islands. Little chipmunk bouncing around. Just loafing and talking. 3 to 6. After beating Wayne in 4 games of badmitton, went to see "It Happened to Jane" with Dick and Tom. The cofeature was filmed in Glendale. Rather interesting--I goofed off most of the night.
Long day at work today--7 am to 8:30 pm. Mike had to go up to Poughkeepsie to get his brother, who had had an accident. Called Dick to find out about when Jazz Concert starts tomorrow night. Called Neva--not home. Called Billye and had nice talk--she said she can't go.
Went to jazz concert on the Green--Gene Stuart mc'd--he reminds me of Bob Drobish. [Gene Stuart was a local DJ.] A pleasant but uneventful evening.
Well, Neva was finally home today and though we talked for half an hour I couldn't ask her to see South Pacific. Then went to Plaza with Ray and bought "There Is No Such Thing" by Jimmy Darren. That Georgia is a doll.
Got 1st pay check--$71.46. Never had a chance to be bewitched or beguiled or bemildewed. Bought "Everybody Outta the Pool" and album "Blues For Tomorrow." Went to Bridgeport to see Rosie at work but she was nowhere aroundst. Letter from Tenny.
In retyping the first page of this, I realized how much it has changed since its original conception. Originally, this was to be used as a notebook of observations of sight, sound, smell, feeling, that could be used in my poetry and stories. Then, after Eng. Lit., I decided to become my own Boswell--not that I'm a Johnson or ever will be. Now perhaps maybe I can combine the two--if I don't return to my original lazy state.
This morn spent in bed till 10:30--now on 5th vol. of Churchill, Blue River Spring Annual, and '51 TC Talent--plus papers, poem-a-day, and baseball records. Went up to Wallingford for new Playboy but couldn't find it. The day is a gray one and it looks like a bad day for a picnic--my folks went up to the Espositos' lot in Northford--so I'm still waiting for my lunch at 2--the hell with it, goodbye. At 11:15 PM, I have finally decided that today I have accomplished nothing--externally. Internally, I'm aglow. Finally got my long-promised crewcut, but when I went down to Seaside, Rosie and Latvis and crew was not there. Found out later that Latvis had took off for Parsanone [Parts Unknown] around 8:00 and evidently dere was no picknick. I don't know about Rosie--she wasn't at work. Seaside is a large place--and I patrolled all of it from 4 to 7--the beach with the cold-looking, angry sea, Long Island lost in the distant mist--the carnival, the baseball game, the Spanish, the blacks, Letts, Ukes, and Poles. My car got hemmed in in its parking place and I had to stick around for an extra hour. In the eve, I settled for two games of canasta, which Pop and I split with Mom and Wayne. A day, though, which was frustrating, hopeless, foolish, meaningless, yet somehow pleasant and maybe even wonderful. Bernie Lavin is a lifesaver (cherry) at Seaside and I talked with him for awhile. He wanted Coxie's phone number--seems young Patrick called him some time ago and Bernie wants to know what he wanted.
A lazy but pleasant 26th anniversary for my folks. After reading papers et al, beat Wayne in 4 games of badmitton and 2 games to 1 in All-Star. Anniversary cookout at Charley and Marilyn's home, which they moved into yesterday. "The cupboards were bare," no rugs, little lawn. Got folks a barbecue, portable. Played ping pong, lost to Danny, 9 games to 8. Watched Dick Clark. Pleasant.
The call box by my machine was on the fritz most of the day today and so things was rather hectic. Lazy day otherwise, hot and muggy. Strolled around the high school and new junior high with Tommy.
Another day of hell at work trying to work on one call-box. It still wasn't fixed when I left at 5. Starting tomorrow, I work 8 to 5. Small party for Harry K. at Judy K's house. The Gleesome Threesome et al. Rather pleasant and enjoyable. Harry is going to UVt to act in their summer Shakespeare stock. Sounds like quite a deal--acting, oratory, fencing lessons and so forth.
Wayne and Dad playing badminton in our back ear
July1959
Well, they finally fixed the call-box at noon today. Outside of that, very little has happened. Went with Dick to his Uncle Frank's in Milford to deliver a foot locker. Dick started work today. His uncle Frank Cuny is quite a pleasant guy--hair thinning on top and forehead receding or proceeding, depending on your angle. He always seems ready to break into a smile, fairly prominent nose, and really a wonderful guy--takes an interest in others or tries to. Their house is a moderately luxurious one--picture of Tom taken 4 or 5 years ago. A pleasant, uneventful day.
$80.88 takehome pay today--letter and picture from Art. In the eve shagged flies with Dick (some nice leaping snares and one going back) and split two games of All-Star.
Jack Knott at work is the kind of guy that most of us dislike--tries to get out of work, always fawning to others--he combs his hair straight back from a forehead like Uncle Howard's. Large nose, glasses, large, awkward, bulky body. His laugh is a nervous uncertain one and heard much too often. In his late 20s, lives with his folks.
Up at 11 and over to bank to cash check and drop in $60--total now $220. Bought new Playboy. With Tom went down to Savits to pick up watch band, to Knudsen's to see a guy Tom wants to drive him to NY tomorrow, and to Plaza for "Big Surprise" by 4 Preps and album "The Roaring 20's." Mailed my backlog of letters and wrote more to Coxie, Fineman, and Deano--caught up on a lot of stuff this aft. and early eve. In the eve shagged flies with Dick--missed quite a few and made some leaping stabs--and took a lap around the track. In the eve we went down to the Rock to see the fireworks while I went around loudmouthed talkin' like a "hick." Takin' back rooms, we zoomed out with very little trouble.
An aimless and senseless day spent reading and playing All-Star--shagged flies and took a lap with Dick, badmitton, records.
Spent good portion of today at Marilyn's and Charley's lot up at Lake Amston. Swam out to the island--couldn't row the boat to save my life. Lots of nice broads.
Taragoo! How could I help it? I went down to Unemployment today. Zip--zoom--and I'm out. Nice broad sitting in doorway on State Street near Middletown Ave.--black hair, shorts, long white lovely stems, looked a lot like Glendora without her glasses, but oh so much prettier! Went thru red light. Letter from Tenny, rej. slip from Epos, notice from Blue River. It rained this eve and cooled things off for a bit. Afterwards, Dick and I took a walk down by the Pines. The fireflies were going crazy, like blinkers at a road construction and at Balletto's on Roarke Rd. was a real deep bass bullfrog--like a foghorn.
I need gas again. Didn't watch All-Staqr game, which NL won 5-4. Instead went to Lake Quonnipaug with Tommy and went crazy swimming and diving off their low board. Up at 10:30 and rearranged my room--stayed up till 3 last night rearranging bookcase. Drove to Bridgeport but Rosie wasn't working--maybe she's on days. Took a lap with Dick and walked the tracks up to Mill Road. Tommy seems pretty lazy lately--so Dick thinks, who did quite a bit of talking today. Received all letters
from Shan (Snapp) finally--she wants hers back--don't know what to do. Boy, was I ever goony in my letters--and hers seem to have lost their appeal to me. Andy Williams was on as summer replacement for Garry Moore and was pretty good.
A lot done today but nothing of importance--went down to Bridgeport in the aft.--no Rosie. Some time with Tom, called Keith, Latvis. Shagged flies with Dick and some nice catches (one back to the plater) and he outsprinted me in one lap. Bernie Lavin was at Keith's when I went over at 9:30--terribly uneventful.
An ambitionless lazy type day spent mostly with--wishful thinking. Day dreaming on Billye and Tennie. Got off poems and short stories--went swimming at Amston Lake with Tommy--swam out to island twice and cut right foot up on rocks. Pop's birthday today and slight party--Charley and Marilyn were over--I gave him fishing license. Shagged flies with Dick and beat him easily in lap. I wasn't so hot--he was just off today. Went over to Mallard Swamp for 1st time in long while and saw and heard heron flying around. Ray called but naught of importance.
Ray wouldn't tell me why he wouldn't pick up that chick in the show tonight. I figger maybe he's back with Bess again. Went to Whitney and saw "Rio Bravo" with John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson. Martin was really terrific--as "Dude." Really great. And Keely and Louis in "Hey Boy! Hey Girl!" Easily beat Dick in lap--no baseball. Bought Tennie's birthday gift and sent in air male--$1.60. Mug, pin, and card--all Nebbishes--all "All right, I love you! -- now siddown and shuddup!" That Dean Martin was great in Rio Bravo--didn't think he had it in him. Hard time with girl at Polo's Ice Cream at Savin Rock--wanted to give me and charge me for 35 cent sundae when I asked for the 25 cent one.
Lake Quonnipaug was loaded with 3 especial broads: all swimmin' without caps--one like Shan, a black haired babe with a black suit who kept lookin' my way, and a young blonde who looked like a long-legged Brigitte Bardot who shook her head while I stared at her. Went with Tom and Dick and met one of the Thomases and Johnny Sauter. Had teeth cleaned this am--one of my wisdom teeth'll have to go but that's all. Called Ray in the eve--long aimless, rambling talk. CALL BILLYE YOU SOB!
A hot and sweltering night. I didn't go to sleep till around 4 am and up at 2. Spent day indoors reading papers, etc. Interesting article in Playboy on coffee houses--photo of the
Bizarre in Greenwich Village. Tommy was over twice, once when I were in bed, but I fear I brushed him off--no tact has I. Maybe I'll pick up the guitar again. Pop caught a bass and small perch up at the lake and says he hooked a real lunker that jumped out of the water but got away.
Couldn't sleep, so when the fire alarm sounded Potter and Rock I went to see what I could. But by the time I got there, the engines were gone. Went home via Spring Road and the fireflies were goin' crazy! It looked like a city winkin' on and off. And I thought they only flashed at dusk--there were plenty at 2 this AM. Cutest little chipping sparrow hopping around front sidewalk at 6 AM--unafraid of human world. Watched from living room window with cat--only cat had more ulterior motive. Sprightly thing--bright rustred cap, very pronounced black-and-white eyeline (like White=Throat), hopped up on front porch. Stayed up all night--reading old Galaxys, writing poetry. It's now 6 AM and I feel beat--like tired, man. Rejection slip from American Weave--sent out 2 poems and query. Went over Sackett Point Road--not bad. Saw Mr. Dunn at high school with 3 others--also Saturday at Little League field with his kids. In the aft. went swimming at Quonnipaug with Tommy. No real nice broads. The Allens were there andthe twin brother of Eddie (the kid) at Hendryx. Spent most of 2 hours in water--like I shoulda been born a fish. Tom payed me way. Man, my eyes are beat!
Dozed at 6 last night and slept till 19 this am. As it rained most of the day, I spent it reading and playing All-Star with Wayne and myself. Tommy came over around 4:30 and we fooled around with the badmitton set. Finally started short story "Wait Till Next Year." Pat called up at 6--told me to meet him at Beggsy's Friday night. Played another game of All-Star in the eve and went shopping for Donnie's bday presents over at the Plaza with Tom and Dick. Called up Beggs and arranged details on party.
Aimless day spent reading, playing All-Star, and listening to records. Took a walk in the eve with Tom and down by Muddy River. Got to dreaming about apt. in NYC. Called Ray around 9 and talked to him for around an hour and talked to Wagner in the aft. Info on National Defense Loan from NYU. Didn't get to sleep till 3 or 4 am and up at noon.
A lazy day spent doing nothing. Donnie's 4th bday. Called up the kids and notified them on the party--Billye's going steady. Rejection slips from Beloit and "Voices" and Colorado Quarterly--sent them on. Absolutely 0 done.
Let's see--I got a rejection slip and sent it and another poem on, I drew $10 out of the bank, and I called Diane about the party. Tom went to work at 3 so I didn't go swimming on this, the 1st good day of the week and last day of my vacation. Tenaya's 18th bday today. Small (?) party tonight at Beggsy's apt.--on New Student Week. Lavin, the Nappis, Cythia Yoga, the Gleesome Threesome et al, Coxie, Tema, Dingwall and girl Joyce who made quite some scene, Shattuck, Stevie Drucker, Gruner, MG, Jeannie Volk. Joyce was on the make, mostly with Shattuck, all the night and, when Dingwall tried to get her to leave, she made quite a scene. A fellow there, Jerry (?) Cavanaugh, was quite interesting--he's led quite a life--in a cloister, Europe, dancer at Oakdale. Drove Coxie home. He's been hanging around with a crowd of painters and he has a couple of their paintings et al--he's writing poetry.
Well, I got my tooth yanked this morn. And that side of my mouth is pretty sore right now. Barbara Earle was at the dentist's today. Tommy wanted to go swimming, with Edie, but I decided against it--there's a good possibility of infection. Man, I'm glad that's over. Fooled around with TV aerial to no avail. I should care. That Kathy Linden is a doll--saw her on Dick Clark tonight. Fred Way of all people called and we went out and shagged flies with Ricky then drove around till 2:00 talking--he broke up with Haydee. Rather enjoyable time but I feel sorry for the poor guy. Today was the day he was supposed to buy the engagement ring. I guess he enjoyed himself somewhat--at least he said I helped a
little bit.
Fred and I played baseball with Ricky again this eve and he was in a rotten mood. The folks went up to the Lake and I stayed home and read the papers. Back to work tomorrow.
Work was busy but I kept pace with it. Saw Mr. Woods about transfer to NY plant--didn't seem too optimistic . Called Latvis, Keith, Fazz, and Shattuck, then took a lap with Dick. Because of rain, decided to play basketball and wound up in a small game with Nate Qualls and friend. Then over to Northford for milkshake and home. Nothing much done. Called Neva about party.
Work was much easier today till closeout, when all hell broke with the pressroom and I was unable to check any of the cards before I left. Called Neva--her girlfriends may or many not come to the party. Easily beat Dick in lap--got early lead and held it. Felt good--best we've done. Shagging flies wasn't so hot, though I made one running-back catch and ended up with a shoestringer.
Finished up today, though just barely. Fishes over for steak Frey--interesting to listen to Uncle Andy. Went swimming with Dick and Tom at Quonnipaug--brought soda to Keith's.
At the party, I was sulkier and more reserved than ever, unless I was making an ass of myself with an assinine comment or two. As Pat didn't make too good an impression on her, I drove Arlene Longhini home. Couple of French-Canadian girls. Drove Cox to party from Waterbury--home at 3:15.
Groggy during the day but woke up in the eve and spent it at Beggsy's apt. with Coxie and Wagner. George got pretty well pie-eyed and started spouting some shit. He's too violent for me. We wrote poetry and Coxie read some of my shit. He's not too bad a poet himself.
Worked today (Sat.) another 8 1/2 hours--finished 2 poetry books. Spent rest of day catching up on work--looks like I'll never get to play guitar.
Phone woke me up around 9:30--'twas Earl, Bitsy's old boy friend. Wants me to come to the beach this aft. Spent day at home--reading, playing guitar, a little writing. Beautiful day but Tom, Dick, and Ray weren't home. Found 5 of my records missing, called Keith and Shattuck. Bruce'll get in touch with the girl who brought her records to the party. Ed Sullivan show pretty good--Eartha Kitt, a magician, comedian, comedy trio. I changed my mind on Roger Williams--he was
fabulous doing St. Louis Blues and The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise.
A young robin was on the clothesyard this mrn, watching me brush my teeth in the bathroom. His orange breast was still generously spotted, his feathers were ragged and helter-skelter, and he kept opening his mouth and hitching on down the arm till he finally flew away. Week closed with a bang today and I didn't get all done. Shagged flies with Dick and took a walk--no lap. Couple of rejection slips.
I got a letter from Tenny--"The way my parents are treating me I just may show up some time next year. That would probably surprise you." Went swimming at Lake Q. with Emblers in eve. Everyone was there--Nancy Leibiger and Joanne, Bob Mulvey, Al Randal, and Ginny Hadley. Ginny and I talked for half-hour or so--she was with Al. Seems Di and Bob have broke up. So goes it.
Mike was sick so Charley and I split his shift--I worked from 9 to 1. Called Ginny Hadley and Diane Orth. Maybe I'll call them again tomorrow night.
Charlie cooperated very nicely with me--as we were taking calls on only one callbox. Mine was on the fritz again. Groggy all day and dozed for 2 hours this eve. Neither Ray nor the Emblers were home, and Diane has a date for Sat.--I was gonna ask her to see "South Pacific." Call her next week--and Bruce Shattuck about my missing records. Yesterday bought Dave Baby Cortez' "The Whistling Organ" (like other side--"I'm Happy") and new Playboy.
Saw Mr. Woods this morn--Burndy NY does not have a night shift now but may put on one if business keeps. He'll check again 3rd week of Aug. Talked to Tom about night job at Burndy's this fall and played basketball with Dick. Mailed poems and short stories and dropped car at garage for grease job. $80 check today--already half shot.
August 1959
Hawaii Becomes the 50th State
To the garage ($6.50 for grease, oil, and oil filter) and $1.50 to the barber. Earl called again but I couldn't go down. For one thing, because I had to go to work from 3:30 to 12--Mike's car broke down in Mt. Vernon--whatever he was doing there. Finished Playboy and TC Talent at work and talked to Mr. Geldman about Tommy--he said for him to come in and see Mr. Woods. Called Keith wbut he wasn't in--started research on Castor and Pollux but NH Library 'twas not open. Which was a good thing 'cause I got home in time to go to work--home at about 3:10 and off again.
Yesterday I found Ray was in NY. Woke up early but dozed--one of Mom's relatives called to inform her of the death of her daughter. Spent day reading papers, playing guitar, writing, and watching ball game. Tom went up to Hal's in the eve and Dick had work to do so I spent the eve doing nothing else. Dreams of NY.
Tommy talked to Lil about job today--no soap. Charley wants to bitch to Mr. G. about Mike getting overtime. Called Diane--arranged date to see South Pacific. Spent eve at Keith's talking and watching Mike Wallace interview "Queen of the Beats," Terry Danielson. Sent poem to Coxie and except from "The Book" by Mike Shaara. Keith and I talked about Wagner and Coxie, beats, me of course, a little of Keith's past friends and dreams. Pleasant, easy eve. Picked up 2 books at NH Library and 3 of Keith's on Greek legends--looking for the Dioscuri. (2 new girls in office today.)
Mike didn't even call up today when he decided not to come in--so I worked the 2nd half of the night shift after Charley worked the 1st half. In the aearly eve played badmitton with Dick and talked. $39 check from UC and rejection slip from Voices on "City at Night."
Mike again didn't show up and they had to call Ray Hanrahan from his vacation. I called Charley and it looks like I'll be going on nights and they'll call Tommy. Spent half an hour or so with Thomas talking. Got tickets to Burndy picnic--think maybe I'll ask Sandy Hart.
I spent 40 cents on coffee breaks, $1.00 on gas, and 98 cents on Brook Benton's "Thank You, Pretty Baby." Ray asked me to go on nights starting Mon. and Mr. Woods called Tommy. He'll see him tomorrow. Called Diane and arranged date for Sun. night to see South Pacifice. Keith called and said Pat was around and wanted to see me. Went over to Plaza with Fred and listened to Kingston Trio's album--talked with Georgia (she's a doll). [She worked at The Music Box.] Fred's got a new girl (Lithuanian) Soly. He's going to try to fix me up with a Ukranian girl--Stephanie. Walked around the
Maple-Beach-Spring-Potter block in my bare feet after listening to records in my room. Shavzin rejected "Diane" and NYU sent me forms for Loan. So goes it.
Tom dropped by today to us at work on his new job--$86 pay check and $39 from Unemployment wound up with $110 in bank for $425 total. Called Sandy with no definite arrangement--Diane cancelled date for Sun. Spent night at Keith's with Pat Cox. Very interesting night. I enjoyed myself very much.
Slept till 10--no mail for me. Called Ginny and asked about going swimming next week. Blew $2.50 on phono needle at Joe Cone's and $4 on anniv. gift for Charley and Marilyn. Listened to records at Joe's--Georgia was there but in back. Worked from 3:30 to 12--rough 1st hour or 2. That, 'twould appear, is that.
A windy day, but hot in the sun. Up at 10, read papers--played baseball and took walk with Dick--he got stung by yellow-jackets over by Patten Ridge. Some nice catches and some errors., Called Keith in the eve--he'll have to move from his apt. So it goes.
Up at 11 and called Ginny--no swimming today--too cloudy. She's going on vacation next week. Listened to that fellow on WOR [Jean Shepherd] last night--"there was a thin icicle of violence in the air." Weather cleared up beautifully--bought some paper in the aft. and to work. Charley says Tommy's catching on fast. Called Diane--date for Sunday is indefinite. Called Sandy--no dice on Saturday. Jo D'Agostino decided to sit on my knees during coffee break or was it lunch? Left a little work for Lorraine.
Spent day reading, playing guitar, rearranging poems, andd swimming at L. Quonnipaug with Ginny Hadley. She's a darn nice kid--not too bad looking--seems to like me. Someone called me--I wonder who. That kid Justin at work seems to like me, anyhow they all tease hell out of me and like to bother me. And I love it.
I like Justin. Up at 10, no mail for me, called Ginny--looks like my last playmate is gone. She's packing and all for her vacation next week. Called Keith and woke him up. Got Iliad at library and Ray called. My hunch was right--he's back with Bess. Talked for half hour or more. Tom helped me at work for one and a half hours. He may have his Volkswagen for the picnic. Lazy Day. Hot and clear.
I'm flat broke and my gas tank is in similar condition. Bought 2 new singles--What Is Love and The Three Bells. Pat didn't come down from Waterbury. Called Keith--0. Ray called around 11-11:30. Nothing much. Lazy day spent at record shop. I like Justin.
Answered letter from Tenny yesterday. Rejection slip from Penny Poems moved on. Fred called last night. $92 pay check--now $500 in bank. Called Keith--not home. 0 else. Ate pizza for dinner--Bill Pask got it for some of us. And Joey M. wanted to go out for a steak dinner. I like him and I like Joey and Ralph Baldwin and Louis Collucci. Justin doesn't like Ralph. So it goes.
Hah! Burndy picnic today was slow but enjoyable. Went with Tom and Edie in his new VW, retured with Charley and Marilyn. Jennie was there, and Jackie Husted and her busty young sister. In the eve went over to Keith's after taking a walk with Dick--he's going to buy a house in Cheshire if he can get the price he's offering.
Spent most of day with Ray, playing guitar and trumpet up at
Hubbard Park, where we met Danny Esposito--walked around and talked and went back to his house and talked and fooled around with cat and watched nighthawks booming and diving down over the city houses. Tried to call Diane but got no answer either today or yesterday.
11 years ago today, Babe Ruth died. "May the Great Umpire call him safe at Home." Crawled out of my window at 2 AM and went over to High School to take a lap--it didn't wind me at all, probably because I paced myself and probably took it slower. Then walked around till 4--up to Center and back. Slept till 1:30. Mr. Way, who is out of a job, came over in the aft. and I just couldn't get rid of him. Tomorrow I'll find out about that job with Burndy NY. Called Diane--she went to NJ this weekend and will go again next weekend.
Up at 11:30 and over to Yale Library to see Ray. Got 2 rejection slips which I moved on and letter from Bess. Bought copy of Village Voice but couldn't find Mythology. Saw Mary Lou [Rubano] as Ray and I sat on a wall talking. Talked to Mr. Woods about Burndy NY. Ixnay. Their personnel manager is in the hospital but it don't look like they'll have an opening for me. Lou Colucci, who works as an inspector, teaches at Wilbur Cross. So it goes.
Took a lap early this AM and wrote my 1st Haiku (?) poem. Couldn't sleep, although my eyes are tired. Couldn't sleep last night so around 7 took another lap and timed myself at 1:27 without sprint, and fooled around with baskebtball for 10-15 minutes. Went to TC [New Haven State Teachers College, now Southern Connecticut University] around 11 but neither Mr. Beggs, Dr. Kendall, or Wagner were there. Inquired about evening extension, then to Beggs' apt. to wake him up and return books. Saw Ray and went to New Haven Libary. Rest of day uneventful. Almsot corked off at work--had to take a
couple of NoDoze.
Over 39 hours without sleep when I took my lap at 3 AM. Ray Locke woke me up with a phone call at 10:30. Went over to
Music Box but bought 0. Work was a mess--worked solid 8 1/2 hours. $62 pay check.
Took another lap at 2 AM--well, almost. Stopped for a stop light in the form of a skunk walking across the field at half lap, then finished. Nothing much today--went over to Music Box and listened to records. Bought 0. Work was hell today and I got less done than yesterday. Don't know if I work tomorrow or not.
Two laps and 10 pushups. Letter to Bessie. Spent day driving down to East Haven twice to pick Tommy's VW. 1st time he didn't have enough dough. Cashed $86 check. Called Sandy--no dice for swimmin' tomorrow. Wrote letter to NY Better Business Bureau. No mail of importance. Goodbye party for Justin and Sherwin--Mary and Peggy gave them each a pair of doll panties. Work tomorrow and probably nights next week.
2 laps for the last time. 10 pushups also for the last time. Tommy called me at 9 to remind me to register to vote, which I did. Paid $18.31 bill at garage for spring and mailed letter to Tom Tebben, 2 rejection slips. Spent day with Ray--listened to Jean Shepherd, Music Corner and Music Box inquiring about Crown Music, and listened to taped Shepherd on Alfa Romeo. Worked from 3:30 to 12, reading new Playboy I bought this aft.
Three laps and eleven pushups (just barely). Lazy day spent reading paper, singing , and calling up Sandy Hart. Finally got her at 6 but she declined my offer of a date to the movies. Way called, so I spent a little time with him, then Ray and I went up to Naugatuck to see "The World, The Flesh, and the Devil" with Belafonte, Inger Stevens, and Mel Ferrer. Pretty good--black and white. Empty Manhattan. At the end of the picture, when the 3 walked hand-in-hand, the
title on the screen read "The Beginning."
3 laps and 11 pushups (rough). Jean Shepherd. Fred was over trying to wake me up this AM--got up after he left. Rejection slip. Quarrel with Wayne. Spent aft. with Fred playing with War game. Bernie Carlson is working at Burndy's now, with his pointed head.
September 1959
3 laps. Found 11 pushups a little easier today. Up around 11--info from NYU. Wrote letter to Crown Music. Called both Ginny and Diane but no answer. Lazy day all around. Ray told me I go back on days Friday. New material handler nights went to Notre Dame [High School] a year behind Tommy.
3 laps with sprint and 11 pushups. A lazy day spent doing nothing. Letters from Deano and Fineman. Called Ginny and Diane. One more day on nights. Tom did pretty good tonite. Sent off letter to Art, Crown Music, and 6 poems. Now I got no stamps.
Happy day. Got about 1 hour sleep this am, but gradually woke up as day progressed. Letter from Tenaya and 3 rejection slips. Went to Ray's trumpet lesson with him and started letter to Tenny, then out to a friend of his--Dick Spignesi--and listened to [Herbie] Mann on the flute and Maynard Ferguson. Man, the Ferg can really hit the high ones. Dick also plays trumpet. Also listened to Jack Sheldon play a real bluesy trumpet--husky, throaty, and undefined--very untrumpety. Then, since Cox was down, went over to Beggs' apt., out for pizza, then up to Waterbury with Coxie and Wagner.
I bought "Like Young." [Andre Previn 45] The other side--"A Young Man's Lament"--is nice too. Rapid day of work--Charley was sick so left at 10. Over to Beggs apt. to pick up Mann's record and letter, which I left in his car last nite. Half hour or so chat. Listened to new Peter Gunn [album] at Joe Cone's [Music Box], bought "Like Young", and homewards. Took up where I left off Sunday and ran a mile with a slow sprint in the straightaway and 12 fairly hard pushups. They will be lengthened to 13 Sunday irregardless, but the mile run will be staggered accordingly.
Charley left work sick yesterday at 10 and wasn't in today. It was a slow day, lots of breaks. Filled the buggy with gas and found out bill for exhaust system comes to $24.01. Called Ray and Fred, who wanted to go to the [North Haven]fair. 12 pushups. Went over to Embler's for a while but Richard is busy packing. Called Beggs--found he hasn't heard from Coxie or Wagner. Got letter from NYU yesterday notifying me of $500 NDA Loan--wrote letter to them declining it, and finished letter to Tenny. Went up to Center to get card for Tom--his bday is tomorrow. On way back took a mile run with quarter-lap slow sprint. Yanes were eliminated from the AL race Monday--3 cheers and a martini! Today got letter from Crown Music and 2 rejection slips on short stories.
Slow day at work--with $66 check. Tommy's bday. I work tomorrow--Saturday. Called up Diane and, with Ray and Beggs, toured the new Student Union [at NHSTC, now Southern Connecticut State College]. Picked up tickets to "South Pacific" and saw buddy of Ray's who runs clothes store--Mack Miller. Spent eve gabbing with Beggs over pizza and records.
Worked from 7 to 4--rough closing. And got another crewcut. Eve. spent with Ray and Bess at the J[ohnson]'s listening to records and talking. After Ray and I went out for coffee and donuts. A month or more I'd have considered the eve. a bust but tonite 'twas enjoyable. Ray called me beat--and I'm happy.
Sunday the 13th. Ran a fast mile with regular sprint and 12 pushups at 1 A.M. Spent day reading paper and getting old work that had piled up out of the way--a lazy day, unexciting, perhaps even useless. Taped Jean Shepherd, did 13 pushups, and barely ran a slow mile, though the sprint came easier this eve. than it did this morn.
2000 years ago there was "not even a hint of your creation-to-come." "South Pacific" brought back the want and desire of love again but Tennie's not Shan's. Mitzi Gaynor reminded me so much of Tenaya Anne Stewart. I went with Diane. An enjoyable eve.--as as as she's concerned, and no more. But Tenaya and the tears flowed in a truly beautiful and moving movie. South Pacific.
I got a very unpleasant surprise--Ray timed me around the track tonite--at 7:43! Very unpleasant and it felt like a fast time! Got rejection slip and survey from Caltech--listened to tape of Jean Shepherd, visited Tommy, mailed off more work, and walked the city in search of Wagner to no avail. It was windy and cold and autumny tonite--winds whipping papers through the city, in front of and under cars--just like a Halloween nite.
"Spring Skies" got accepted by somebody else and received another rejection slip. Spent eve. at Ray's--picked up another binder for another 200 poems--did nothing but look at his books on figure studies while he practiced his trumpet and Richie practiced his sax. Fooled around with guitar. Nothing--at all.
A lazy day--since Ray was up in Cooperstown and I couldn't get ahold of Beggs or Diane, I decided to stay home and catch up on my work, which I didn't do because I couldn't sit down and work at it, not in the mood. Received 2 rejection slips and card from Tenny, and trotted 5 laps. Started Caltech survey--lots to go yet.
Wayne's bday--yterday he received large radio-all bands , etc. After work, went over to school to see Gen, as she had asked me in her card, but couldn't find the Crescent Anthology. After talking a bit with Stanley Campbell, I picked up Wagner at Hotel Duncan and we went back to see Beggs and I talked to Dr. Kendall. In the eve we walked around New Haven and spent some time in the espresso house. Around 9:30 I decided to see how close I could get to New York City before I'd turn back. At midnite there we were.
Came into NY feeling lost and parked on 37th near Park--finally got on a subway at the Sheratan-McAlpin--about four or more blocks away. Spent 1 1/2-2 hours in the Village, walking around near the Bizarre and the Cock'n'Bull. Pissed on NYU's buildings. Back at 5 for 3/4 hour's sleep. Costs--$2 for gas, 90 cents for tolls, and 60 cents for subway fare. Worked from 7 to 4, falling asleep during lunch hour. Ran 5 laps with straightaway slow sprint. Fell asleep around 8, leaving Peter Gunne running on phonograph--Swish, swish.
Lazy day spent reading paper et al. Woke up at 8 to needle going back and forth on Peter Gunne. Turned it off and returned to sleep till around 1. Took 5 laps with quarter-lap slow sprint. Listened to Jean Shepherd and called Keith. Ray called in the aft. Wagner called yterday. A big 0--achieved nothing.
Borrowed $5 and with Ray hung up sign at school advertising books for sale, went to Ray's trumpet lesson, and spent some time at his house. Rejection slip. Charley left work at 2:30, not feeling too good. Called Wagner, but he wasn't around.
I'm beginning to hate work more and more--got catalogue from NYU--passed men's dorms again. Such is life. Spent all day at work thinking of Tenaya. Spent eve. at Ray's talking, drawing, writing postcard to Tenny--watching Tribute to Jerome Kern. Good music--Howard Keel and "Ol' Man River." Tenaya, Tenaya, Tenaya.
Another wasted day. Wrote another letter to NYU and finished 2nd page of Caltech survey. Spent 2 hours or so in New Haven looking for Wagner in the dusty caves of the Yale and New Haven Library. Never found him.
Found I had $3 in my wallet and spent it all. Finally finished Caltech survey and mailed it. Fred Way called. Went over to Yale Lib. but couldn't find Wagner, so Ray and I went over to TC--Crescent Player tryouts are Monday and Tuesday. At 9:15 tried Yale Library again and there he was--big as life. So we walked and talked till 3 AM--to espresso house, around Yale, to Stuttering Lou's, the RR station, along the unfinished Oak Street connector, and were going to take a walk along New Haven Harbor when an East Haven cop tole us to move along.
So what did I do? I spent the eve. with Fred Way. We talked and saw Ray Locke at the Yale Lib., then bought typing paper in Hamden. Then we went to Wallingford and back for me to be in bed by 10. Received $79 check and put 50 in bank.
Up at 8 and went over to Bowen Field to see TC schmotz AIC 47-12, including an 85-yard run by Charley Gray. Drove Ray home, then over to Plaza to pick up sketchbook. With Tom went over to pick up Richie Locke after the Hillhouse game. In the eve. Tom and I met Wagner at Yale, and we went over to TC to get the key to Beggs' pad, where we listened to a little jazz, then over to the espresso place, which was closed. So homeward bound.
Fred Way. Spent most of day reading paper. Tom came over late in aft. and then in the eve. While he was over Fred come over. Then Tom left and Fred and I could find 0 to do--then Tom came back, Fred left, and Tom and I walked up to the Center and back, then around Mill Road. Talked and nothing else. Had to crawl in my bedroom window at 11 since I left my key and no one was up.
Nothing much. Received 2 rejection slips, letter from Tenaya, and check from estate of Loren Phillips, who died. Wrote letter to Scimitar and Song, who accepted one of my poems, and to Tenaya. Bought long envelopes, got Sean O'Casey's Pictures in the Hallway from New Haven Library, couldn't find Wagner, and read new Mad magazine. Tenaya.
I went over to pick up Ray and the Chev got stuck in first gear. So he drove us over to school--him for classes, me for tryouts for Uncle Harry Dr. Kendall had me read just Uncle Harry--no real nice broads there. Wagner showed up and I spent an hour with him before Ray got through. With his father, we kicked it back into gear. One of the couplings is loose and we tightened it with a washer. It's still pretty loose though. Further mail from Crown and rejection slip.
Lou said to leave the car the way it is. Rejection slip and new Playboy. I got the part of Albert in Uncle Harry, Harry got Uncle Harry and Blake got Blake. New kid there--name of Harrington. No nice broads--Jett got female romantic lead, Illyria's friend. There was one real doll there when I came in but she left. Probably too late for tryouts.
October 1959
This was not my day! Hectic was closeout today, though not quite as bad as yesterday. Then I was snappish at the dinner table. Ray and I went to Mack Miller's for my fall jacket, but Mack was busy, and we couldn't find the jacket. Rehearsal was OK, 0 spectacular one way or the other. Thru at 9:15 and I had to wait till Ray's class got thru at 10:10--so met Keith at the Student Union. Saw men's lounge upstairs--The Scroungy Lounge. When Ray got out, there was Bess--so that took up time. Went down to Yale Library but Wagner wasn't there. Such is life.
Received $63 check and placed entire thing into my bank account--total now $900. Late for Rehearsal after talking to Parker Boylan at Bohn's drugstore. Picked up Ray at Yale Library and that's that.
After listening to Shepherd, failled to call Diane, and drove right past Marty Palmer [Parker Boylan and Martha Palmer had graduated from high school with me], and spent some time with Ray at the library before going to see TC schmotz Bridgeport 38-12. Nice Blonde in car ahead of me. Caroline Rubano was there too. In the eve, Tom and I bombed out to La Gallette [the coffeehouse] and that was that. I need a chick!
I didn't go fishing on the Sound with Dad, nor did Ray and I go mountain climbing, nor did I go up to Windsor with him to Bradley Field. So I was home when Keith called and said he needed help moving large items to his new home in Cheshire. It's a cool pad--rather mundane outside but interesting in. I accidentally set off the burglar alarm in the fur store [Keith's old apartment was over a fur store and I set off the alarm when I opened a door I shouldn't have.] and Porter showed up for a few seconds. Keith offered me cash but no dice, though I sure could use it. In all, it proved rather pleasant. For once, there was no fooling around that discomforted me--I don't feel 'twas wasted time at all.
Voted this AM a straight Republican ticket. In the eve, worked on various things, finished "Cat'n'Cage," [I think this is a reference to, "Dark Blue," a story I wrote based on the Sean O'Casey story] and was dead by 8. So I called Ray but he wasn't home so I went over to the school to find him. We walked around for a little but, just as I was leaving, Wagner showed up. So we went down to La Gallette and spent time walking around, down to Savin Rock, which was dead, and home, James.
Mostly read and listened to radio or records. Finished off
Maggie Cassidy. Tom was over in the eve and we went for a walk then out looking for a place that was open, which we couldn't find. Had a headache most of the day, but it finally disappeared at around 10.
I started Home Is Never Far Away tonite--finishing the 1st scene--4 pages singlespace. Short but I like it. Also got
The Little Prince and read it. Not what I thought. Started on Hypress today [at work].
Found out play contest doesn't end till January [The Crescent Players were having a play contest--I submitted Home Is Never Far Away, which won], so spent the eve with George--went on top of familiar ol' hill in Wallingford then down to New Haven but 0 there. Walked on cold pavement in bare feet. 2 rejection slips. I'm busted.
Finished
Dharma Bums--great! Spent rest of eve at TC with Wagner and Keith and Dingwall in somebody's room at the dorm listening to various musics--Joe Williams and
Fergie. Then George and I hiked around a bit and home. Man, am I ever flat!
George and I did nothing, for which I am eternally grateful. Rehearsal was blocking. I tried 3rd scene without script and did fairly good. Drove Ray to school and back, poor kid. Started
On the Road.
Received my meager $61.97 check, banked 50,. and promptly spent 5 for gas. In the eve, dug rehearsal, which went along pretty well--for me, at least. We started blocking last nite--I have Scene III fairly well mesmerized. Worked on CP float at Lorraine George's garage with Laurie, Mike Caciopoli, Sissy, Judy K., and two frosh girls. Both were good looking, one though a real chick. I was in a wild mood and happy, drunk on the chick. I think, I hope, she dug me. Drove Ray home from library at 12.
This eve, Tom and and I, finding Keith not at home, hiked to the castle on Sleeping Giant, talking, singing, and dreaming. The rock slides were very reminiscent of those crazy drives in the California moonliht with Deano, and the view of the New Haven lights from the castle reminded me of Pasadena from Mt. Wilson . It was fun and enjoyable. Later Tom asked me if I'd like to go up to Toronto with him at Thanksgiving. Would I? In the aft, after getting up at 1 PM, drove Ray home from work and bought Japanese print at [Yale] Co-op.
I mailed six or seven letters I wrote--short stories, poems, to NYU, etc. and I did a bit of writing on Scene II--very little though. I intended to do more but instead played canasta. Red Buttons on TV good.
I finally decided not to go to the CAL [I have no idea what that was] meeting because they were working at Billye Marsh's house. What a shame. Finished Scene II and dogged over the school to sit with Judy Trijonis and friend a while then with George went to the shores of New Haven Bay. It was quite a scene--a few lights in the water, but mostly all you did was sense its presence, lapping, roaring above, below the trucks and cars on the throughway. The VA hospital shimmered in the west like the branches of a winter tree. We stirred up killdeer and ducks as we walked, the ducks' twinkling wings
seen for a second against the lights of the city then lost in the dark. Smoke from a factory twisted low in fantastic shapes to the north, lit by the throbbing glow within. Over the city hung a faint mist, the miasma of its worries and troubles.
Meaningless. Meeting of Crescent Players to decide on crews for play--2 nice chicks there, one a blonde sat right next to me, another dark-haired girl kept looking back. She'll be working on costumes, the blonde I think on construction. I signed up for everything and Pegrit told me I'm assistant stage manager. Lorraine George informed me that Friday night will see the final touches put on the CP float--and that's the nite of the Bonfire. Drove one of Ray's teachers home, then discovered note on bulletin board, fellow's going to LA Saturday, wants riders. Wisht I could go. Stars illumined the crazy clouds in the nite sky.
Mostly, it was just rehearsal--lots of fun with Bob Drobish and Marion Riggio, even Mike. Received another rejection slip. Walked the wilds of New Haven with George. Failed to call that guy who's going to LA and won't. Friday night should prove crazy--rehearsal, Bonfire, and working on CP float.
Stayed home, finished On the Road, and the final scene of my play [Home Is Never Far Away]. Now all I have to do is the short 3rd scene. That's how my eve was spent, plus a short drive to New Haven to mail a poem.
Somehow it wasn't as much fun today. After cashing my $61.97 check, filling my tank, dropping off The Little Prince, and picking up Ray, I got drafted for the Junior Bonfire skit, as part of a registration mob. So I threw out a paper airplane. The skits were pretty good--esp. the Seniors and Sophs. Seniors had 4 new "teachers"--Doug Merriman, a Prof. Litwell of Sophomore Orientation, Jessie Parlat for Kermatt, and Prof. Diggs, John Dingwall, a "beat " teacher--"Like you're born, you live a while, and then it's time to die, and in between it's nothing. So like stop the world, I wanta get off." Rain, and went out with Bess and Ray for pizza. Something is missing.
I don't know if I'll I'll ever see Gloria C. again. She was the frosh chick who was working on the CP float and was on it in the rain today. The alarm woke me up at 5:30 so I reset it another 15 minutes--I repeated this at 5:45, 6, 6:15, and finally got up at 6:30 and over to Lorraine's by 7:10. With Mike Kranyak and Lorraine we worked till around 8 when Mike Caciopoli showed up. In short order arrived Stetson Blake, Peg Hennie, and the 2 frosh girls, Gloria and her friend Noreen. The float showed a sailed monster Dinosaur and 6 cave people, Stets, the 2 Mikes, and Gloria, Noreen, and Pegrit. Mr. George also helped us--he seems awfully young to have a 20-year-old daughter. A great guy. As the parade started, it began to rain and it was pouring by the time we reached Hillhouse. I was safe and dry in the cab of the truck with the truckdriver, who--oddly enough--looked like a truck driver.
Afterwards though I got soaked as I began to tear it down in the pouring rain while the others were getting changed. Stets drove the frosh home whilst I chugged Pegrit to the Student Union where the chorus were singing and tromped around in my wet duds, parti-colored sweatshirt and all. Drove home thru 3 deep puddles and nearly lost my brakes but later saw the 2nd half of the TC-New Britain Homecoming game with Tommy, which TC won 46-8. It seesawed awhile but finally TC scored their first score of the half on a crazy play and broke away. The score came as a New Britain back went up for a pass, was tackled, and the ball dribbled down the tackler's back into Walt Stosuy's hands and he galloped for a touchdown, trailed by 5 or 6 white-helmeted NB players. In the eve finished the play with Scene IIB. Forgot that yesterday my haiku "Early Fall" was accepted by
American Weave. Success!
This morn and aft Tom and I trekked the length of Sleeping Giant--and I composed a haiku on the way. It was fall all right--at one place you could look down and see red and yellow and magenta, some with a silvery hint, and one solitary rich yet subdued green treetop. At another point, a pine looked as though it had leaves instead of needles. The bare patches of trees looked more like mist.
Mom and Wayne hit Charley's en costume. Wrote 3 haiku, inspired by a gull over New Haven, a falling leaf, and the migrating birds.
November 1959
November 2--Charles Van Doren Admits Fraud
The Sound of Music opens
I was accepted to NYU's drama department and took off the fall semester to work again at Burndy's, this time during the day, with Lorraine Cusano and my brother-in-law, Charlie Esposito. Tommy Embler, who had just graduated from the University of Toronto, worked the night shift as a timekeeper.
I played a small role, Albert, in Uncle Harry, that fall's production of the Crescent Players. I dated Leola again, Sandy Hart, Carole Polletta, Diane Orth, and Ginny Hadley (whom I met at Lake Quonnipaug during the summer--she was a year or two behind me at North Haven High), as well as flirting with Illyria Costa, Judy Trijonis (Homecoming Queen in 1958), Neva Lorraine Cummings, and Marty Goodyear.
JoAnne Vigliotti and Sandy Hart Judy Trijonis
I also loved from a distance Diane Zmyeski, Billye Glen Marsh (who had moved to New Haven from California), and Marie Rubis. There are stories behind most of these. John Fazzino and I talked about going to California.
Peg Heenie ("Pegrit") was stage manager for most of the shows I did for the Cresent Players-- Peg was a year or two older than me, had lived in Greenwich Village (although I didn't learn that for several years), and looked like a basketball with legs. But she was always cheery and we became good friends. Kathy Roy entered NHSTC . . . I mean SCSC . . . the year after I left and she was in Uncle Harry. Although she was homely, I became friends with her. She was the first woman since Marty Palmer I admired for her mind. Later, however, she seemed to suffer from mental rigor mortis. A shame. I spent quite a few nights in La Galette with Kathy and Peg.
I was also on the editorial board of The Crescent, in which two of my stories
("Starwatcher" and
"'Twas Brillig") and several of my poems ("To a Song Sparrow," "Search," "Lo, the Waters of Love Are Deep," and "An Exercise in Phonetics") were published. (Most of the stuff in The Crescent was by the members of the editorial board. We got very few submissions by anybody else.) And
The Canadian Forum
published my short story, "The Pardoner's Tale."
In September 1959, after I had left, New Haven State Teachers College changed its name to Southern Connecticut State College and it eventually became Southern Connecticut State University.
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