(2) I'M A CONGREGATIONALIST SO GOD DOESN'T GET UPSET IF YOU MISS CHURCH.

Wednesday, June 12, 1935

     I stayed home from school today because I didn’t feel well.  I read all morning.  Then Betty Cronin invited me over to play golf and have supper.  The Cronins back yard is on the golf course of the Oakley Country Club.  All you have to do is walk past Toby’s pen, climb over the stone wall, and you’re in the middle of the ninth fairway.  I still wasn’t feeling well, so my game was awful.  When we were walking back to her house, Betty suddenly decided she was going to give me a passionate kiss.  That’s what I got for telling her about a romantic movie I’d seen.  She chased me through the yard and all over the house.   I was working myself up to a point of hysteria when her mother said, “What on earth are you girls doing?”  Betty stopped chasing me, much to my relief.  She’d make a swell boy!

     Mother’s friend Auntie Alma Rush and her son John are here now and are going to stay over night.  I can remember when I was very little I wept and wept because mother said no when I wanted to sleep with him.  I stood on the stairs crying and wanting to know why not.  “Because,”  said mother, making me go to bed alone, much to my dissapointment. 

     John and Dicky still kid me about the scene I made.  I pretend I don’t know what they’re talking about.

Saturday, June 22, 1935

     Yesterday was the last day of school.  Betty Cronin made an appointment with me to play golf at 9:30.   I was afraid she’d be mad at me because I was a half hour late.  To my indignance I found her sitting with her dog with her pajamas on.  On Betty, not the dog.  She said she would be dressed in two minutes, but dammit, she wasn’t.  It seemed more like 2 hours.  Dammit.  (Boy, I’m having fun writing this.)  Well, anyway, we finally got out on the golf course to find we couldn’t even play one hole, it was so crowded.  I was dam sore at Betty.  We played tennis instead.

    After supper at my house we went to see Shirley Temple in “Our Little Girl.”  It was adorable.  Betty stayed overnight and kept me awake by chewing gum, whistling through her teeth, etc.

Sunday, June 23, 1935

     This morning I went home with Betty, and she had to go to church because she’s a Catholic.  I’m a Congregationalist, so God doesnt get upset if you miss church.  When she got back, we had dinner.  Then we decided to play tennis, so Betty went up to get dressed.  The time she took getting ready would have been enough for me to read five books! (thick ones)  At last she appeared looking very innocent.  I was about ready to blow up.  We played a couple of sets and then went back to Betty’s house.  Mother was there having a cup of tea and talking to Aunt Emmy.  She took us down to the Happy Daze.  Daddy was puttering around in the middle of the river and said he’d be ready in five minutes.  (LIKE FUN!)  We waited and waited and waited.  We got so sick of waiting that mother left and took us to the island for a swim.

     What island, you ask?  Our island on the Charles River.  Daddy bought some land a couple of  years ago and the island came with it.  Last summer Daddy and Dick built a bridge so we could walk through the woods to a little beach.  Daddy and Dick built a dock and a diving board, too.  I don’t think my brother liked all that hard work, but he knew better than to argue with daddy.