We CAN Save Earth! Installment 587

Day 1 of My June 1965 Personal Diary

May 31, 2025

Dear Fellow Earthlings, 

   As I reflect upon my life, I am looking back at my past: Here is the 1st of 30 excerpts from my diary. 

The 30 excerpts cover the period June 1st through June 30th of the year 1965. I had just completed my junior year in high school -- and "summer vacation" was just beginning... (In those days summer vacation for school was approximately three months long.)

Tuesday, June 1, 1965

Dear Diary, 

   The school year has ended, but I did go to my high school (Collinsville Township High School in Collinsville, Illinois in the United States of America) today to straighten up the darkroom where I worked as "photo check manager" for my high school's yearbook "The 1965 Kahokian" during the past 9 months.  Unfortunately I could not get into the darkroom because Miss Irene Meyer, the teacher in charge of the darkroom, did not show up today. She has the darkroom key, you see. I did speak with Mr. Heinecke a teacher who had been around so long that my own "Uncle D" (Donald Walker) was taught by Mr. Heineke back in 1949). Mr. Heinecke, a history teacher, was cleaning out his office for the summer. 

   When I got home my brother Frank and I were forced to work with our father digging a drainage ditch for our house. Frank and I know nothing about how to do that type of work, but my father forced us to do it nevertheless. I was asked to drive my mother to town to buy groceries. (She did not have a drivers license back in 1965, but got one about 10 years later, when she was about 50 years of age.)

   Anyway, I drove Mom to town to buy groceries. 

   When I got back, Frank and I were again forced to work with my dad. He forced us to load sheet iron onto a truck so that he could drive the load to a scrap yard the next day to sell. It is annoying that Dad is around all the time. Now that school is out, I can't get away from him.

    The highlight of the day was a phone call I made to a girl one year behind me in school. Her name is Linda Inskip. (Now, more than 60 years later, I recall how Linda and I had once been together at a local bowling alley -- with other friends -- and I had really enjoyed it as she jumped for joy (even if she knocked down only one pin) whenever she rolled a ball down the bowling lane. What vitality she had exhibited!

Steve Walker 

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2025 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises