This episode relates Mom's daily notations from the period beginning in March, 1978. In '72, our Mom & Dad sold their home in Glendale, their hometown since immigrating from Michigan in 1949. Jan and Don had lived in Palm Desert for almost 10 years at that time, and Ellen & Rog were very comfortable in that environment, as evidenced by their willing adoption of turquoise and orange as their favorite colors, multi-colored polyesters as their favorite fabrics, and the late-in-life personal statement of frequently refusing to wear socks, although flip-flops remained out of bounds.
As March begins, Uncle Phil and Aunt Evelyn, aka Boo, had just arrived following Phil's retirement from General Motors, his lifelong employer. Mom and Dad were in their late 60's, and had established a happy routine revolving around the Thompson Family, (antics provided by the Terrible Ts...Terri, Traci, and Tommi), and their newer friends at the fashionable and well appointed mobile home park that they called home. As we saw by Mom's reckless use of exclamation points in my previous post, she and Dad were very excited at the prospect of integrating Phil and Boo into this casual and stimulating lifestyle. They got crazy social in March!
March 1: Indio---Lunch Indian Palms
March 2: Palm Spgs---Rubaiyat Room
March 4: Karen comes Sat AM. J&D&K here for dinner. Silver Spur Park---Phil & Boo (Ed: the underline and bold is Mom's).
March 5: P&B bought coach at Silver Spur., Phil, Boo, Karen. Karen goes home.
March 6: Evie and Ellen--Palm Spgs--PM. Phil to Indio---fix car seat. (Ed: Mom called Boo Evie when she wasn't calling her Boo. She only called her Evelyn if she was angry or being formal).
March 7: Palm Springs
March 8: San Bernardino. Letter from Kathy. Steve goes into army. (Ed: I think that this entry is particularly illustrative of how Mom ran disparate things together, like making a life casserole in which all ingredients are of equal value. If I'd called her on the phone, she would have said, "Hi, sweetheart. I went to San Bernardino today, and got a letter from Kathy. Your nephew Steve went into the army. Bye, now!" If men from Mars landed here, her entry would have included "aliens invade, San Bernardino, letter from Kathy, Steve goes into army."
March 9: Evie--hair appt--12 noon--4451 Portola--346-6938--Mary Garcia/Betty Darling--ltr from Phil.
March 10: J&D here
March 11: to L.A.--Hyatt Westwood w/ Phil & Evelyn--lunch w/ Phil at Shenanigans in Glendale--then to Kathy & Ed's for drinks--dinner at Swiss Echo w/ Phil & Boo & Karen & George. (Ed: They came to see me for lunch in Glendale, clearly hell bent for fun, riding this non-stop gastronomical Orient Express through every compass point of Los Angeles).
March 12: L.A.--lunch at Westwood Hyatt Hotel. Hamburgs & coffee in suite at night.
March 13: Breakfast at Bob's Toluca Lake. Home after stop at Hadley's. Gordy called. Geo & Karen here--dinner. Bought material at Home Silk Studio City for Jen--Mary called.
March 14: Phil playing golf. Sewed
March 15: P&E went shopping. Sewed.
March 16: Mail Ed's b-day card! Sewed. P&E went shopping. Gordy--income tax.
March 18: BB game. Jan's--dinner. Karen here.
March 19: Ed Bday. Called Bill.
March 20: Mail Jen's bday card! Salton Sea--Borrego Spgs.
March 21: Phil to dentist--broke bridge. Kathy called--not coming down.
March 22: Jennifer B-day. Phil golf. Gordy here. Johnsons here.
March 23: U. Phil & Gordy--golf 2:30. Don--bb game 2:30. (Ed: Mom must have included these two entries due to the amazing coincidence that two distinct events could occur at exactly the same time).
March 24: Don--bb game at 9:00AM. Gordy here for breakfast while we were at game--left plant for me. To Riverside.
March 26: EASTER. Mass w/ Evie. Jan's for dinner & cards. Gail called.
March 27: Mail Ks bd card. Phil & Boo--to Silver Spur and shopping.
March 28: Dinah Shore Golf. Bill called. Pick up Hummel at 346-3152
March 29: Kathy B-day--34th. Phil & Boo at Silver Spur. Evie and me at Lil's & Joe's.
March 30: Rain. To Bill & Sylvia's--breakfast at Lawrence Welk's. Shopping in S.D. B&S's for dinner and overnight due to rain. Saw damage across from Bill's. (Ed: I think that this last comment referred to a house that Bill and Sylvia owned that was a victim of faulty engineering and ground prep, so that the homes in the subdivision suffered from settling at best, and downright sliding off the hillside at worst).
March 31: Home from B&S's, via Beaumont and Banning. J&D here for a drink, stayed to eat and play cards.
