My diary -August 10-12, 1972
- Susan Fisch Good
- Jan 24
- 3 min read
August 10, 1972 Thurs.
Dear Flowers:
I got up today at 10:30. I guess you guessed no school!!! Got dressed. Ate. Talked to Pat. Read on “Licenciado Vidriera”. Ate lunch. Read till I finished “Licenciado Vidriera.” I did the report on it for Spanish. Watched T.V. Took a bath & washed my hair. I rolled it myself so it looks a little funny (the curlers not my hair!!) I’m going to write some letter now that I‘m under the dryer.
BYE!!!
Note: August 10 is the Festival de Santo Domingo, a day of celebration in the capital city of Managua. I was thrilled to be able to sleep in. I wish I could sleep in now. Sleeping in today is 7:00 a.m.
I am impressed that I started and finished reading “Licenciado Vidriera,” a short novel by Miguel de Cervantes written in 1613 as part of his Novelas Ejemplares. It is about an eleven year old boy who is taken under the care of two university students. Because of his loyalty and hard work over the years he is given an education at the university eventually earning his law degree. Misfortune happens when he doesn’t reciprocate the love of a young woman and she has a spell cast on him causing him to go crazy wandering the streets.
August 11, 1972 Fri.
Dear Flowers:
I got a 92 on my science test!!! Had study hall & did all my homework. I went to the club & while Becky & David had tennis I swam. I went out to dry abit on the tiles & go to sleep when all of the sudden “Hola Susan” It was Alfredo Montealegre. He and a friend Carlos came over & talked to me for quite awhile. Carlos seems more interested in me (he was uglier) than Alfredo. Alfredo kept trying to look up my front. If this keeps up (boy wise) I will be happy. Watched T.V. Mom & Dad went out with Seehafers. I saw on T.V. movie “McMillan & Wife” Rock Hudson. Good!
BYE!!
Note: Not very proud of my teenage self calling someone ugly. I know now that beauty is skin deep and what really counts is what is inside.
McMillan & Wife became a TV series where the police commissioner and his wife solve murders and robberies.
August 12, 1972 Sat.
Dear Flowers:
I got up at 9:00 late, got dressed. Looked through old reports. I worked on History. In the afternoon we (I) went for a walk with Pat. I’ve never been so humiliated or felt it as today. Karron & Sarah called us over; they had 2 guys with them. Oh the way the boys ignored us & how they (girls) acted. I felt 10 inches tall. Uh!! I went with Dave & Mom to the American Night. I walk around through it with Diana Pheifer. Wasn’t very fun.
Watched T.V.
BYE!!!
Note: Teen girls can be mean. They probably called us over to flaunt that they had boys interested in them and we didn’t. Now I would have laughed it off and told myself "Not my people!" There are benefits to getting older!
Diana was a sweet girl; I was in a funk.
"Alfredo kept trying to look up my front. If this keeps up (boy wise) I will be happy." This sentence cracked me up! Those were they days laying out at the club...
Diana Pfiefer - think her mother's name was Alice. I was friends with Virginia Far/Farr (sp?) that would be Diana's Aunt. Did quite a bit with Virginia, went to Ocotal to stay a few days near the Honduras border, with the family, as they had a tree farm there. Virginia later joined Kathie Sue and me at LSU.
Susie your memories invariably revive some of my long ago souvenir treasures... thanks Tootsie
A great benefit to learning another language well enough to read and understand books in that language, is being able to see the author's point of view, from their cultural standpoint; translations will always fall short, as there are always some words/phrases/sayings that don't translate well. Like you, we were introduced to a few classics in Spanish in high school. Seemed rather boring and irrelevant at the time, but many decades later, I now appreciate this exposure.
I just finished "Mamita Yunai" by Carlos Luis Fallas, about the mistreatment of banana plantation laborers hired by the United Fruit Co. in Costa Rica a century ago. Very entertaining, with Costa Rican slang and "Americanisms" mixed in.
And the trials and tribulations…
What a wonderful picture of you; your smile is unchanged! Oh yes, I well remember watching McMillan and Wife on Sunday nights. It was an example that of how television changed in those years—-wittier, cooler and less frumpy.