Sun Jun 21 – 64 – YMCA Camp in Poughkeepsie, New York
Can’t believe we’ve been on this trip four days only! For such a motley crew of sixteen girls and two counselors we are very compatible. Two of the girls are childish which I actually don’t like. Shavonne is a sweet person. She is plain though with a very bad figure. She is certainly not distracting Steve from thinking about his girlfriend who he says we will all meet! Shavonne is reading The Agony and the Ecstasy, says its very good and will lend it to me when she’s finished. (It’s a big fat book and she seems to read onl8 4 pages at a time! She was impressed that I’ve seen the Sistine Chapel.) Michelangelo says: “the promises of this world are phantoms and to have faith in oneself and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course”. Steve is broadminded – I think Daddy would approve. But he does have fits of anger and bursts of gloom. He’s a Catholic and says we should all get a chance to attend mass! I found the sermon interesting and the hymns beautiful but the Latin is annoying. Andrea and I left early because we had signed up for horseback riding at eleven thirty and when we returned for lunch Steve was furious! Said we were rude! We offered to be waitresses to get back into his good graces. Andrea and I have a room to ourselves in the South Barn. Boys in the North Barn! The World’s Fair is no Disneyland but it was interesting. Andrea and I pretended to be French! I got an ID bracelet with a big A on it. (I got another for Avril’s birthday.) I love it and I never take it off. Andrea and I saw Peter and Gordon who were performing – all the girls screamed and we screamed right along with them. I hadn’t heard of them before but I like their Willow song. Also the Eggheads and the Esquires. We were separated from the performers by a pool and a lot of kids jumped in! Andrea and I danced instead while 3 men filmed us with movie cameras! The only performer whose autograph we got was Danny Taylor. He was very nice, says he’s been doing this since he was 13. Mon. Jun 22 - 64 Thinking strange powerful thoughts. I guess it is another mood coming. How can I think of Bookie and death in the same thought? Probably because I feel bad about Mark. I didn’t say the things he wanted and I didn’t want him to say the things I thought I wanted! Bookie is outgoing and clever but less scary somehow. Do I like being the one who cares more? I don’t think I want to be in this boat alone! I hate myself for complicating my life! Now, meeting so many new people I am having to worry whether people like me. Andrea called me “ugly” several times yesterday. She was trying to hit a tender spot but I think she was really feeling the opposite! So there goes that relationship! I would rather not be hideous. Dark Flower coming along pretty well. Mystic Seaport, CT – Tues June 23 – 64 Awful night! Laura stole my diary and read it! Made me so mad! And that’s not all. We were sitting around the camp fire singing songs and I saw Laura and Andrea planning something in the woods. Said they are sneaking out to meet four boys and did I want to come! I was all for it! Laura, Chris, Andrea and that awful Julie who keeps tagging along. Unfortunately the minute I saw the boys I wanted to leave! They looked like hoods to me, but I couldn’t talk anyone else into leaving. Andrea started making out with a complete stranger immediately! I talked to an ugly lug named Ralph, but when I told him about Bookie he kept his hands off. Then who should appear but Steve! He knew all about it! I told him nothing happened and he was very sweet. Said he gives me credit for a lot of common sense, says I am one of “the most intelligent fourteen year olds he’s ever met! Others not so much. This AM when I woke up my eyelids were swollen: gnats bit them almost shut! Really liked Mystic Seaport. We toured the beautifully restored ships. Here’s a picture of the Charles Morgan. Bought ships-in-a-bottle for all family members and sent postcards to everyone. Steve staged another of his “movies”. I was a barmaid! Mass & N. H – Fr. Jun 26 – 64 Having a ball! We are in Hanover NH at Dartmouth College. What a pity its not co-ed or I would go there. We went to Boston and rode the MTA – saw a lot of Harvard! Met Steve’s girlfriend who is a waitress at an ice cream store! They just stare at each other adoringly. Luckily she gave us free ice cream because now I have exactly seven cents to my name. Writing home desperately for money. I owe Vicky 5¢, Sally 10¢ and Chris 5¢. Steve goes to Dartmouth and he was eager to show it off. Not having seen boys for DAYS Andrea and I were principally interested in finding one or two or FOUR THOUSAND. It didn’t take long! The few girls we’ve seen are nothing much so the Trailblazers bus is getting a lot of attention! At Hopkins Hall we picked up seven eligible males, all of them cute who promised to visit our campsite and say hi. Steve is not too sure about this. A particularly cute boy named Tom Morris said, “We can’t help it if we sleepwalk, can we?” I was Head Cook that night and while stirring the ravioli was not too surprised to see the bushes rustling. When we sat down to eat they jumped out to say hi! Steve made them go away. They kept loitering around making it hard to go to the bathroom. When I climbed into my sleeping bag Morris scared me to death jumping out from behind a tree! We talked for hours, promising to write each other. We have a lot in common (He is 5’11’!) but I don’t see how we can be more than friends. Percé on the Gaspé – June 28 – 64 I seem to be in an awfully good mood right now! Probably because we’re on the move, singing our latest camp song to the tune of 500 Miles, “If you miss the bus we’re on, You will know where we have gone You will see the garçons trailing on behind…” Who would guess an all-girl trip would be so much fun! Poor Alain! He is a French boy from Montreal that I met here. He is cool. MARK, BOOKIE, MORRIS and now ALAIN. I’ve “got” them except I haven’t got any of them! It’s either sheer starvation or crowd control? You can see I really do have problems! The question is: which of them do I want? The $64,000 question! Quebec – Thurs – July 2 – 64 So much to write don’t know where I should start! Quebec is a beautiful city built by dreamers. From the grassy fortress of the citadel to the boardwalks of the wharf I have fallen in love wit it. I loved London, Florence, Paris and Rome and now I have to add Quebec! You could be fooled into thinking that it was a prosperous French seaport. Not just the money and signs are different, the people are different as well. We drove all night to get here and when I awoke from my uncomfortable position on the floor we were parked on the Green Plains of Abraham! A troop was sent to buy breakfast while the rest of us walked around. I stood on a bluff overlooking the harbor and then sat meditatively on a bench. How beautiful life is, what a precious thing to have! How can people look forward to eternal life when this is so good? Seems greedy to ask for more! After breakfast, put on my blue gingham sundress and off to the Chateau Frontenac to use the john. “You can’t miss it!’ said Steve, putting me in the lead because my garbled French has him fooled. He underestimated me. I clung to the belief that since Chateau Frontenac is old, big and made of stone, any old big stone building would do. I led my faithful few to a storehouse, a club and the Quebec Institute of Dramatic Art before we wound up at the Quebec Parliament where we wandered up and down the halls. After all that fun, Andrea and I were on our own, working on more creative ways of getting lost. A street artist did my portrait for $2. He made me too pretty but flattery will get you everywhere. I’ll give it to Mom in a last-ditch effort to give her some illusions about me. I ruled the sailors and hoods and old men who came after us Unacceptable! Poor Andrea in mourning for her brothers will take anybody but I won’t let her. She wanted a midshipman, I wanted a French beatnik. We found two charming French beatniks (short-ish- my height) who walked us to our bus. Learned a new French word: “ravigoter” to freshen. Two beatniks gave us two kisses each! Singing on the bus: Up in the Air, Junior Birdman, Up on the Air, Upside Down! And Down in the Sea, Junior Frogman! Made camp WAY outside Quebec and we were tortured all night by malevolent mosquitoes. Next morning I was so sleepy I didn’t think I could stand up. Fortunately I can sleep at the laundromat. I sent so many postcards!
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Alysse Aallyn
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