July 4, 64 – Stratford Ontario
Happy Independence Day! The trip just began and tonight’s the last night! I will pitch it to make it really great! Arrived in Stratford too late to get the mail. Drat. Cruised around town, listened to some bagpipers, then pitched tent on the edge of town. Dinner was delicious: tuna fish salad (in honor of the Catholics) and doughnut balls (Bisquick blobs in boiling Crisco) for dessert: delicious! After that, we were all getting ready for the play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme which I had seen twice and loved in the original French. In English I should understand so much more. Wearing my figure-flattering sailor suit and white wood heeled sandals. Unfortunately my hair is dead after all this camping. It isn’t doing anything. Stratford is a lovely town and the theatre a splendid combination of old and new. Front balcony seats! The play was very good. At intermission Debbie came over and said two of the ushers were asking about me! I gave my address to the handsome one Dave Rynehardt. They walked us back to the bus Dave holding my hand. I would have let him kiss me but he didn’t try. We performed our song, the Trailblazer Anthem and Steve talked about how much the trip meant to him until the tears were hot in my head! I apologized for not doing more for the group and he was very understanding. Afterwards Andrea, Vicky and I slept in the same sleeping bag!!! Later – Saw the Falls! They were so beautiful but I did think they’d be taller. Too bad we won’t be seeing them by night – must be even more breathtaking than by day. Beginning to think tenderly of home, especially the sunlight striking that gray rug in the hallway. SusiAnna (he’s a boy) always hogs the brightest sunlight on the dining room floor. Plants everywhere, green and rich, the wood carved king with his tired kind face. Maybe there will be a letter from Mark! Last but not least my room with its green walls and twin pink-covered beds. Furry white flokati rug. Ending this on a happy note. Isn’t that the way all good things should end? TRAILBLAZER ANTHEM Oh we set out from Toledo on a bright and sunny day And our parents were there to wave us on our way! Gettysburg was our first stop where we made a movie flop As we rolled along the bumpy Eastern Roads! Bruises and hives, seven campers lost their lives as we rolled along the bumpy Eastern Roads! CHORUS: We’re still moving thank God, still moving Hallelujah! And the bus hasn’t conked out on us yet! Valley Forge was just a hop where We were picked up by the cops And the New York Fair made us spend our money there! Hanover we found was a Dartmouth kind of town As we rolled along the bumpy Eastern Roads! Peanut butter, jam, bug repelling spam oh we rolled along the bumpy Eastern roads! We flew to old Percé which is on the great Gaspé Where we realized French boys just love to fraternize “Bonjour, good day, ou est le cabinet?” As we rolled along the bumpy Eastern roads! Garçons of all kinds, Steve & Shavonne lost their minds As we rolled along the bumpy Eastern roads! We went out to the Boardwalk to see what we could find And each girl there had sailors on her mind The last two of our hauls were Stratford and the Falls as we rolled along the bumpy Eastern Roads! Rollers and combs, without money from our homes As we rolled along the bumpy Eastern roads! Oh, our sleeping bags were nests for nasty insect pests And the mess on our bus was very picturesque Though the trailer broke down once We’ll remember this for months As we rolled along the bumpy roads toward home! Impetigo and fleas, we had Band-Aids on our knees As we rolled along the bumpy roads toward home! Charlaix, Ontario – Sat Sept 5 – 64 Motto of the week: What Can You Do When You’re As Sensitive as Sunburn? How slowly the days pass before school! Each day 24 hrs of experience, a million tiny memories. Someday most likely, I will be an old woman with grandchildren. Probably great-grandchildren – the Aallyns are notes for longevity. Will my face be wrinkled my dresses baggy, my shoes ugly and my mind thick with old-fashioned thoughts? Will I think my life is happy or sad? Will I laugh at the foolishness of youth? Somehow I think I have the capacity to make myself happy. My future may be great or insignificant. I must say I keep hoping for the former. I write aboard the Gryphon, docked at Carmine Bay. So far we have not been able to get out of the bay, every time we try we are hit with ten-foot waves, the boat heels over with its portholes in the water and my mother screams to go back. My cousin Jarvis, who seems a good sort, keeps being sick fortunately so far into the sea. Strange considering his mother is a homeopathic doctor who plies him constantly with “nux vomica”. Not working in his case. Glad we came in when we did; otherwise I might have seen my insides float by also. Unfortunately Genevieve is also aboard; meaning the days are rife with injustices. I want to go swimming but I am on dish detail. Maybe I can swim later. Water balms all wounds. Soon I will be beyond this, at Plumly School the last word in Preppy Co-Education. Next Wednesday! In the meantime I get to practice shopping and self-control.
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Alysse Aallyn
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