To get rid of old papers and other clutter (which is hard for me,) I have begun transcribing everything into a typed record. To the best of my ability, I will stay faithful to what I first wrote, save for spelling and some odds-and-ends of grammar.

1969

Jul. 4. There is this thing called Woodstock happening in New York. Music and people and peace. I don’t think they will be playing the kind of music my mom or dad likes.

Jul. 16. Apollo 11 has blasted off, and I’m nervous. The Russian’s crashed into the moon either last month or early this month. I don’t want that to happen to us.

Jul. 20. Our astronauts have landed on the moon. While I have been nervous about this, I wonder how Uncle Orval feels now that they are there.

Jul. 21. Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon about 8 o’clock tonight. ‘Buzz’ Aldrin joined him. It was exciting, and as I get ready for bed, I can’t help but wonder if they’ll be able to get any sleep tonight because I doubt I will.

Jul. 25. Sen. Edward Kennedy, the youngest brother of JFK, drove his car into a pond. The body of a woman was found inside the vehicle when they pulled it from the water. Why would anyone leave another person to die like that?

Nov. 9. A bunch of Indians has taken over Alcatraz Island. I wonder if I know any of them. 

Dec. 17. Dad said that the Air Force’s Project Blue Book is closed. I don’t think I will ever know the truth about all this stuff. Maybe God will tell me after I’m dead.

1970

Jun. 13. The Pentagon Papers are being made public. As best I can understand, these are top-secret papers about the Vietnam war. I think it is wrong to tell government secrets.

1971

Jul. 5. Eighteen-year-olds can now vote. That only seems fair because they are also fighting in Vietnam. It will be another seven years before I can vote. Right now, I wouldn’t know what to vote for

1972

Mar. 22. The Senate has passed the equal rights amendment. I am confused because I thought everyone already had equal rights. There has to be more to this than I understand. Maybe one day.

May 15. A man shot and nearly killed presidential candidate George Wallace today. And while still alive, he is in bad shape. Wallace opposed desegregation and supported “Jim Crow” laws. So, I’m not sure if there is much loss there.

Jun. 9. A flash flood caused by a dam breaking in Rapid City, South Dakota, has killed 238 people. It sounds like no one warned them that the water was coming.

Sep. 6. Eleven Israel Athletes died today at Munich Olympics for nothing more than being Jewish. We watched the police talking with the terrorist on T.V. Guess talking to people bent on destroying others does not work.

Nov. 7. In a landslide, President Nixon has won to a second term. Neither of my parents is happy about it. I can’t see where any of it makes a hill of beans difference.

1973

Feb. 27. A bunch of Indians has taken over Wounded Knee in South Dakota. There was a massacre there in the late 1800s. They are shooting at law enforcement and white people. Maybe they want a second massacre to happen there.

Oct. 10. Vice President Spiro Agnew has resigned because he cheated on his taxes in 1967. He is to be replaced by Gerald Ford. Mom and Dad are giddy at the news.  

1974

Feb. 4. Newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped today by a group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. They are an American terrorist group. As Mom said, “We’re going to hell in a handbasket.” I agree.

Mar. 4. The minimum wage has gone up to $2.00 an hour. That is a forty-cent increase. I can hardly wait for it to take effect and see it on my paycheck.

May 9. For months, all I’ve heard is how President Nixon did this bad thing or that bad thing. Well, today, impeachment hearings began against him. He is the second president to face this. Andrew Johnson was the first. 

Jul. 2. While helping me deliver papers because it was raining so hard, I learned that the speed limit is now 55 mph. It is supposed to help reduce the need for gas. I don’t see how, though.

Jul. 27. The House Judiciary Committee has voted to recommend the first article of impeachment against Nixon: obstruction of justice. It all has to do with Watergate and how Nixon orchestrated a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters to bug the place.

Aug. 8. It is all over for Nixon as he has announced that he will resign tomorrow at noon. My folks are happy. I can’t see the difference between the two parties, but I do recognize the damage they’ve done to our country.

Aug. 9. Vice President Ford was sworn in as President today. I am not sure that is trustworthy. He was a part of the Warren Commission and the investigation into the Kennedy assassination. I have so many questions about all of that.

Sep. 8. Ford pardoned Nixon today. You can’t do this when the person hasn’t been charged or convicted. I knew he wasn’t to be trusted.

1976 

Jul. 4. America celebrated 200 years of Independence today. While I enjoyed the day, I am afraid it is all for not as this country is ripping itself up from the inside out.

Jul. 14. Four-thousand subway passengers had to be rescued during a blackout in New York City last night. One-thousand-six-hundred and-sixteen businesses ransacked, 550 police officers injured, and 4,500 looters arrested. People are so stupid and greedy.

Jul. 15. A school bus with 26 children and the driver disappeared in Chowchilla, Calif. Since I’m with the track team is in Millbrae, I had to call home and let my parents know that we were okay. I am not sure where Chowchilla is, but it doesn’t sound anything like Millbrae.

Nov. 7. Jimmy Carter is our newest President. It seems like there is hardly enough time to let the ink dry on official documents before we get another one.

1977

Aug. 8. Elvis Presley died today. Let me leave it at that.

May 31. Oil has begun flowing through the Trans Alaskan Oil Pipeline. President Carter wants to shut it down. 

Sep. 7. Torrijos-Carter Treaties was signed today. It is the beginning of giving away our control to Panama. I don’t think it’ll be long before we find Panama causing problems for us. Furthermore, I wonder what else our government will give away without the consent of the people.

1978

Apr. 1. The minimum wage has increased again, this time to $2.65 an hour. I find it funny because it happened on April Fools Day. What isn’t funny is how much both the feds and state take out of my paycheck every two weeks.

Jun. 12. David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam,” has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. This case has been confusing from the start. It is still unclear why he did what he did and what a ‘talking dog’ has to do with anything.

Jul. 25. We are a step closer to being our own gods. The first human conceived through in-vitro fertilization, a test-tube baby, was born in England today. I wonder what God thinks about this.

Aug. 26, A new Pope has been elected, Paul I. He is the third pope in my lifetime and the 264th historically.

Sep. 28. Pope Paul I has died. News reports list the official cause of death as a heart attack. After all, he was 80, and his ticker could have given out. It’s speculated that he was planning to release the second of three secrets given to the children of Fatima by the Virgin Mary and murdered. We’ll never know the truth.

Oct. 16. A second pope this year has been elected; Pope John Paul II. He’s the first non-Italian Pope since the 16th century. Let’s hope he survives the next 30 days.

Nov. 19. Nine hundred people were found dead today in Guyana at a place called Jonestown after drinking poisoned punch. Two days before, Representative Leo Ryan was shot and killed during a visit to the settlement. 

Dec. 13. The first minting of the Susan B. Anthony Dollar happened today. I have yet to see one other than in pictures. It is the first time that the mint has placed a woman on our currency.

1979

Aug. 27. Lord Mountbatten and three others were blown up and killed today. I saw this on the television while getting ready for my shift at the hospital. Dave and I speculated about what it might mean for the U.S. Armed Forces stationed in Brittain.

There is more to follow.

In yet what I can only describe as another oddity, today I received a package from Amazon that I did not order. Now, to be exact, my wife has been expecting an Amazon order, so I didn’t look at the label when I pulled it from the mailbox.

My wife opened the package and was surprised to find a man’s vest, yellow with blue elephants, and not the table runner she had ordered two days ago. She checked the address, worried that she had opened a package meant for one of our neighbors.

But, no, my name was on it.

So I sat at the computer and typed in the address from where the vest came was sent. It would turn out to be the second half of this crazy story; it came from an Amazon fulfillment center in Coppell, Texas, that is listed as permanently closed.

Talk about going from spooky and into the unbelievably weird.

We took a midday walk from the house to Eagle Canyon and out to Pyramid Highway. It’s something I’ve never done before, but the dog and I needed the exercise.

We got down to Pyramid, turning south, heading for Robert Banks Blvd. Shortly after making the corner, walking about ten minutes, I noticed something strange; no vehicles on Pyramid.

The more I thought about it and the longer there were no cars, trucks, or motorcycles, the more I became spooked. Instead of completing our intended route, we cut across the open field towards Eagle Canyon.

Within two minutes, automobiles were everywhere. I’m still a little freaked over it because while I like to write horror stories, I hate living them.

It began as something cute she had swept from under the refrigerator. But she had to leave it to answer the front door, then her cellphone.

By the time she returned, the pile of dust was gone. However, she gave it no more thought as she completed the floor by mopping and waxing it.

Later that evening, as she sat, relaxing on the couch and watching television, she realized she hadn’t seen the cats since the late afternoon. Then panic set in when it occurred to her that she hadn’t heard her baby cry or coo in the past hour.

The headline said the petrified tree was 62 feet, the longest ever found in the UK. Authorities in Penwith, Cornwall, were quick to rename the park as they shoveled around the fossil.

It wasn’t until a forensic photographer began documenting the site using a drone that they learned it might be more than a tree.

“Look at this?” she said, pointing to what were supposed to be petrified tree roots. “That is the upper end of a humerus bone, and down there, that looks to be a righthand.”

Work halted as everyone crowded into the ditch to look at the thing in question. A quick calculation showed the bone belonged to a 181-foot giant.

One of the laborers hired to help with the digging whispered to a co-worker, “Don’t suppose that fairy-tail we learned about Jack in the Beanstalk was true, now do you?”

Chased out of the kitchen by my wife and daughter-in-law after Thanksgiving dinner, my son and I excused ourselves to the front porch, where we sat taking in the evening chill and sipping our whiskeys.

“That was sure a good dinner,” my son said.

“It was,” I agreed.

“The only thing I didn’t care for was the yams,” he said. “But then I never really like yams anyway.”

“I get you,” I smiled, “They’re not my favorite either.”

“Really?” my son said with some surprise. “I thought you loved them.”

“Nope,” I returned.

“Then why do you fuss over them?” he asked.

“Because your mom took the time to cook them,” I answered. “And cooking Thanksgiving dinner with all the Fixin’s is hard work. It’s the least that I can do.”

“Isn’t that like lying though,” he wondered.

“Maybe, I don’t know,” I said. “But the look of contentment on your mother’s face takes away that thought for me.”

“But…” he began.

I cut him off, saying, “I noticed you ate some too.”

“Yeah,” he said, “I was being polite.”

“And there you go,” I finished.

“Our secret then,” he said as he gently elbowed me.

“You bet,” I said.

Dot Webster was down and out when it came to employment, so he had taken to doing odd jobs to buy his bread and coffee. He was hitchhiking down U.S. 99 towards Lodi because he had heard that a family was looking for a piano teacher.

He was someplace between Collierville and Acampo as the sun began to set. Webster saw a small orchard of disregarded trees and sought out a hollow in which to bunk down.

Along the way, he found a cluster of edible mushrooms stuffing the morsels in his jacket pocket. It wasn’t a steak dinner, but they would appease the hunger his stomach felt.

It was going to be another cold camp as he had no way of making fire. He had lost his flint and knife somewhere along the way, more certain they’d been stolen than lost.

After dining on his found food, Dot Webster pulled the remnants of his sleeping bag around himself and curled up. Though darkness settled, he found himself still awake.

While trying to get comfortable, he saw on a plateau across from him a strange ceremony forming. As close as he could tell, 26 figures chanted and moved in a counter-clockwise fashion around a large bond fire.

The words were unknown to Webster, yet musically hypnotic, “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”

Silently, he watched and listened. To his amazement, he saw a Stygian shadow rise and a giant rock form into what he could only assume was an alter.

The ongoing chant and rhythmic dance soon had him feeling sleepy, and Webster found himself fighting to stay awake. It was a woman’s scream that aroused him.

It happened all too quickly for him to understand what he had witnessed. The entity had torn a pale figure in two.

Dot Webster closed his eyes in disbelief. He waited what he thought was less than half a minute before opening them again.

The sun was beginning to rise, and the plateau was now empty, save for several black stones set in a circle and a large rock in the center. He sat there studying the silence of the scene.

He had dreamed or hallucinated the nighttime events.

“It must have been the mushrooms.”

Awake, he made his way to the road and started walking south again. He had gone less than a mile when he saw a dilapidated house with a half-crumbled well beside it.

The roof was practically missing, and one wall stoved in, so Webster was sure no one lived there. Thirsty, he decided to see if the old well held any water.

A bucket lay on its side next to the well, still attached to a rope whose other end remained wrapped to a boom that stretched across the hole. Webster dropped the bucket into the darkness of the hole and listened.

A sickly plop came echoing up from the depth. Nearly dry, save for enough water to create a mud pit. He sighed and turned away, not bothering to raise the pail to the surface.

“Perhaps I can find something in the house,” he thought as he turned towards the building.

Webster peered in through the dirt-covered windows. To his delight, he saw a piano, and it drove his desire to play the moldering instrument.

The front door was not hard to push in, and the floor seemed sturdy enough as he walked over to the piano. He wiped a layer of dust from the bench tucked beneath the keys and sat down.

Flexing his fingers, still stiff from the morning chill, Dot Webster began to play from memory his favorite piece by Vivaldi, Spring. As he allowed his fingers to dance lightly over the out-of-tune keyboard, tears drifted down his face as he recalled his previous life as a music tutor.

Forty minutes later, Webster finished with a flourish, then stood and bowed to an audience not there. He sat back down on the bench, struggling to decide if he were happy or sad.

Sitting there, he looked out the filth-covered window he’d first looked through. The rope, which the bucket was still attached and hanging over the lip of the fallen well, was moving ever so slightly.

Curious, Webster left his seat and the house and approached the well. He looked over the edge into the darkness as the rope continued to jerk ever so subtly.

Carefully, he took the handle of the wench in hand and began to rewind the rope onto the wooden boom. Soon the bucket came into sight, and Webster could see something in it.

Retrieving the bucket, he set it on the wall of the old well. It was a large Raven, perhaps the largest he’d ever seen, and it looked dead.

Gently, he lifted it from the bucket and examined it. Without warning, it screamed an ear-shattering ‘caw’ at him and jumped from his hands.

It happened with such surprise that Webster fell backward on the ground. The giant black bird continued to hover over him, screaming its singular caw-caw in his face.

As it flapped its wings, mud flew from them, and soon Webster was covered in a dark thick slim. Because the stuff mired his face, he could not see that the more the bird flapped, the smaller it became until it disappeared entirely.

Thinking the Raven had finally flown away, Webster scrambled to his feet and wiped at the mud that caked his eyes. It had left him temporarily blinded, but the more he wiped, the more he realized he no longer had eyes or even eyelids.

In a panic, he screamed and stumbled about the tiny yard. His screaming drowned out the sound of the tentacled thing, with unsymmetrical human eyes that had climbed over the broken wall and moved with a squishy sound towards him.

In seconds, the thing rose taller than the man before it, and like a heavy curtain fell over him. Though muffled, Dot Webster screamed even more.

Soon, the screams ended, and silence followed as the thing reshaped itself into a malformed human. Blinking as if to focus, the distorted figure opened its newly acquired eyeballs, turned, and raced from the yard towards the plateau from the evening before.

That night as a gibbous moon raised in the eastern skies, a twenty-seventh figure took its place among the dancing and chanting group that encircled the old one, singing, “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”

The dyslexic cultist sold his soul to Santa.

My wife said no more puns, but I told her I can’t quit cold turkey.

Bet you didn’t know that the 1999 film ‘The Matix’ is actually a documentary?