December 23, 1964
Two more days! I’m acting like a kid. Isn’t it wonderful? D and P [the Sophomore Talent Show chairs] want S, T, M and me to sing “The Merry Minuet” in the Sophomore Talent show. I guess that will be fine if I can get up the nerve! We played volleyball for the last time today in gym. Finally! Maybe we do tumbling next.
December 24, 2022
If anyone wants to get inside the psyche of a Baby Boom teenager, the lyrics to the Kingston Trio’s “The Merry Minuet” reveals our worldview in a few short lines:
They're rioting in Africa. They're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man.
The best years of our lives, indeed!