My Birthday August 3, 1974

My birthday

Well here I am at the house we’re renting for our vacation. It’s a nice house. It wasn’t bad weather and my diving mask works good. I didn’t try out my mit yet. I didn’t tell anyone this but this vacation sucks the moose. I wish I could have a vacation where you go to amusement parks, see different attractions, etc. But all we do when we come here is sit around and go swimming. I really do appreciate my mom and dad’s concern for me and everything. I left my pants in my locker at the clubhouse cause I was swimming. It had $4.00 in it and someone took it and replaced it with a penny. Boy was I mad. Daddy gave me $3.00 after that to make up for it. I appreciate it a lot.

We owned property in the Poconos...and we were building a house on it at the time. So we rented for the weekend in order to be able to have a vacation weekend. I remember it was actually a nice house, very close to the clubhouse.

I did not admit something in this diary entry. When I discovered that my $4.00 was stolen (birthday money from the day before), I got so upset that I started crying and couldn’t stop. I also remember my father being embarrassed that I was being such a crybaby. And, I remember when he only gave me $3.00 that it was sort of weird. Somehow, I think by withholding a dollar he was teaching me a lesson, like, I had to have a little pain to remember to not leave money in my pockets in an unlocked locker.

Obviously, too, the penny I found in my pocket was probably my penny. I cannot imagine someone taking $4.00 and then replacing it with a penny.

I remember, too, that I never liked the Poconos again after this experience. I felt that if there was a nice clubhouse, and it was actually quite nice with an indoor pool and a huge fireplace and ski lifts right outside, well, if such a nice place existed, they should not let bad kids in who would steal your money. I already had enough with bad kids. I didn’t need to deal with them at our vacation home, too. I knew I was leaving the money in my pocket when we went swimming, but I assumed it was safe because of where we were.

Also, I remember I only bought a mit because I was supposed to. It was actually blue. Remember when they made baseball mits in colors? I think I used the thing in summer camp because I had to. It was a silly mit but I was always proud to wear it. I was giving the signal to the world, “I only have this mit because I’m a boy and I have to have one. But I picked a cobalt blue one, so there.”