February 21, 1970 - Penneys and McDonalds

 

Penneys and McDonalds were located in the city of Grand Forks so this was obviously a trip into town.

I don't recall where McDonald's was located but Burger King was on the south side of Highway 2 as we entered town.  Just opposite the Burger King on the other side of the road was an A&W Root Beer drive-in restaurant we also frequented.  Behind the A&W was a dirt race car track at the North Dakota Fair Grounds where we would watch stock car races and demolition derbies.  The track could also be used figure-8 style which lead to interesting collisions.  I loved the track and ate cotton candy there.

On South Washington Street in Grand Forks was the K-Mart we frequented and a small Ben Franklin store.  That street also had a Kentucky Fried Chicken and car dealers including Chevrolet and Buick.

(handwriting is mine)

February 22, 1970 - Baseview

 

I do not recall where "Baseview" was but it may have been near Highway 2 and 25th Street NE as that location would have a view of GFAFB.  The city of Emerado was near there so Baseview may have been there also.

This sounds logical to me as there was a "Champ" gas station in that general area which would explain the drawing of the Champ sign covered in spider webs.  My recollection is the Champ station was dilapidated.

February 23, 1970 - Wrestling Again

 

This was probably the day I decided I liked wrestling enough that I attended an after-school session of kids who were serious about wrestling and wanted to take on wrestling as a regular sport activity.

Those boys were very rough and after one body slam to the mat that knocked the wind out of me, I decided I had enough and went home, never to return to the after-school sessions again.  That was a life lesson!

February 24, 1970

 

The last day of my one-month diary assignment and apparently I wasn't in the mood to say much.  I guess I didn't want to repeat myself.

February 1970 GFAFB Map and End Notes

 

And with that, my one-month assignment to keep a diary ended.  I think I was probably happy about that.

For reference, here is what GFAFB looked like in the late 1960s.  Our house on North Cypress is shown in the lower right corner, with a small line drawn next to it.

Twining Elementary School is shown nearby.

A separate school - Eielson School - was created for the officer's kids.

One of my relatives gave me a signature book as a gift and on this page we recorded the signatures of my friends at the time - likely 1968 or 1969.

My mom probably suggested my friends sign it or perhaps this was done at one of my birthday parties, I really don't recall.

Tommy and Wesley Moore signed it.  If my recollection is correct, they were the sons of my dad's boss Ed Moore.  I think I only met Tommy and Wesley a few times.  The only memory I have with them is one of them - can't recall if it was Tommy or Wesley - suggested we play in their basement.  He pretended he was Elvis Presley and made me "The Colonel".   I had no idea at the time what that meant and went along with it.  Hey, it was something to do.

I don't recall a Jeffery McC but from the address listed I think we did play together a few times.  Only recollection I have of being at that house was seeing a Sea Horse for the first time - those were commonly advertised as something kids could send away for at that time.

Steven Harris was a friend and I think we had sleepovers a time or two.  I believe the first time I read a Dr. Suess book was at his house.

Next door to Steven lived Glenn Bleakley.  Don't remember a whole lot except when the adults had a party one evening, us kids played with a toy bowling set in the hallway, then had bowls of ice cream with chocolate syrup.  They taught me to mix the syrup in real good to create chocolate ice cream.  I thought that was the coolest thing!

"Mitchell" was Mitchell Worden who I played with a lot - he was just a few doors down on the opposite side of the street from our house.  Mitchell had one of those "time bomb" games we played with a few times and I watched at least one Peanuts cartoon special in his living room.   He and his dad also built a wooden go-cart (they planned to add an engine later but don't think they ever did) which us kids nick-named the Hogan's Hero Wagon as apparently we watched a lot of that show back then.  And his parents bought a new 1969  Chevrolet Malibu that I thought was just gorgeous.

Steven Gray and his brother lived on the other end of the Cypress Street horseshoe so we didn't play together all that often.  They had a Play-Doh set we used in their bedroom a time or two.

I have no clue who Michal or Kenny were.

Upstairs Guest Bathroom Remodel

 

We just completed remodeling the upstairs guest bathroom.

Sometimes we still call it the upstairs kid's bathroom even though there are no longer kids at home because the countertop is significantly lower than a normal countertop - probably to make it easier for kids to use.

I forgot to take a 'before' photo, but here is a 'during' photo.  The blue wall color was done by the prior owner.  This is one of only two rooms we did not repaint when we moved in during 2007.  We ended up painting over the wood cabinets this year because...

The wood is severely damaged.  There was a similar amount of damage when we moved in during 2007 so we had the cabinets professional sanded, stained, and sealed.  They couldn't get rid of the damage either.  So we decided this year not to call in a professional refinisher as I wanted that damage removed or covered.  We decided to cover it with paint.

This is the only photo I took when we moved in during 2007.  Sorry it is so blurry.  All we did in 2007 was to replace the flooring and countertop.

A few Behr color samples we tried this year.  From the top: Halation, Natural Gray, Classic Silver, Sonic Silver.

Yet more samples.  From the top: Halation, Silver City, Chic Gray.

Angine de Poitrine