It’s best not to read a book while you’re making bacon
Well we haven’t gone back in time via my journal in a while, so let’s get to it. Today we’re going to June 23, 1983 and I was 15. Damn, too bad I didn’t write this last Tuesday — it would have been 26 years ago to the day.
(Staggers about with her hand on her heart.) Wow, that’s a long time. I’m pretty sure Cate, Heidi Klum version 2.0 and Liz hadn’t been born yet (cries a bit).
It’s 12:54 pm and I’m watching “I Love Lucy.” I have shorts and a T-shirt on. At 2:00 pm I have a “tennis date.” No, just with my friend Karen. Me and Karen are gonna start running at night (around 8:00 pm) not too late.
Yesterday was our first day, we walked about a quarter of a mile — then we ran a 1/4 of a mile. God, am I out of shape. I was practically dying!
Oh no! Guess what’s on TV?! Sonny Eliot and the One O’Clock Movie. He is the biggest jerk. I know! Why couldn’t HE move to Palm Beach and Bill Kennedy could be on five days a week.
Today Ma and Pa are picking Claire up at the airport. She’s coming in from Florida. Jack got an apartment in St. Louis and he’s getting a phone today.
I made bacon today and read a book. Well while I was reading I wasn’t paying attention and I thought I smelled burning bacon. I checked it five minutes later. I was right. It was as black as sin! So I had to throw it away and make more.
I need a book on clipping a bird’s nails.
As usual, so much to comment on, so much to explain.
“I Love Lucy” was on every weekday from 12:30 pm til 1:00 pm and I watched it relentlessly. I even watched it on my lunch hour from high school. We lived a block from the school so I had enough time to go home and watch the show while I ate lunch. I don’t think I ate lunch in the cafeteria at high school the entire four years that I was there.
But this was written during summer vacation as evidenced by that day’s wardrobe. I have no idea why I thought it was important to note the shorts and T-shirt that I was wearing, but now we know. I also find it amusing that I noted — to my journal — that it shouldn’t get excited thinking I had a real date with a boy. I was just using the term “tennis date” casually.
Great sentence construction on “Me and Karen are gonna start running at night…”
I did watch a lot of television growing up. And for a long time there was a standing movie at 1:00 pm on Channel 50. The original host, Bill Kennedy, was awesome. He must have been in his late 60s or early 70s by the time I was watching.
Anyway, he would give an intro into the movie (always a black and white movie and I loved that) and after the commercial breaks, but before the movie resumed, he would give some more commentary. He also was pretty frank about his thoughts on the movie in question. Sometimes he wasn’t thrilled with it, but worked with what he had regardless.
So he retired somewhere in 1983 and moved to sunny Palm Beach. I was pissed off. I did not understand why a 74-year-old man felt the need to retire. I remember thinking he could have easily hosted the show from Florida. Effer.
Enter Sonny Elliot. I hated him then, can’t stand him now. He was just super smarmy and he drove me nuts. I’m sure I stopped watching the movies soon after he started hosting it.
I also think it’s funny that it took me about six minutes to write the first two paragraphs.
Now the bacon. As we know, everyone loves bacon and I was no exception. I still love bacon but it has to be crunchy. I call it shatter bacon because if you dropped it on the floor it should shatter. That’s how I like it and that’s how I eat it.
I do NOT want to chew on bacon fat. The fat on the bacon should crunch. So I’m not very surprised that I fired up the pan and then started reading a book. I am surprised that I waited for five minutes after I smelled it burning to check on it.
“Black as sin” is totally a phrase I learned from my mother. I don’t think I’ve actually said that in a long time but as soon as I read it, it came back to me. I also recall my mom saying “Hell’s bells!” when extremely frustrated.
Yeah, we’re Catholic.
And my miserly ways must have started after I moved out of my parent’s house, since I had no qualms about throwing that bacon away.
Lastly, I thoroughly enjoy the end of that entry. You may recall our blue parakeet Bingo and his battle with the bathroom door. Sometime in his short life I must have wanted to clip his nails. I do remember reading something that said the blood line can be seen through the bird’s nails and one must make sure to clip beneath that to avoid excessive bleeding.
I’m quite certain I never trimmed his nails.
And that concludes our trip down memory lane today. I hope you had as much fun as I did.









