First mate's log:
June 10, 1966
I found what I thought were sunflower seeds but they make me able to read people's minds! It's pretty fun, but now everyone, even the kids, want to eat the seeds, so that they can read minds, too. I'm a little worried about this, because it's already hard to get privacy on this island, but we are supposed to "share island resources," so I guess I'll have to share the seeds.
Carol Martin's diary:
June 11, 1966
Gilligan somehow found some mind-reading seeds, and I have never heard so much bickering on the island! Even the children. Cindy threatened to "bop" Bobby for thinking mean things about her. Even I couldn't resist the experiment. So far I haven't heard anything bad about myself, but it is hard hiding the negative thoughts I have. I did figure out that the range of the seeds isn't too far, only a few yards. So I try to go off on my own as much as possible, although Alice resents me leaving her to mind the children more than usual.
June 23, 1966
Things calmed down on the island for awhile after I burnt the bush where the mind-reading seeds grew. They were causing too much trouble. To make everybody forget about the hurt feelings, the Howells decided to throw a party, but now there are even more hurt feelings.
Today is the second anniversary of when we set out on the Minnow for the very last time. And the party will be in three days, for the second anniversary of landing on the island. That might seem like a weird thing to celebrate, but it's more about us surviving for two years. I was looking forward to it, because I like parties and this one is a costume party. But now I can't go. It wouldn't be right.
Mrs. Howell gave me the invitations to hand out. It seemed kind of silly to be so formal, but that's just how the Howells are. But now I understand. If Mr. Howell stood up at dinner and said, "We're having a party Sunday night, be there or be square," everybody would be invited. This way, they wouldn't have to invite the Skipper.
When we first landed on the island, Mr. Howell blamed the Skipper for the shipwreck, but I thought he changed his mind and they were sort of friends now. But when we all ate the mind-reading seeds, it turned out that Mr. Howell still blames the Skipper for the shipwreck. So the Skipper is the only one who didn't get an invitation. I'm not going if my best friend can't.
June 24, 1966
There was a terrible mix-up, so terrible that clearing it up only made things worse. The Howells are throwing a party in a couple days, to celebrate two years of survival on the island. But we all thought they snubbed the Skipper, so we were going to boycott the party. The Howells were surprised by all the negative RSVPs and they quarreled about it. She blamed him for their lack of popularity, thinking he'd done something to offend all of us, not realizing that it was that the Skipper didn't get an invitation. It turned out that Gilligan had dropped the Skipper's invitation in the grass but found it later. The Skipper explained to Mrs. Howell but, as when they quarreled while she was matchmaking Gilligan and Mary Ann last year, the Howells are not immediately making up.
Ginger has a scheme to get the Howells back together, using the costume party. I'm mostly staying out of it and focusing on the costumes for myself and my girls. I can use one of the '20s costumes that came with the silent movie equipment, I'm thinking something sort of Lillian Gish. There are no children's costumes, so Alice and I are sewing for them and the Brady boys. It's strange to think that three-year-old Cindy and four-year-old Bobby don't know any movie or TV characters, but they know the characters in the books we happened to bring along for the older children. Marcia will be Alice in Wonderland, Jan the Mad Hatter, and Cindy the Dormouse, while Greg will be Peter Pan, Peter and Bobby two of the Lost Boys.
June 27, 1966
Well, we ended up having the party after all and it was a lot of fun. I'd accidentally lost the Skipper's invitation but I found it and I thought everything would be OK, but the Howells had one of their big fights and they didn't make up until the party. Ginger switched costumes with Mrs. Howell, including masks, so she tricked Mr. Howell into dancing with his wife.
I dressed up as Tarzan and made my entrance on a vine, but I'm not as good at that as the jungle boy was and I crashed into a hut. I'm OK now. Everything's OK.
July 4, 1966
This is the first year on the island that we've celebrated Independence Day. Last year was right after Tim died, and the year before was soon after Barbara's death. I can sort of write calmly about them now, enough time has passed for that, although I think it will hit both me and Mike more when we're rescued and try to resume our normal lives. There hasn't been any prospect of rescue recently of course, not since the telephone cable washed out to sea and our film won an award. We've created our own "island normal," as with summer vacation for our four schoolchildren. We couldn't give them fireworks, but we did light Tiki torches and Mike read the Declaration of Independence out loud.
Oh, and yes, the Howells made up, as they always do, even if it sometimes takes a little nudging. They're the only married couple in our little community, and I think that's why everyone gets so involved in their relationship. That and that when people don't get along, as with the mind-reading seeds, it impacts all of us.
