First mate's log:
November 2, 1970
Now I'm being asked for romantic advice from not just Greg Brady but a boy who has a crush on Marcia. Harvey Klinger, who's the 14-year-old only child of Max and Soon-Lee Klinger, the couple who run the new dress shop on our island, is crazy about Marcia, even though she's in the middle school class below him.
"But what would a groovy, pretty, smart, popular girl like her see in a drip like me?" he asked me. He has red hair, glasses, and not exactly leading-man facial features, although at least he hasn't inherited his father's large nose. Also, he's very shy.
"Well, you're smart, too. I never knew so much about the bugs on the island before I met you." That's how we met. I was walking through the jungle and found him collecting specimens, soon after he moved to the island this summer.
"Thanks, Gilligan, but girls don't care about insects."
"You never know, Marcia might. Or at least girly bugs like butterflies and, um, ladybugs."
"Yeah, but I'm too nervous to talk to her and find out."
"Why don't you use your shyness to your advantage?"
"What do you mean?"
"Make her think you don't know she's alive. Girls love that."
"They do?"
"Well, sometimes."
I didn't tell him about how much attention Mary Ann and Ginger used to pay me when I was so shy and scared of them. And I figure ignoring her is easier than having to act like Charles Boyer or something.
Carol Brady's diary:
November 5, 1970
Marcia has her first serious crush. Yes, there was Alan Anthony but she's really smitten this time. She's absent-minded and runs the gamut of emotions, from joy to despair. Thirteen is such a difficult age. Harvey is six months older and in Greg's class. Unfortunately, Greg thinks Harvey is "a creep, a jerk, a goof, and a double-dingbat," adding "and those are his good points."
Poor Marcia, according to Alice, thinks that Harvey doesn't know she's alive. Mike thinks Alice and I should butt out, but under protest he suggested that Marcia find out what Harvey likes and take an interest in it herself. I'll ask Marcia tomorrow what Harvey's interests are.
November 7, 1970
Not only did my plan work for Harvey Klinger, but it turns out that Marcia is a bug nut, too. I was very surprised by this, since all those times when bugs were causing us problems on the island, she didn't have a scientific interest like the Professor. But I guess kids can develop new interests as they get older.
Anyway, they're going steady now. Yeah, it seems a little early for that, since they haven't gone on a date yet, but things are different than when my sister was a teenager fifteen years ago.
November 10, 1970
Oh dear! I helped Marcia win over Harvey Klinger and succeeded a little too well. I asked her about his interests and that turned out to be insects. So I coached her on different kinds of bugs and even had Greg collect some for her, paying him ten cents each.
Harvey immediately asked Marcia to go steady with him. Not only that, but I caught Marcia putting on my cosmetics. (Jan and Cindy were playing with makeup, too, but just following their big sister's lead.) When I scolded Marcia, she said that Harvey told her that a girl of 13 is like a 21-year-old used to be, and a 14-year-old boy is like a 23-year-old!
Mike, despite his disapproval of my getting involved in Marcia's love life, at first reacted calmly to the news that Marcia is going steady, since he thinks it's a less serious commitment than when we were young. (I didn't go steady with Tank Gates until high school after all, not that Mike knows about that.) But now that he's heard Harvey's theories on modern maturity, he's decided to have a little talk with Harvey tonight.
November 12, 1970
Poor Harvey got dumped by Marcia after less than a week of dating. They agreed to just go out and not steady after her parents started talking marriage. I didn't know the Bradys were so eager to marry off Marcia, since she's only thirteen. Anyway, Marcia broke up with Harvey after one more date and now she's dating some guy in her class called Danny.
Meanwhile, Greg has a new History project from Mrs. Denton, who's stodgy but encourages creativity (as long as it's not doodles of presidents who look like her). The 8th-graders are studying colonial times and they have to turn in a project by Thanksgiving. He's going to borrow his father's new movie camera and shoot a little film. He's asked me and the Skipper to be in it as the captain and first mate of the ship that comes back for the Pilgrims. I hope it turns out better than the movie we made to get rescued.
November 15, 1970
Well, Mike and I had a little talk with Harvey last week and convinced him with reverse psychology that he and Marcia are not as grown up as they thought. Marcia broke up with him soon after though, deciding that Greg was right that Harvey is a drip. Now she's dating a boy named Danny, who seems nice but a little dull. They call it going steady, but it doesn't seem at all serious.
And now we're more focused on Greg's current project, a home movie about the Pilgrims. The whole family is pitching in, but Greg lost his temper because he wants to make the final decisions on everything from casting to sets and costumes. Mike and I have agreed to recognize him as producer, writer, and director, and to see that the other kids stop quarreling over which girl will be Priscilla and whether the younger boys will be Pilgrims or Indians.
November 18, 1970
Ginger gave me and the Skipper some acting tips for our role in Greg's movie, even though it's an amateur production. Then it turned out that Greg wanted to just direct us the way he wanted to. I don't really care. It's not like I have any lines.
November 20, 1970
Greg turned in his Pilgrim movie today. We had a screening of it last night, with popcorn in the living room, and the Skipper and Gilligan as our guests, since they make a cameo as seventeenth-century versions of themselves, offering to take the Pilgrims back to England, although the settlers are too settled by then. (Marcia wanted to invite her latest steady, none other than Alan Anthony, but Greg insisted it should be people who participated in the movie.) The movie was a lot of fun to make, despite the setbacks, and I hope Mrs. Denton likes it.
