First mate's log:

December 14, 1971

Marcia Brady is in a real mess because she told her friends on the entertainment committee that she could get Davy Jones to play at their dance this week. And they told their teacher, Mrs. Ferguson, who's the home-room teacher for their grade. (She also teaches Social Studies to all three grades of junior high, plus the one period of girls' PE, and some Art and Drama electives.) Mrs. Ferguson had some of the Art students make a huge yellow banner welcoming Davy Jones.

Marcia tried to explain, but Mrs. Ferguson said that she was sure Marcia would come through because she's such good friends with Mr. Jones.

"Oh, Gilligan, I don't know what to do!"

"Maybe you could send him a telegram."

"That's a great idea! Thank you!"

I don't know if it'll work, but she has to get his attention somehow.


Carol Brady's diary:

December 15, 1971

Well, it turns out that the word spread quickly about Marcia trying to get Davy Jones to play at the upcoming dance. She says she tried to explain, but everyone at school just thought she was being modest. She is trying to think of another way to reach him. She was going to send a telegram to him yesterday, but then she found out that there were already six hundred telegrams waiting for him at the front desk of the Blenford Regency!

Mike and I had a talk with her about making promises she can't keep. But then Jan ran in and said that the BITV announcer said that Ginger's afternoon talk show was going to have Davy Jones as a special guest, in an hour and a half. So Mike agreed to take the boat over to Blenford, since the timing was too tight for Marcia to take the ferry. Since Ginger knows Marcia and Mike, hopefully she'll let them into the studio during or after the broadcast.


December 16, 1971

It turns out that my telegram idea wasn't that great, because hundreds of other Davy Jones fans thought of it. And Marcia tried to meet Mr. Jones when he was a guest on Ginger's talk show, but it turned out that that segment was pre-recorded.

Marcia told me, "Ginger was sympathetic and she said she'd try to get in touch with him again, but he's pretty busy this week."

Mary Ann told me that Alice had some good news though. Alice has been trying to remember the details of a fruitcake recipe she came up with. Mary Ann made different suggestions from her own recipes, but nothing sounded quite right. Alice recently wrote one promising combination on the Bradys' kitchen blackboard, but unfortunately Peter erased it when he and Greg were talking about that disputed football play, so Peter could draw the receiver's feet.

It turns out that Bobby has been taking a lot of pictures himself, around the house, and he got a candid shot of Alice, with the blackboard in the background. Greg helped him blow up the shot. Alice has now copied it down for her recipe box and shared it with Mary Ann, who promised me she'll make that fruitcake for Christmas this year. It has some ingredients we never had when we were marooned, like brandy and cinnamon, but also some local stuff, like coconuts and pineapples. I'm looking forward to it.


December 17, 1971

The Davy Jones interview turned out to be pre-recorded, but Ginger has promised to try to get in touch with Mr. Jones about Marcia's school dance, which is tomorrow night. Mike and I have been calling around to all our friends, including the Howells, who don't know anything about rock & roll but do have connections of course.

Mike and I were going to get a room at the Blenford Regency, and that would give us and Marcia access to Davy's floor, but the hotel is all booked up. Alice is going to see if Sam has any suggestions, since he does make deliveries to Blenford sometimes.


December 18, 1971

Well, it looks like Marcia finally met up with Davy Jones, without Ginger's help. She and Greg took the ferry over yesterday after school. They said that Sam the butcher knows the chef at the Blenford Regency, so he arranged for the two teens to disguise themselves as bus boys. (Marcia had to pin her hair up but she still looked like a girl.) That way they could get into Mr. Jones's room and Marcia could talk to him.

It sounded like a pretty nutty scheme, but I wished them luck of course. When they caught a later ferry back, they told me how it worked and didn't.

"Did you get into his room?"

"Yeah, but his manager said Davy had gone to the recording studio," Greg said.

"So Greg bused the room and I went to the studio. But I had to catch the bus, while the manager must've taken a taxi, because he got there first. And he wouldn't let me talk to Davy! I tried to explain how I'm president of Davy's fan club, but he wouldn't listen. And I was afraid he might call the police, so I left."

"Then I met up with Marcia at the ferry terminal. I offered to play at the dance, since I've been learning guitar, but of course all those little junior-high girls are expecting a 'real rock star.' "

Marcia stuck out her tongue. Even though she's only one year younger, Greg sometimes still acts like he's much older, because he's in high school and she's not.

We dropped them off back on our island, and I assumed that Marcia had to call and explain to Mrs. Ferguson. To my surprise, we picked up Davy Jones himself on the next round! I told him that I had a young friend who's a big fan, but it turned out he was going over to see Marcia. He had heard Marcia through the studio's sound system.

"And Ginger Grant had told me about Marcia Brady this morning, but I just haven't had a chance to talk to Marcia yet. I did make her a promise in my letter, and when I knew I was going to Blenford, I did plan to phone her when I wasn't too busy, just to say hello. But with her dance so soon, I knew I'd better just go over after I wrapped up the recording."

"Then you'll play at the dance?"

"Yeah, although my manager's not thrilled about it, especially since he'll be getting ten percent of nothing."

"Is he coming over?"

"Yeah, tomorrow. I don't want to go back and forth. Is there a nice hotel you could recommend on 'the Little Island'?"

"We don't actually have any hotels." I guess he could've stayed with the Howells, but they don't like rock & roll. "Um, you want to sleep on my couch? I don't think the Skipper would mind."

"As long as you don't tell anyone I'm there." We didn't get to talk about it anymore then, because a bunch of his fans, mostly teenage girls, rushed over and he had to sign autographs.

He showed up at my house later. The Skipper isn't crazy about having a guest, but he's being nicer about it than when the Mosquitoes were here, maybe because our house is bigger than our hut, and there's only one performer this time.

Davy told us that he did agree to sing at Marcia's dance and he asked her to be his date. That's a little weird, considering that Marcia's only fourteen and he's almost as old as I am, maybe twenty-five, but I don't think it's like a real date. He'll mostly be onstage tonight anyway. In any case, I'm glad it all worked out.


December 19, 1971

Davy Jones showed up at the house! Twice! I still don't know all the details of Marcia's last scheme, and I suspect it involved a lot of deception and sneaking around, although Greg, who was in on it, swears they didn't do anything illegal. In any case, Mr. Jones rearranged his schedule so he could talk to Marcia in person. He not only sang at the dance last night, but he was Marcia's "date"!

I know, he's much older, and Mike and I have just started allowing her to go out with high school sophomores. But it wasn't like that. She did confess to kissing him on the cheek a few times but I think that's as far as it went. And he's not one of those wild rock stars you hear about, like Jim Morrison or something. He seems like a very nice, considerate young man.

Alice has her fruitcake recipe good to go, thanks to Bobby's random shot of her. All the recent crises with the children seem to be resolved and they now have two weeks off for the holidays. I'm looking forward to a merry Christmas and a happy new year.