First mate's log:
January 24, 1972
Jan Brady has been feeling jealous of all of Marcia's achievements. But she's decided to try out for the sixth-grade pompom squad.
"After all, Marcia lost out on being a cheerleader to Kathy Lawrence, so she's never done anything like this."
"But is that what you want to do, be on the pompom squad?"
"Well, Gilligan, I won't know until I try, right?"
I wished her good luck of course.
Meanwhile, Greg's ship is still kind of a wreck, but we're all doing what we can. Well, I guess Jan will be busy practicing for the pompom tryouts a week from today.
Carol Brady's diary:
January 26, 1972
Erika Tiffany Smith is getting married! I'm not sure which wedding it is, but it must be at least her fourth. And she's marrying Lord Beasley Waterford. You know, the butterfly collector. I admit they're an unlikely couple, but he came to Blenford to look for another rare butterfly, and instead found this social butterfly. And he does have a title, and she is attracted to noblemen.
Mike is cynical about the wedding, because she's been married so many times, but we're still going. It'll be on the Saturday before Valentine's Day, so it has a Valentine's theme, although Mike of course joked that Erika should wear a Lincoln beard and hat.
The invitation surprisingly does not include Bobby and Cindy, although the older four children are welcome. I think Mrs. Tiffany Smith still pictures Cindy and Bobby as the preschoolers they were when she met them almost six years ago. But I doubt Bobby would want to go a wedding anyway, since he wasn't thrilled about mine and Mike's. (Nothing against me I think, just that little boys generally don't like weddings). I'm not even sure if Peter cares about weddings, although he's started to notice girls in the last few months. As for Cindy, well, I still hold out hopes that Gilligan and Mary Ann will eventually marry, and maybe even Ginger and the Professor someday. Hopefully, she'll still be young enough to be a flower girl.
I'm glad at least that Jan was included on the guest list, since she already feels inferior to Marcia. But she's trying out for the pompom squad and with any luck she'll make it and that will boost her confidence. (I just hope she doesn't get a swelled head, as seems to happen to my children, who are often either under- or overconfident.)
January 27, 1972
Lord Beasley Waterford is actually getting married! He didn't even notice Ginger when she was trying to coax him to rescue us. He did flirt with Alice a little, because of her cooking. No, he's not marrying Alice, who's still dating Sam the butcher. He's marrying Erika Tiffany Smith, if you can believe it. I know, she was bored by the Professor talking to her about science, so I can't imagine her caring about butterflies. But he is a lord, and she does like guys with fancy titles. I wonder if they'll rename Blenford "Waterford," but probably not because they'd have to change the stamps and everything.
Bobby and Cindy feel left out that they weren't invited. Not that they care that much about Lord Beasley or Mrs. Smith or even weddings, but their big brothers and sisters are going. Alice will stay home with them, since they're too young to be left alone, and she remembers Mrs. Smith snubbing her years ago. But they don't want to just be babysat. I'd offer to hang out with them, but I've promised Mary Ann I'll be her date to the wedding.
January 29, 1972
Bobby and Cindy are trying to break a teeter-totter record! The current record is over 100 hours! One hundred twenty-four hours to be exact. That's over four days! Since they started this morning at around eight, they wouldn't be done until around noon on Wednesday.
I don't know if I should put a stop to this, because it is a chance for them to prove themselves. In a different way than Jan, they are in the shadows of their older siblings. I guess I'll let them skip church tomorrow if they're still out there in the morning, but I don't know about them missing school, especially with no sleep. (They're allowing themselves bathroom breaks, with Alice sitting in for whoever has to go, but we have to bring their food out to them, which is going to be a challenge with the spaghetti Alice is making for dinner.)
Mike and I have agreed that we'll watch over them tonight. Yes, the island is pretty civilized, but there are still wild beasts in the jungle. And even if Cindy and Bobby don't want to be seen as little kids, they are still our babies.
January 30, 1972
Wow, Bobby and Cindy are in the Sunday paper! We again took over a reporter and a photographer from The Blenford Bugle on the ferry. (I guess they'll have to change it to The Waterford Watchdog or something if the Big Island doesn't keep its maiden name.) This time it was because Bobby called the newspaper office early yesterday morning to say that he and his kid sister were going to try to break the world seesaw record. I didn't even know there was a world seesaw record, but I'm sure glad we built a seesaw on the kids' playground seven years ago, so that Bobby and Cindy could grow up knowing how to ride one.
This was the one in their own yard of course. Part of the time they were seesawing, Jan cheered them on with her pompom routines, since tryouts are tomorrow. They were maybe nine hours into their attempt at the time the press showed up. They got their pictures and a little article on the front page.
The thing is, they only lasted fifteen hours. They fell asleep on the seesaw and their parents carried them inside and tucked them into bed. They told me they were very disappointed when they woke up this morning, but their parents pointed out that they probably set a record for kids their age.
And Erika Tiffany Smith called up and invited them to her wedding, but Bobby told me, "Weddings are boring."
"And it's like being the last person invited to a party," Cindy said, which sounded like something Peter would say when he thought he was boring a few months ago.
Still, I'm glad they're happier than they were last week. Hopefully, Jan will make the pompom squad and she'll be happier, too. And Greg will be happy if he can get his boat up and running, so I'd better go work on that.
January 31, 1972
Bobby and Cindy made the front page of The Bugle! I'm very proud of them, but mostly for doing their best. I feel the same way about poor Jan, who didn't make the pompom squad. Instead of losing to a girl who later became a friend, like Kathy Lawrence is now to Marcia, Jan lost to her friend Katey Reese.
Jan still feels like she's in Marcia's shadow. She even feels like she's in Bobby and Cindy's shadow now. Peter wants to find some record for the two of them (him and Jan) to break, but I don't know if that would help, particularly if they failed.
Mrs. Smith invited the two youngest to her wedding after all, because of the positive publicity of their stunt. But it turned out they just wanted to be invited. They didn't really want to go.
Greg is hoping to get his boat up and running in time for the wedding, so he can literally make a splashy arrival. But that's less than two weeks away, and I doubt he can get it out of the lagoon before then.
