First mate's log:
August 25, 1972
I saw Jan on the ferry today. Three weeks ago, all the Brady kids went over to Blenford to order an anniversary gift for their parents, before we all left for Hawaii. She was the only one who didn't have plans today, so she agreed to go collect the present. She told me that it's a silver platter that all the kids picked out and agreed on. Then she later called up and said that she'd like to have it engraved with a happy anniversary message, and all the kids' first names. She remembered it as 85 cents, quite a bargain.
Unfortunately, as she told me in tears on the way back, it turned out to be 85 cents per letter! With tax, that comes to $56.23. I'd loan her some money, but I can't cover that. She doesn't know what she's going to do, and she feels like an idiot that everyone is going to be mad at. I know how that feels.
Carol Brady's diary:
August 27, 1972
Mike and I hoped to get away for a long weekend, with our anniversary coming up. I know, we just went to Hawaii, but that wasn't really about us as a couple. However, Mike has a meeting with Mr. Howell that Friday, about the Honolulu project, and Mr. Howell refuses to reschedule. Yes, he can be so generous sometimes, and so selfish other times. We'll probably just have dinner over on Blenford, maybe dancing afterwards.
August 28, 1972
Jan told me that the kids are going to be on The Peter Sterne Amateur Hour on Saturday. First prize is $100! That would cover the engraving, with money to spare. I wished her luck of course. Greg is writing them a couple songs and they'll work out dance routines, too.
August 30, 1972
Jan has a new boyfriend, named Alfie, but she didn't seem that enthusiastic when he called the house. Then again, she might've felt self-conscious in front of me and Mike. She's going into junior high this year, so she is growing up, although Marcia didn't date quite this young. I feel less overprotective than I did three years ago, but I guess that's how it is with younger daughters.
September 1, 1972
Jan says it's been really hard practicing for their audition without their parents or Alice finding out. But they go on tomorrow morning, and the department store isn't too far from the TV studio. Greg will borrow one of the family boats, and claim that they're going to a baseball game on Blenford.
September 3, 1972
Mike and I got a lovely anniversary present from the kids. It's a silver platter, but the most wonderful thing about it is that they went on a talent show to win the money to pay for the engraving. As Jan explained to us later, "Alfie" was actually the salesman who wanted her to pick it up once she had the extra money she didn't realize it would cost. The kids came in third on the show, but it was so sweet of them to try.
Greg had taken one of the family boats to Blenford, supposedly so that the kids could go to a ball game. Mike and I took the other. We went to the department store and he paid for the engraving himself. "Alfie" was very nice about it all, and amused once we explained.
Mike and I indeed went back to Blenford for dinner and dancing in the evening. There were a lot of tourists around, because it's Labor Day Weekend. Maybe next year, we'll manage to get away, just the two of us.
September 5, 1972
The kids are all back in school today. Marcia's starting high school and Jan's starting junior high. It's funny to think of how "school" on this island used to just be Mr. Brady and Mrs. Martin teaching their two oldest.
Mary Ann wants kids after we've been married a few years. She's not sure what she'll do about the pizza parlor, but maybe I'd quit the ferry and help out, either with the kids or the pizza. I'd miss working with the Skipper, but I think he'd understand. And, yeah, we're still just engaged, so I'm not going to worry about it too much yet.
September 7, 1972
While Jan seems to be adjusting to junior high just fine, poor Marcia had a rough first couple days. She pretended to be sick on Tuesday. (Monday was Labor Day.) Dr. Porter diagnosed it as "newschoolitis."
I was surprised, since Marcia has always been such a popular and successful student. But she thinks "her best years are behind her." I'm sure she'll achieve in high school, too, but it'll be an adjustment.
She went to school yesterday, and Greg introduced her to a couple of his friends, at Mike's suggestion. Mike figured this would help Marcia settle in. But Marcia tried to act grown-up and sophisticated by saying things like, "It's so beneficial for me to be away from those children in junior high and to be with people of my own mature growth" and "I'm looking forward to the intellectual stimulation."
Greg was angry and embarrassed. He told Mike about it, and Marcia overheard and got upset, too.
Mike and I urged her to be herself, including joining after-school clubs that fit her interests. Even though there aren't that many kids she hasn't been going to school with for the past couple years, it'll be a way to mix in a new setting.
September 9, 1972
Peter is a lot happier about having Mr. Price as his science teacher than he was last year. He's doing an extra credit project to build a model volcano. The Professor (Hinkley, not Whitehead) is sending him some information about real volcanoes, including the one on this island.
I asked, "How are you going to make your volcano explode?"
He admitted, "Well, I haven't figured that part out yet, but right now I'm building it with mud and chicken wire."
I wished him luck and thought about if we never got rescued, the Professor probably would be teaching Peter and the other Brady kids directly, and no one else. There probably wouldn't even be extra credit, or grades.
September 12, 1972
Marcia seems to have signed up for every club our little high school has. Scuba, karate, archery, yoga, ceramics, and something called the Boosters. I'm worried she's spreading herself too thin. And I hope this won't affect her grades. But Mike and I are letting her continue for now, until she settles on what she really wants to do.
September 14, 1972
The good news is Peter got his volcano to work. The bad news is it exploded on the girls in a club that Marcia wanted to join. The OK news is that Marcia thought it was hilarious and those girls are snobs, so she didn't mind that she can't be in their club.
Now Peter has to carry the volcano to school somehow without breaking it, since he was building it on his family's patio. But they got that dunking tank to campus, so I guess it'll work out.
September 16, 1972
Well, Marcia realized she was overextending herself, ironically because of Peter's literal explosion. Mike and I gave him permission to set up his model volcano on the patio, although Alice said she'd kill him if he got mud everywhere. It took him a few days to get it to work, and then when it did, it exploded all over a meeting of the Boosters!
Marcia wasn't upset because she was already having her doubts about those girls. They require members to get the leaders' approval on everything from wardrobes to boyfriends! And Marcia is trying to be herself. So now she's just in the Ceramics Club and she seems much happier and less stressed out.
