November 26, 1964

Carol Martin's diary:

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, even if it was odd to have dishes like lobster and pineapple. But I am thankful that my girls and I are alive and well. I wish we were home but there are certainly worse places we could've been marooned.

December 10, 1964

First mate's log:

We put on a play yesterday. When Ginger took the three-hour tour, she brought along the script for Pyramid for Two, which she was supposed to be opening in on Broadway this week. She was sad about not getting to do it, so we decided to stage it here. I had to help the Professor and Mr. Brady build the stage.

The problem was that Mrs. Howell got jealous of Mr. Howell complimenting Ginger when he was directing rehearsals. Ginger was Cleopatra and Mrs. Howell was her maid. Mrs. Howell demanded the lead role, and then Alice was the maid, yeah, typecasting. I felt bad for Ginger, since we were supposed to be doing the play to cheer her up. I talked to Mrs. Howell about it but she didn't say anything. It turned out she had laryngitis! So Ginger got to do the play after all. Alice still played the maid.

Dec 25, 1964

It's been quiet the last few weeks, other than a staging of a play starring Ginger. I didn't have much involvement, other than working on costumes with Mary Ann. It was nice to see live drama, although no one was at Ginger's acting level of course, particularly the Skipper as Marc Antony. But for an amateur production it was fine. The children seemed to enjoy it, although Cindy cried during. I never would've taken her to see a play back home, but we're all of course much more informal here.

And now it's Christmas. Obviously there was no mad rush to buy gifts, no shopping at all. All the gifts had to be handmade. I made stuffed animals for the children (using fur from animals Mike hunted for food), and sewed clothes for the adults. And all the gifts I received were handmade as well.

I of course have been thinking about Tim and my parents. And Jack, who's getting married this week. I wish I could be with them, especially this time of year. But maybe next year we can all go home.

The Skipper dressed up as Santa Claus and the children were thrilled. He's got the build for it, although he had to wear a beard of course. He gave a lovely speech about how lucky we are that we weren't lost at sea and instead found this island with all this food. And he pointed out that we're safe and we all get along (mostly).

And then he showed up a minute after "Santa" left, now minus the beard and red suit! I don't know how he changed so quickly. Or could it have really have been—? No, that's impossible!

January 1, 1965

Happy New Year. I hope we get rescued before 1965 is over.

January 8, 1965

The Skipper kept having dreams last week about a ship passing the island, so when he was awake he wanted Gilligan to build a lookout tower, which ironically is what Gilligan wanted to do a couple months ago when he was President. But before Gilligan could get started on the tower, he won three million dollars on a golf bet with Mr. Howell! Then Mr. Howell tricked Gilligan into buying a seemingly worthless stock and then won it back playing pool with the Skipper, during the time that the stock seemed to be worth something after all, but wasn't.

Sometimes I just shake my head over this sort of thing. It passes the time of course but it all comes to nothing in the end. OK, so I did offer to make Gilligan dinner when I thought he was rich, but it was his idea to offer to pay for the children's college education (along with a boat for the Skipper, a farm for Mary Ann, and so on).

January 15, 1965

Well, I was sort of a millionaire a couple weeks ago but Mr. Howell is too tricky for me. Everyone was extra nice to me when they thought I had money, especially Ginger. She not only seemed like she was going to kiss me, but she wanted to play my wife in the Hollywood story of my life, even though I'm not married.

She mostly flirts with me when she wants something, but not only. Like, yesterday the Professor thought we were running out of water! The Skipper had me on a contraption with a bicycle, pedaling away to bring up water, but it wasn't working. The Professor was worried about our water supply running out. He said it was very serious. We have salt water all around us of course, but what would we do without fresh water?

I raced through the jungle to tell the Skipper, but then I saw that someone was taking a shower. (The Professor turned it back from a voting stall. I don't think we'll have another election for awhile, not after how the last one turned out.) I tried to stop the person, but I slipped and slid in the mud, right next to the stall! I was face down and I could see bare feet, Ginger's!

She wanted me to hand her a tiny little towel! I did but I was worried I'd see too much of her when she came out of the stall. Then it turned out to be just for her hair, and she had a bigger towel for her body, so I saw her shoulders and arms and stuff, but nothing I shouldn't see. (Some of the towels are from The Minnow and others are ones that the millionaires brought, yeah, Howell towels.)

She told me I shouldn't be so shy. "You know, I think under all that mud, there's a charming, attractive man." I didn't know what to say to that. No girl's ever said anything like that to me before. And she wasn't trying to trick me or get me to do something for Mr. Howell or anything. Maybe she just likes to flirt. I don't know. And then she left before I could think of what to say back.

She distracted me so much that I forgot that we're supposed to save water. And I took a shower to get the mud off me. But the Skipper came by and saw Ginger's scarf that she left behind, so he thought she was still in the shower. He gave me a flower, my first corsage, so I joked about if that meant we were engaged.

Then I remembered about the water shortage, so I told him. We had to all ration water, but the girls and the Howells stole some when I was supposed to be guarding the supply. The Skipper made them return it. Then I ended up spilling it all. The Skipper got really mad.

He was still mad at me the next day. Everyone was.

So I wrote a note that said, "Dear Folks, Every time I try to do something right, everything goes wrong. Maybe everybody would be better off without me." I figured I could go live on the other side of the island, although I don't know how long I would've survived without water.

But then a frog came over and got the paper wet with his feet. I like animals, and I really liked this one when I realized it must've got its feet wet on the island and frogs are fresh-water animals. I followed it, hoping it would lead me to water. Well, I ended up falling down a big hole. It was an underground cave full of fresh water! The only problem was getting out of there. Luckily, everyone came looking for me and they weren't mad anymore, even before they found out about the cave.

January 16, 1965

Oh, I was so mad at Gilligan yesterday! Well, not only him but him more than anyone.

You see, a couple days ago, the Professor said we were running out of fresh water! I was so upset that I couldn't write about it. We've had other crises before but we've gotten through them. This was the most serious and there seemed to be no solution in sight. As the mother of three small children, my concern was mostly for them. I was willing to take smaller rations to help them survive longer. And Mike felt the same way about his sons. But we didn't steal water from the remaining supply, like Ginger, Mary Ann, and the Howells did that night. At least the Skipper made them return it and no damage was done, until Gilligan spilled the water!

We were all angry with him, even the people who tricked him when he was guarding the water. His feelings were hurt and he wrote what seemed to be a suicide note! Alice and I stayed in camp with the children, while the others went looking for him. Mary Ann said, "If we ever do find him, we'll hug him, and squeeze him, and kiss him and—" Then Ginger replied, "Hey, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I don't know if she was just being a flirtatious actress or if she has genuine designs on that boy. I would still matchmake him with Mary Ann if I had the chance, since she's more his speed. But he's pretty bashful with girls, and I don't know if he's ready to be matchmade. At that moment of course, it was most important to find out if he was still alive.

It turned out Gilligan had fallen into an underground cave, and was knee-deep in fresh water! So everything turned out all right, as I suppose it always does, but things were tense around here for awhile.