First mate's log:
March 1, 1968
Oh boy, a homing pigeon landed on the island! The Professor says it'll need a couple weeks to recover from the storm it flew through, but then we can send it off with a message. Tonight the Skipper and I are going to feed it some seeds I'm gathering today, to help build up its strength.
Carol Martin's diary:
March 2, 1968
We have yet another chance for rescue. A homing pigeon was blown here in a storm and the Professor said it would need two weeks to recover. Unfortunately, the children and most of the adults (not me, Mike, or the Professor) secretly fed the bird last night, each group thinking they were the only ones. It's a miracle the poor little thing didn't die from overstuffing! The Professor has added an extra week onto the recovery time, although at this point I don't expect to be rescued instantly, if at all.
March 15, 1968
Well, it's still going to be another week until the pigeon is ready to fly, because we all overfed it the first night after it arrived. I've named it Walter, not after the actor but after Walter Stuckmeyer, my childhood friend who was pigeon-toed.
Meanwhile, my pet monkey that I've named Mickey after Mickey Dolenz the Monkee (I haven't seen the band but I like their songs on the radio, almost as good as the Mosquitoes) and I found another crate that washed ashore by the lagoon. Even though it was labeled "Secret Material," the Professor decided we could open it, since the secret briefcase turned out to be fifty years old. He said the stuff inside, thenaformaldehyde (I had to ask him how to spell that), can be used as a kind of plastic, and we can make all kinds of things out of it. So even if Walter can't get us rescued soon, life on the island will be more comfortable while we wait.
March 16, 1968
It's still almost a week until the pigeon will be ready to fly, according to the Professor. But he's distracted by working with a synthetic resin that washed ashore in a crate, trying to make it into all sorts of plastic-like items. He's designed toys for the children, test tubes for himself, Tupperware for Alice, dishes for Mary Ann, nails for the Skipper, jewelry for Ginger, golf balls for Mr. Howell and Mike, and combs and buttons for everyone. He's even engineering dental fillings for Gilligan, who had two fillings fall out of his mouth after bumping into a coconut tree. Mrs. Howell doesn't want anything, because she thinks plastic is gauche, and I'm wary about this unknown material, although I decided not to object when the Professor gave my daughters dolls. I am monitoring their playtime, just in case.
March 17, 1968
Yesterday, Ginger backed me up against a coconut tree and kissed me until a coconut fell on my head. She was trying to get me to give up my share of the plastic the Professor is making, so she could have more costume jewelry. The coconut knocked two of the fillings out of my teeth, so the Professor had to use my share to make new fillings. I was hoping for a Frisbee, but that's the least of my problems.
Today Mickey started throwing around some of the plastic things, and they explode! We have to hide what's left, but the Professor says he can't risk trying to remove my fillings because my head might blow off! Mary Ann has to feed me fish mash from a spoon attached to a ten-foot pole. It'll be just my luck that by the time Walter can fly again, I'll be dead from my own teeth.
March 18, 1968
Well, I was right to be wary of the plastic: it's explosive! Poor Gilligan had two little bombs in his mouth, ready to go off. His pet monkey liked to throw the plastic items as a game, and even though we tried to hide what we could, he found the things and stored them on the roof of Ginger and Mary Ann's hut. As Mike said after things calmed down, Mickey had a blast, throwing the things into the clearing.
Gilligan risked his own safety to get Mickey the monkey off the roof, but while he was on the ladder, he sneezed, hit his head, and shot the fillings out of his mouth. He caught Mickey, who was unharmed, but the girls' hut was in ruins. So Ginger and Mary Ann are staying with my family while the men rebuild their hut. Mrs. Howell and I have given them some clothes and other personal items to replace what they lost. (Alice doesn't own much and she's heavier, so her wardrobe wouldn't fit. As it is, Ginger is the tallest woman on the island, so she's back to minidresses by default, unless she wears something from the movie costume trunk.)
Of course, it's possible Walter may be our savior and it won't matter too much what any of us has lost, but in the meantime we have to try to get back to "island normal," as Mike calls it.
March 22, 1968
Walter left today, with a note that the Professor attached, explaining who and where we are. He figures it'll take at least a week for Walter to come back, even if his home is in Hawaii instead of the Mainland. So since I might not see a dentist for awhile, the Professor filled my teeth, this time with two pennies he melted down. The Skipper keeps making jokes about me giving my two cents about everything. I've got to go and work on rebuilding the girls' hut now. (Mickey and I sort of blew it up together.)
March 23, 1968
Yes, everything is "island normal" again, with the Professor having replaced Gilligan's fillings with copper, which Mike and I think is medically unsound, although an improvement over the plastic of course. To be honest, while I appreciate the Professor's kindness in serving as the closest we have to a doctor, I would be reluctant to have him practice any serious medicine on me or the children. Marcia will probably need braces when she's a teenager, but I don't think I'd trust the Professor as an orthodontist.
Meanwhile, construction on Ginger and Mary Ann's hut was completed today, which is good, because it was cramped with the six of us in one room. (Jan shared Marcia's bed and I had Cindy in mine, so that our guests could have beds of their own.) And Walter is flying somewhere over the Pacific, presumably on his way home, unless he meets another storm.