First mate's log:

August 4, 1971

The Brady kids told me about the anniversary gift that their dad is going to give their mom next month. Alice faked a sprained ankle to get Mrs. Brady out of the house yesterday. Mrs. Brady suggested calling Dr. Howard, since he makes house calls, but Alice said she'd rather go to his office, where she could be possibly X-rayed. Mrs. Brady questioned how Alice could walk over to the office with that ankle.

So then Mr. Brady said he'd call a cab. He'd told them that he couldn't take them because he had an appointment with Mary Ann about the remodeling of her restaurant. Mrs. Brady was a little annoyed that her husband was putting business ahead of Alice, especially since Mary Ann would probably be happy to reschedule if she knew. But Alice said it was fine.

We don't have motorcars on this island, although there are some on Blenford. But we do have pedicabs, kind of like the one I used to drive for the Howells before the rescue. So that's what the two women took over to Dr. Howard's office.

But after Mr. Brady hung up, the phone rang, and it was the man who runs the park. You know, the park that the Bradys and other people saved a few months ago when Mr. Howell wanted to put the courthouse there. Well, the park manager said Jan stole another girl's bike!

She told me that she wasn't looking at the bike that closely and it does look like hers, except that hers has damaged chrome over the front wheel. She hurried back to the park to make the bike swap. By the time she returned, her mom and housekeeper were leaving in the cab. Then she changed into her nicest dress and her dad took her and the other kids over to the photography studio on Blenford.

The photographer, Gregory Gaylord, sounded kind of scattered but they got the shots done and then came home, just before Alice and Mrs. Brady. (There was a line in the waiting room, since it wasn't an emergency and they didn't have an appointment. Alice was happy about it but of course had to act disappointed. She's a good actress, in a different way than Ginger.)

I offered to pick up the picture when it's ready in a couple weeks. Mr. Brady was reluctant, because of my clumsiness, but I swore I'll be careful.

Mary Ann is pretty busy with the restaurant right now of course, but she came over and watched TV with me and the Skipper a couple nights this past week.

Carol Brady's diary:

August 8, 1971

I'm taking people to doctors more than planned this month. First poor Alice had a mild sprained ankle, not as bad as the time she tripped over Chinese checkers when I was away taking care of my Aunt Mary in California, but still enough that I'm helping her with housework and cooking more than usual the past few days.

Jan accidentally took another girl's bike home from the park a few days ago. And yesterday Mrs. Watson sent us a letter about Jan. She's the sixth-grade teacher but she had conferred with the fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Whitfield. Just before school got out a couple months ago, Mrs. Whitfield wrote an assignment on the blackboard for her students to do over the summer and turn in to Mrs. Watson last week. Well, as Jan admitted today, she couldn't see the board very well from her seat at the back of the room, so she instead wrote an essay, a very good essay Mrs. Watson admitted, about the visit to the Grand Canyon.

We had Jan try to read the letter at arm's length but even that was blurry to her. So today I took her to see an optometrist on Blenford. Luckily, his schedule is pretty clear at the moment, and he promised to have her glasses ready in a week, which will give her time to get used to them before school starts. She's not too happy about getting glasses, especially since she thinks her latest crush, Bernie McGuire, will "go nuts," in a bad way about them. Still, she did pick out the frames herself and they make my little middle girl look so grown-up.

August 12, 1971

Mary Ann had a grand opening for her restaurant yesterday. All the Bradys were there, so I couldn't say anything about the family portrait I need to pick up next week. I did find out that poor Jan has to wear glasses. I remember how glasses made Eva Grubb feel real plain, although at least Jan has much nicer hair than Eva. Jan is eleven, which Mary Ann says is a tough age for girls, where they're still little girls but starting to think about becoming teenagers. Mary Ann used to worry about her freckles, but I think freckles are cute.

Gopher wasn't at the ribbon-cutting. He's going to move to Honolulu. He says he's happy for me and Mary Ann, but obviously things are awkward now. As Skipper says, he won't have any trouble finding another girl in Hawaii. But I doubt he can find one as special as Mary Ann.

August 16, 1971

Jan and I picked up her glasses today. I still thinks she looks lovely, but I know it's an adjustment for her. And Mike overheard Bobby and Cindy joking about "four eyes." She does need the glasses for school, and everyday life, so I hope she'll accept that, and the other kids will, too.

School will start the day after Labor Day. Greg will be going into high school, as a sophomore, a big step. And Peter is starting junior high. More adjustments for all of us.

Greg is eager to grow up and he's still saving up money for a boat of his own. Peter is still a little boy in some ways, like with his love of magic tricks. But if Jan is on the edge of adolescence, I suppose Peter is, too.

Meanwhile, it's getting closer to my wedding anniversary, and I've been looking all over the house to try to find Mike's gift to me. (Mine to him is safely at Ginger's apartment on Blenford.)

August 20, 1971

Poor Jan was in a bike accident! She wasn't hurt and it luckily wasn't out in the street. But she did crash into the family portrait I'd delivered the day she was getting her glasses at the optometrist, because Mr. Brady said Mrs. Brady would be out of the house then. Alice had me hide it in the garage, since Mrs. Brady was out of the house for a couple hours. And Mrs. Brady, who's been snooping around trying to find the present her husband got her, without her even guessing what it is, had already snooped in the garage, and Alice told me Mrs. Brady doesn't snoop any place twice.

Jan is supposed to wear her glasses everywhere, but Mary Ann told me later that she didn't wear them when she met Bernie McGuire, a boy Jan likes, at the pizza parlor. And Jan admitted to me that she's been riding her bike without glasses, too. So she misjudged the distance and hit the picture, which she hadn't known was there. The frame is broken, and the picture itself very wrinkled. She feels terrible about it, but I feel guilty, too, because I could've just offered to keep the portrait at my place. Then again, I'm so clumsy, I probably would've shattered it myself.

I suggested she call the photographer and see if he can make a new picture from the negative. I hope it works out OK.

August 24, 1971

I'm still not having any luck finding Mike's gift. I've looked everywhere, including Tiger's old doghouse. I even asked around with some of our friends, since I thought he might've come up with my idea of having another castaway look after it. But the Skipper, Mr. Howell, and the Professor claimed not to know. And Gilligan is playing dumb of course. It's possible it's at the Dittmeyers', but they're not very approachable.

August 28, 1971

The kids took the ferry to Blenford yesterday, all dressed up. They told me that they couldn't fix their portrait and Mr. Gaylord lost the negatives. He is willing to do a rush job on another portrait, and I promised to pick it up and the Skipper will keep it safe.

I asked how they could afford another picture, especially since they're all getting gifts of their own for their parents. Most of the kids shrugged and said Jan was taking care of it, since it was her fault.

On the way back, they said Mr. Gaylord was just as scatter-brained as before, so I'm a little worried. Maybe they can just have the Howells take their portrait, since the millionaires own a lot of cameras.

Jan found a moment to confide in me that she sold her bike to pay for the new portrait. "It wouldn't have happened if I weren't riding it without my glasses."

She's a very grown-up kid in some ways, more than I was at eleven. Anyway, I'll keep her secret, just like I've kept everyone else's secrets about the portraits.

September 2, 1971

Mike completely surprised me with his gift of a professional photographic portrait of our children! I did see the kids leaving the house in their best outfits last week, but I didn't expect anything like this. And it must've been taken fairly recently, since Jan wore her glasses for it.

I gave him new golf clubs, not very romantic or family-oriented, but it is his favorite outdoor hobby. (Something he didn't do at the Grand Canyon I mean.)

And the children all got us sweet little gifts. The third anniversary is leather, but no one followed that, except the Howells, who got us shoes imported from Italy.

It's been a crazy, wonderful three years, and I wonder what the next three, and beyond, will bring.