First mate's log:

September 9, 1973

Ginger and the Professor met their future sons, and they found out that Dwayne is Black, and Steve is Oriental! Matt never mentioned that to them or me, just that they aren't blond like him. I guess it doesn't really matter, unless you think kids should only have parents who are the same color they are. The Professor and Ginger were surprised, but they do seem like nice kids and they deserve a good home.

They didn't tell Dwayne and Steve that they want to adopt them yet, but the boys knew they're Matt's parents because they've seen Ginger on TV, and Matt writes to them once or twice a week. When Ginger and the Professor visit next time, they'll explain about wanting to adopt them, and then they'll have to keep the secret from Matt. Of course, it might turn out that Dwayne and Steve don't want them to adopt them, but I guess the Professor and Ginger would try to adopt some other kids. And maybe arrange for Matt to visit the orphanage once a month or something.

Meanwhile, the man who is more my father than my real father got tickets for an exhibition game on Blenford this coming Saturday. I'm not that into sports, including football, but the Skipper is. And even I've heard of Joe Namath, who's going to be playing in that game. It'll be just the two of us, since we don't really hang out together since I got married. And even before then, things changed after we both got steady girlfriends. (Yeah, he's still seeing Joyce, but I don't think they want anything serious, like marriage. They're happy as they are.)

Anyway, the game should be fun and I'm looking forward to it, and not just for the concessions, like Mary Ann teases.

Carol Brady's diary:

September 10, 1973

Bobby didn't want to go to school this morning. It's bad enough that he has to face all the kids who've heard that he's buddies with Joe Namath. (Rumors spread quickly in our little island schools, as we saw with Marcia and Davy Jones, and his friends may've told all their classmates over the weekend.) And now Joe Namath is actually on Blenford this week! He's going to play in an exhibition game on Saturday. Greg told me that the first Jets game of the season will be in a week, against the Green Bay Packers.

He and Peter wish they could go, but the tickets are already sold out. Ordinarily, Bobby would feel the same, but of course it's complicated because of his lie to his friends. I insisted on his school attendance today, and the rest of the week, because he needs to face up to the consequences, whatever they are.

September 12, 1973

Cindy told me that she wrote to Joe Namath! Not only that, she said that she claimed that Bobby is very sick! She got the idea when Marcia and Jan were talking about Mike Connors visiting a sick kid. Of course that kid was actually sick.

"Does Bobby know?"

"No, if Mr. Namath doesn't visit, I don't want Bobby to be disappointed. And if he does visit, it'll be a nice surprise."

"Yeah, but you lied to cover up Bobby's lie."

"I was just trying to help," she said defensively.

And, yeah, now I have another secret to keep, because she doesn't want her parents to know either. I feel sorry for poor Mr. Namath, because if he does see the letter and believes it, she'll have played a rotten trick on him. But it's not like I can just call him up myself and warn him.

As for the secret about Dwayne and Steve, luckily Matt hasn't called me in a week. Ginger and the Professor told Steve and Dwayne about wanting to adopt them, and the boys were thrilled, although, yes, it's hard for them to keep the secret from Matt. The double adoption will be official early next month. I hope it all works out and everyone is happy.

September 14, 1973

Joe Namath came to our house today! You can imagine my surprise when I came home from grocery-shopping with Alice. And it wasn't like when Davy Jones showed up after Marcia had been trying so hard to reach him. And of course the whole family got involved that time. I had no idea how Mr. Namath got here. The only thing I could think of was that maybe he was at the BITV studio doing an interview that week and Ginger met him and asked him to drop by our house.

He was surprised to see Jan and Marcia come in with a stretcher. (Yes, Jan has been practicing more first aid, including wrapping Alice completely in bandages! Oh, how I wish I'd seen that.) After a few minutes of misunderstanding, which Mike contributed to by saying that with six kids you expect something like this to happen, it turned out that Broadway Joe thought Bobby had a serious, possibly fatal illness!

It didn't take long to figure out where he'd gotten a crazy idea like that. I was sure it was Bobby, and then Mr. Namath said he got a letter from my son Bobby. Actually, Cindy wrote the letter and signed Bobby's name, then she didn't tell Bobby until Mr. Namath showed up at the house. He could've told his idol the truth right away, but he played along with her scheme. He pretended to be almost at death's door, but still managed to score an autograph out of the football player who pitied him.

Then both Bobby and Cindy felt guilty and came downstairs. They confessed without prompting from me or Mike. Mr. Namath was a very good sport about it, no pun intended. He was relieved that Bobby was well, and flattered by his admiration. He even agreed to toss the football around out back with Bobby and his friends.

So Bobby quickly invited over Eric Parker and the other boys he's closest to in his class. The boys were very impressed and Joe was so good and patient with them. But he did have to get back to Blenford. After he left, Bobby tried to come clean with his friends, but they refused to believe he'd never met Mr. Namath before today. Well, at least he tried.

Oh, and Mr. Namath gave Bobby nine tickets to the exhibition game, so the whole family can go! I'm not a big sports fan, but it was still very thoughtful of him.

September 15, 1973

The exhibition game was a lot of fun. Joe Namath's team won of course. Oh, and I guess it worked out OK with Cindy's letter, because she quickly told me that Bobby confessed and then Mr. Namath gave the whole family free tickets. But her dad gave away his ticket and her mom's to Sam, and to Bobby's friend Eric. Maybe he didn't want to deal with the crowds.

It was nice to see the Bradys, but it was also just nice to hang out with the Skipper again. We should do that more often, like go to the movies or something.

September 16, 1973

Although I'm not a big football fan, I was surprised that Mike gave away my ticket and his. He said he wanted Alice to be able to take Sam, and Bobby to take Eric, but after everyone left, he said he wanted us to have the house to ourselves. He pretended for a minute it was so we could watch the game on TV in peace, but he did actually want us to have some romantic time alone.

I'm not going into detail of course, just like I didn't about our anniversary. I'm too much of a lady for that, and I'm well aware that somebody could stumble upon my diaries someday. But I will say that Mike and I have a very satisfying love life, even better than what I had with Tim, rest his soul.