First mate's log:
April 15, 1973
The Howells are going to throw a costume party this coming Saturday! It's just for couples, and Mrs. Howell actually wanted to have it a couple months ago for Valentine's Day, but that didn't work out so now she decided on Easter weekend, even though Easter isn't that romantic. Mary Ann and I will of course go together, but we haven't decided on costumes yet.
I know that doesn't sound like much time to get ready, but we used to have costume parties on the island a lot in the old days and we didn't even have stores! We just worked with what we had, whether it was something that the Howells packed, something that washed ashore, or something that grew on the island. Now we have not only this island but Blenford to get clothes from, and Mary Ann is still a great seamstress of course.
Carol Brady's diary:
April 16, 1973
The Howells are hosting a couples' costume party Saturday evening and I don't know what Mike and I are going to wear. We were in his den discussing costumes and he'd just rejected Romeo & Juliet as too "young" for us, and Napoleon and Josephine as too cliched.
Then he got a call from the elementary school principal. Bobby's teacher had to take a toy gun off him! So we both forgot about the party and headed over to the school.
The principal said that not only did Bobby bring a toy weapon to school, but he wrote an essay about Jesse James being his hero! You can imagine what a shock this is, especially since last month he was all about "law & order." But eleven-year-old boys, I've learned, are in flux, changing as they try to figure out who they are. This is obviously a bad turn, but we'll do our best to set him back on the right path.
April 17, 1973
Mary Ann and I have decided on Wild West costumes. I told her about that dream I had years ago, where I was a marshal protecting Emily the Duck. She joked about being a saloon girl rather than a sweet schoolmarm, but I think she'll go with the simpler costume.
April 18, 1973
Bobby wanted to stay up past ten last night to watch the movie Jesse James On The Vengeance Trail. I of course wanted to say no, because not only was that past his bedtime, but I definitely do not want to encourage his idolization of Jesse James. To my surprise, Mike gave his permission as long as Bobby watched it with us.
It was a little like when Mike held Greg to "exact words." Here, Mike's hope was that if Bobby saw how violent Jesse James's life was, and it is a very violent movie for the '50s, it would be a shock to his system.
However, we saw the movie in the theater, separately, at the time it came out, fifteen years ago. And we reckoned without the inevitable TV censorship. In fact, the movie was probably half the length of the original release. The worst parts of Jesse James's life were left out and unfortunately he seemed more heroic than ever. I don't know how we can cure Bobby now, other than hope that he'll move on to a new phase next month.
April 19, 1973
There's a new Wild West Museum on Blenford! I know, it might seem kind of weird for a tropical island, but it's run by a real old guy, I think in his nineties, and he's moved to Blenford for the weather. As for focusing on the Wild West, well, he's from that area and grew up hearing a lot of great stories. His name is Jethroe Collins and he gave me some great advice about the costumes for Saturday, which I've of course passed on to Mary Ann.
April 20, 1973
Although the Jesse James movie didn't work, Bobby is over him now. Gilligan introduced Bobby to a man named Jethroe Collins, who recently moved to Blenford. Mr. Collins is almost one hundred years old, and his father met Jesse James. What he apparently hadn't told Gilligan is that Jesse James shot his father in the back! I noticed that Bobby was subdued that evening, but I didn't yet know why.
Then Bobby had a nightmare about Jesse James killing the entire family except Bobby! On the one hand, I was upset with Gilligan for upsetting Bobby, even if that wasn't his intention. And on the other hand, maybe Bobby needed this drastic cure.
Obviously, I've been very distracted by this crisis and haven't been able to give much thought to the costume party. Alice suggested George and Martha Washington, since with six kids Mike has a start on being "Father of His Country." But that just brings back bad memories of the crisis with Peter as Benedict Arnold, wishing he could be George Washington.
I'm going to visit the costume shop on Blenford and see what I can find in our sizes. The party is tomorrow night, but hopefully there will be something.
April 21, 1973
Mr. Collins told me that his father met Jesse James, so of course I brought Bobby to meet him. I had no idea that they met when Jesse James killed Mr. Collins's dad! I had a nightmare that night, and it turns out so did Bobby. In mine, Jesse James killed the Skipper and Mary Anne!
I woke up crying but the Skipper was there to tell me he was OK and he was sure Mary Ann was, too. I wanted to call her, but it was kind of late. I did drop by in the morning, and tell her about it. It was sort of embarrassing, but they both love me and care about me.
She showed me the marshal costume she'd just finished, and it looks great. I'm really looking forward to the party tonight. But Cindy Brady isn't.
Not that she's going, but her folks are. They're going to be Anthony and Cleopatra, and her mom wants to wear a pair of earrings that look kind of Egyptian. But she'd loaned the earrings to Marcia for a date. (Not with Charley, that seems to be over. But he told me he understands that none of Marcia's romances last very long, and at least he got to go out with her a few times.)
Marcia told Cindy not to touch the earrings, so of course Cindy took them when Marcia was out of the room. Then Cindy lost them! She's been trying to track them down the last couple days, even before her mom decided to be Cleopatra. Peter, who recently got a Sherlock Holmes Detective Kit from the Blenford Toy Shop, using some of his bike job money, has been helping her try to solve this mystery. They've interviewed suspects and taken sets of fingerprints, but they haven't come up with a solution yet.
"If nobody confesses soon, I'll have to confess!" Cindy told me today.
I think she should confess anyway, but I just wished her luck. I guess I'll see tonight if Mrs. Brady is wearing those earrings.
April 22, 1973
We had a nice Easter today, although it makes me a little sad to think of how even Bobby and Cindy are too old to believe in the Easter Bunny. But I'm also angry at Cindy for what she did. She lost a pair of earrings I loaned to Marcia. I don't blame Marcia, because Cindy took them behind Marcia's back. And they would've gone perfectly with the Cleopatra costume I got from the costume shop. (Mike was Marc Anthony and he looked very dashing.)
Peter was playing Sherlock Holmes but the mystery wasn't solved until the whole family gathered together and compared notes. My earrings ended up in the washer, where one was destroyed.
I thought about grounding Cindy from the Easter festivities, but then I remembered that last year we grounded Bobby from them after the slingshot fiasco at the dive-in. So instead we're having Bobby and Cindy help Alice with the laundry for a week. (We still hadn't punished him for bringing a gun to school. And obviously he needs to learn more about laundry, after the fiasco with the detergent last month.)
As for the costume party, the Skipper and his girlfriend Joyce took first prize, dressed as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson!