Sunday August 8th, 1977, Mercersburg

A bunch of kids went off to church this morning and I made the church run with Pat Rowntree. She pulled around and picked me up in front of Fowle Hall, she was in the old blue Academy van and after a drive across town ,we dropped the kids off at church. After the delivery we stopped at Highs and got some coffee and donuts! We talked an hour or so about the summer and she said shes heading to the cottage for a few weeks when she gets home. They have a place north of Toronoto and it sounds lovely. We had such a nice talk and it was fun. We got back to the Academy round 11:30 and stopped at the courts and watched all the counselors matches, then we headed to lunch in Ford Hall.

I sat with Jude Gatewood and Cathy Davidson at lunch, although I have talked to Cathy on and off all summer I havnt talked at all to Jude, shes been standoffish and not social. But on this afternoon she was pleasant. She talked about growing up in DC and going to college. Jon Mudd joined us and those two had a lot to talk about because both grew up in the District. Cathy is from Mass and is the patron saint of all little kids, they love her and she looks after them like a hawk and that has not gone unnoticed by FXB; he told me that he wants her back next summer. Jude however wont make the cut because she was one of the counselors out the other night. I think that Riley was out but he came back early.

I played Kenny F. in the afternoon after lunch. This guy is a much better tennis player, from a tougher university...We have played 4 times and I'm 0-4. The last time we played it was a 2 and 1 drubbing. I noticed that anything short is bad news with this guy because he winds up, hits hard and deep. My plan was to keep it deep, keep him back by the fence and then drop and angle him. It worked. He started missing and hitting short...I dropped him, then lobbed him...I attacked off the short balls, didnt give any serves away...I beat him 5 and 5. He wasnt happy. Keeping the ball deep, keeping it in play was the key.

I got on the pay phone in the lobby and called my travel agent in Pocatello to get a flight home. The Mudds had invited me to their home in Mclain for a few days but I couldnt make it work with the airlines. Saturday was booked solid, so I had to book a flight on Friday. Mr. B came out and saw what I was doing and let me use his phone in the apartment. He asked how much the airfare was, I got the flight from Haggerstown and then the DC to Denver to Boise to Poky flight for $175.00. I had to ask Mr. B for an advance to pay the airfare he said he would have a check for me tomorrow and we could wire it to my travel agent. That airfare will really cut into the $600 I'll get for the summer, but it was worth every cent and I doubt I could have saved this much working in Poky, so all is good.

Mark and I picked up all of our dirty clothes, we're going to do some laundry tomorrow for our long trip home. Mark called his parents and they are going to come and pick him up on Saturday. He is excited to get back to Springfield, Mass. It sounds like such a beautiful place, he says that he should have about a month before getting back to Plymouth State.

Its dark and late and Mark is already asleep, I will miss the crickets at night and the fire flies. I will miss that the wet,sweet smell of grass at night that drifts through these windows. I will miss the carillion bells and Bryan Barkers amazing music. As he said many times over the summer, quoting John Keats,"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."