Mike Gawel and I did our Peace Corps training for 3 months in the small town of Ookala, on the Big Island of Hawaii, back in 1969. Years later Mike ended up in Guam and he attended University there in 1977. A classmate of his now lives near Ooakla.
Back in the 1960’s Gail, her mother and my brother all worked together at Fu Chu restaurant (before Gail met me). In 1984 I was showing Gail and her parents where I worked. As we were checking in, Eric Ze was leaving the building. Apparently, he worked at Fu Chu with them.
In 1975 we rented a house in small Dawson, Minnesota. We had booked a flight to Boston and had organized a U-Haul trailer for our crates (being shipped to New Zealand). A few friends helped me load them into the trailer the day before we were to leave. When we woke the next day the place was snowed in. From radio reports it sounded as we were stuck for a few days until the alley would be cleared. Gail went over to Shelby’s, place to use the phone. It turned out that the mayor’s wife was having her hair done by Shelby. When she heard our plight she called her husband and he got a snowplow to do the alley and we were on our way.
 At the pump:
$NZ 2.61/litre
$NZ10.05/gal ($US6.03) |
When I was 10 or so we kids would play Charades. I began making lists of topics, movies, TV shows, actresses, kids shows, sports, famous horses, etc… which we would use to play the game. In general, it just happens; it’s the way my mind works. e.g. the word “yellow” pops into my head and then I start thinking of how many things have the word yellow in them or how many things are yellow…. I can’t stop my mind from doing this. Everything belongs on a list; or these days, a database.
1. I bought an appointment book when I was 10. Each day I would record when I got up and went to bed, the high temperature for the day, which radio stations I listened to and each television show that I watched. Plus a few other miscellaneous things.
2. I was given a real diary for my 13th birthday. At the end of each day I would put into it all of the above plus what else I did. It was pretty dry stuff, “just the facts m’am”, with no deep thoughts about life or what was going on in the world. I did that for four years. Then beginning in 1962 I would only make notes when something special happened. It has always bothered me that I stopped doing a diary as I tend to believe the 60’s were the “best years of my life”. in 1965 Kincy gave me $3 for my birthday with instructions that I couldn't use it to buy a diary. Luckily, I have always had a good memory so later on in life I was able to fill-in-the-gaps. When I hit Fiji in 1970 I decided to get back to keeping a diary and I have kept one going ever since. Still the dry stuff.
3. While in Fiji I wrote weekly letters to Gail and told her to save them as they were a better description that my diary. Around 1974 I began keeping a carbon copy of my letters. Since 1953 I kept every letter, postcard and greeting card sent to me.
4. When I got my first job in 1963 I bought a cash book. I would record income and detail each and every expenditure, no matter how small.
5. I was a bibliophile from an early age thanks to my mother. Beginning in 1958 I would record each book as I read it onto 3”x5” index cards.
6. On This Day. While living in Waiuku and thinking about retirement I decided that I would digitize my life and be able to carry it all in my shirt pocket when we next shifted houses. I combined all four of the above sources into a single entry for each day when I began to digitize my life in the section of my website called “On This Day”. The cashbook told me when I bought each record (album or 45) and what I paid for it. It also filled in when I went to movies, bowling or miniature golf, etc…Having a diary enabled me to digitize every photo and record when it was taken and who was in it. As I scanned a document I would toss it. So three shelves of diaries are long gone; every letter (to and from) - gone; every greeting card, every postcard etc…The only exception is that I have kept the original photos and my artworks.
7. About thirty years ago I began doing newsletters (currently known as MalleyGrams). I challenge myself to make them interesting with great variety…Put all 300 hundred or so of them together into one place and you have my autobiography. I have kept a printout of them.
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2024 - No. 5 www.malecek.com 2024 - No 5
