April 9 -- The first of many Wednesday evening snack nights, a Stebbins tradition at the time. There was a slide show of someone's trip to Utah.
April 26 -- Stebbins has a picnic at Codornices Park. The park has good playground equipment, featuring a very long, smooth, and fast concrete slide. John L tries it and ends up in sitting in the mud.
April 30 -- Snack night, vegetables. Don't ask me why I wrote this stuff down.
May 4 -- Stebbins participates in a intra-co-op volleyball tournament and wins.
May 10 -- I go for a walk in the Berkeley hills and catch (and release) a gopher snake.
May 17 -- I take a group picture of Stebbinites at the front of the building. In the evening, we have a special dinner with our own hand-cooked food, place settings, and wine.
May 28 -- There's a heat wave, 86 degrees in the evening, so some of us sleep on the roof.
June 12 -- Final exams end. I take my first sip of an alcoholic beverage, a Margarita, prepared by Paul.
June 13 -- I go with a group of Stebbinites on a trip to San Francisco. We have Chinese food for dinner and visit several fancy hotels. We go to a hotel bar, where I order an orange juice.
June 14 -- Janice F hosts a swim party at her family's home.
June 15 -- I take one of several afternoon walks in the Berkeley hills with Clint, Madeline, Dana, and Betsy.
June 18 -- It's the first day of summer school. I take an obscure economics class on the development of railroads in Europe in the 18th century, taught by a young Englishman who paces back and forth in the front of the classroom as he lectures. Emily is a classmate.
June 29 -- I clean up a mass of accumulated cooking grease on the floor behind the stove.
July 4 -- Hort hosts a small group to watch fireworks from his family's boat.
July
6 -- Betsy catches a tiny mouse on the kitchen floor by spraying water
on
it using the dishwasher spray faucet, then putting an empty jar over it.
Nobody wants to kill it, but we don't want it in the house either.
Chessa
chauffeurs it in her VW to the Berkeley hills and releases it into
the urban wild. July 31 -- I interview for an engineering co-op job at American Microsystems Incorporated in Santa Clara. A week later, I'm offered the job, which I accept.
August 11 -- Hort organizes an evening trip to Fenton's ice cream parlor in Oakland.
August 13 -- I ask Betsy the meaning of the word "chutzpah," pronouncing it exactly as it's spelled, with the "ch" sound. She finds this very amusing.
August 21 -- I move to Santa Clara to start my first paying job, which runs through the Fall quarter. In the meantime, I occasionally visit friends at Stebbins on weekends.
December 13 -- During the Stebbins Christmas party, secret "fairies" give gifts to the residents. Bill lets me store some of my belongings in his room. Sandy lets me crash on the floor of her room. I borrow some of Dan Bolster's stash of foam cushions (Bolster's bolsters) from the hall closet to sleep on.
January 7, 1976 -- I move back into Stebbins for the winter quarter.
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