Diary March 24, 1960: Off to a Good Start!

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"Dear Diary

I am off to a good start for this marking period, my goal, straight A's.

I forgot to bring my math book home--what a time?

Gilda says sometime soon we'll clean up the doll house, when, I don't know.

I put some perfume on my hands to tease Tina, phwew!, even now it's terrible,...I bought a coconut today...named the Lippizan Charlemagne...

Kept cash account, what a lot of business! Tomato juice, gingerbread, candy, candy, candy.

Thinking about poems & stories."

I'm not sure what I could've meant by being off to a "good start." Forgetting to bring my math book home? Does that count?

The Lippizan I refer to was a little china horse for my collection. I used to be horse crazy and beg for horse figurines from every tacky gift shop we ever visited. I don't remember where I picked up this particular statuette, but I do remember why I liked Lippizaners. My Uncle Eddie, the person who did the most to expand my horizons when I was a child, had taken me to see the Austrian Lippizaner stallions doing dressage at the Eastern States Coliseum. He already knew a lot about them and was so enthusiastic that I caught the fever.

Note to my twelve-year-old self: Lippizan stallions are named according to very strict conventions. They are given the name of their sire plus the name of their dam. There are only six lines recognized by all registries worldwide. Therefore, your horse should have been named Pluto, Conversano, Maestoso, Favory, Neapolitano, or Siglavy. (That said, I still have the horse and I still call him Charlemagne.)