Picnic on LAKE CHABOT

It is not a smile that plays about his lips, but there is something there: a look of detached amusement. Or is it bold complicity?

-Alicia Drake
THE BEAUTIFUL FALL: Fashion, Genius, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris

Twenty-five years ago today:

May 30, 1987
Saturday

I woke up at 8:15AM and went for a morning job to the end of Shoreline Avenue, near the beach. It’s feeling good to do this continual routine of the jog. I need to keep up with it.

After my run I washed my car in my driveway.
Mom called and asked, “Do you want to go to that Petite Boulangerie?”
I laughed at the way she pronounced Boulangerie and said, “Yes!”
We had fresh cinnamon rolls once we got there.
Mom needed to vent about her job.
“What happened?” I asked, as I could tell there was something on her mind.
“I was spoken to about NOT staying for mandatory overtime.”
“I hate that!” I said, “You do the work of two people and they just want to work you to the bone.”
She shrugged it off but I know I made her feel better.
She works the hardest while some of her other coworkers are so lazy.

“I don’t blame you for leaving. You get out at two o’clock in the morning and they want you to stay until four or five in the morning. That’s crazy!”

Mom and I went to SAFEWAY for a few things. I bought some wine for my picnic outing with Eileen today. I tried going to PAYLESS but they ran out of film. Luckily, I found some at SAFEWAY.

I picked up Eileen in Hillsborough. At first, she was embarrassed to see me in my new WILKES-Sport shorts. I was wearing the vertical striped gray and black shorts.
I asked, “What? They look cool to me?”
She tried not to giggle (and I didn’t like it because I knew she wanted to laugh at me).

We departed for our picnic on Lake Chabot. I actually paid two-dollars to park my car. She didn’t want to walk from the street (spoiled brat).   I photographed her next to a parked ALFA ROMEO.

“This is MY car,” Eileen screamed, “I wish.”

I rented a paddle boat and it was fun. It was a good workout for our legs.
Eileen said, “I can feel it in my stomach.”
“That’s good!”
She rolled her eyes.
“I don’t feel it in my stomach. I wish I did.”
We were in the middle of the lake and we decided to munch on the fresh Bing cherries that I had brought along. We also sipped on the White wine. She had to chase it with Cherry 7-UP. I followed her moved.
“What did you bring?” I asked.
“It’s a surprise.”
She pulled out a roast beef sandwich. It was so delicious.
I teased Eileen about her shoes, “They look like the shoes that withered under the house in the Wizard of Oz!”

She laughed hysterically as I photographed 'The Wicked Witch' shoes.

After our time in the lake we left Lake Chabot and I drove through the San Ramon, Castro Valley areas and on to Danville. We were hungry again, so we stopped at FOSTER FREEZE.
A very well-endowed bosomy girl came by while we were there. She really caught my eye. She had a body that wouldn’t quit.

We returned to my place in Alameda and took more pictures. I took a fun one of her sitting in the tree.

We walked to my brother’s house. John had gone to work but Sherri took a photo of us. We returned to my pad. She kept playing ‘hard to get’. It was not planned…it just happened.
She suddenly said, “I know this wasn’t planned but I want to date other people.”
I felt the ceiling cave over me. I felt very hurt.
I wanted to yell, “I’ve had it!”
I didn’t yell though. I just realized that it was totally her loss—not mine. I drove her home and barely said two words. After I dropped her off I found myself driving on that stupid El Camino Real. I finally found a freeway sign and made it all the way back home.

Here is the world, and you live in it, and are grateful.  You try to be grateful.
-Michael Cunningham
THE HOURS