Author: Minnie

22nd August

22nd August. Tuesday. Woke, had my
shower, breakfasted, wrote some
letters, and now lunch, and then off
to one of the most exciting days of my
trip, “Disney Land”, it is almost
indescribably, such fantasy, such
imagine [sic], I covered everything that could
be achieved in a life time, in one
day, a trip to the moon, through the
aid of cinerama I went round the
whole of America, which was most
exciting, and finally I went down
in a submarine, what one requires
most of all in “Disney Land” is a
strong pair of feet, a good head, and
last but by no means least is a big
pocket full of money, the only thing
this is free is the air, so I suppose
I have to be thankful, and after a
most exciting time we came home
very tired but pleasantly so. Had
dinner then Pat came home from duty,
she brought a nice young man with her,
had coffee and retired about 2.30 A.M.

Greetings from Disneyland postcard:
Anaheim 22/8/67
Dear Anna, as Pat is
working to-day, I am
here with her room
mate, this place is
wonderful, hope you will
visit it one day.
Regards to all, and
all my love.
Mummy.

21st August

21st August. Monday, awoke, had a
shower, breakfast, and now another
lovely batch of mail, which I will
answer in due course, am waiting
for Pat Bruce to phone, and am
going with her to Anaheim till
Wednesday night. Pat called, we all
had lunch, then Gordon called about
6 P.M., and motored us to Anaheim.
This is a small place, went out
shopping with Pat, back home, had
supper, and talked and talked till
the wee small hours.

20th August

20th August Sunday. Got up late, and
phoned Fay Salisbury, she was
thrilled when she heard my voice,
and she said she and Charlie would
call for me in the afternoon. Ethel,
Al & I took a run out to Ray
Lyons at Hollywood, came home, had
lunch, and relaxed, Fay & Charlie
called for me, took me to their
new home, which is lovely, she had
a lovely dinner, but I couldn’t eat,
however took dessert. They motored
me to the Hollywood Bowl, there
was no concert on, but it is a
beautiful sight to see. Then we had
a walk down 77 Sun set strip,
went into Schwabs for a drink. On
the way back, we called on Fanny
Ferrar [?], she was both surprised and
thrilled to see me, and would hardly
let me go home, a lovely reception
indeed. Came home, Al was in bed
but dear faithful Ethel was up
waiting for me, had melon and
tea and talked till very late.

19th August

19th August. Saturday. Had an early
appointment at the beauty parlour,
Ethel called and took me home, Leah
her husband, and Ray Lyons called
and we all had lunch, they stayed
for the afternoon, later we had
dinner, then a crowd of us went
to a dance in the Yorkshire Club,
it was a Hawaiian night, had
good fun, a cabaret, and a nice
meal, came home late, tired but
happy.

18th August

18th August. Friday. Woke up to a
lovely batch of mail, which I
duly attended to. Went out with
Ethel to Mannings for lunch, then
went shopping, came home for dinner,
Then thought we would surprise
XXXXXXXXX, what a reception, never
was so disgusted, will tell all about
it when I get home, stayed there for
about half an hour, then went to
Millies, and stayed till the wee small
hours.

[I’ve taken the decision to redact this name – I’m not sure what this hostess did that so offended my grandmother. It may be that this was really not an appropriate time for a surprise visit. But whatever it was that disgusted Minnie will remain forever a mystery!]

17th August

17th August Thursday. Got up early
had my shower, breakfasted, wrote
a few letters, then Ethel and I
called for Millie, we went to the
“Century Plaza Hotel” for lunch, a
most beautiful place, with swimming
pool, lovely shops, etc. Walked around
and went to the Century Plaza Shopping
Centre, and bumped into Ray Levi, with
her daughter & granddaughters. Came home
had dinner, then went to Culver
City and saw a film, Doris Day
in Caprice, afterwards we went to
Millies for tea, and am now back at
Ethels writing up this diary.

[Minnie doesn’t comment on how much she enjoyed the film… not a good sign, and not a particularly successful film for Doris Day.]

16th August

16th August. Wednesday. Had a wonderful
sleep, and woke up very refreshed,
had a shower, then off to the famous
market, all that I heard about it is
inadequate to describe it, lunched
there, and stayed a good part of
the afternoon, then off to some of
the large stores, and now back
home for dinner, spoke to Leah and
Ray on the phone, didn’t say who I
was and had them guessing. Ethels
son Douglas came up to see me, he
brought me a bunch of the most
beautiful red roses I have ever seen,
such a nice gesture, and what
a nice young man. All took us
out after dinner to Robert’s (Lyons)
then we went to the sun set
strip, saw most queenies & hippies
then on to Hollywood, went to the
Chinese Theatre, saw all the films
starts prints of hands & feet, there
were hundreds of others besides us.
Went through the Hollywood Roosevelt
Hotel, was very impressed by its size,
decor and everything about it. After
that went to a friends home, and
came home late, tired but happy.
Had a great sing song in the car.

[Hard to imagine what the Sunset Strip drive would have been like to a Glasgow widow of advancing years…

15th August

15th August Tuesday. L.A. 5-30
A.M, Ethel & Millie waiting for
me at the bus station, and it is
pitch dark, what a welcome they
nearly smothered me. Took me
to Canters in Fairfax for breakfast
then home to Ethels, had a good
wash, and unpacked, and now
on the go again, had lunch in
Malibu at the Sea Lion, then
went to Beverly Hills, saw the
shops, then walked into Haggarty’s,
walked up to [D. Finlay], and
was she surprised, she phoned
me in the evening and G d willing
she and Jack are going to take me out
one day next week. Millie stayed and
had dinner with us, then we all
visited Ruth, also warmly received,
then home to bed.

[Canter’s deli is still going strong today.]

14th August

14th August Monday. This is certainly
rocky country, huge huge mountains of
rock either side of the road, had
breakfast in Rock Springs 4-30, saw
another Safeway. Back on to the bus
and then passed Salt Lake ‘Utah’ what
a magnificent site. The scenery now
changes as we go further into Utah, and
now Salt Lake City, where we change
buses, bought and written a few
post cards and will soon lunch as
we have some time to get the other
bus on our last trip to L.A. Cedar
City, still Utah at 4-45 P.M., now
stopped at St. George, 9 P.M. and still
in Utah, what a size of a state. Have
been travelling since Chicago on Saturday
night, with a coloured girl Jennifer, a
most charming person. Now over the
great dessert and into Nevada,
also a very large area, and now
vast lights and lights, and here
were are at Las Vegas, stopped
here for 1 hour and boy oh boy
this is like nothing else in the
world, would have liked to have
had a few days here but nothing
doing, in any case I lost a couple
of dollars, and that is quite enough.

13th August

13th August. Sunday. Crossed the
Missippi [sic] river in Iowa, saw some
show boats on the river, very exciting.
Breakfasted in Des Moines, a beautiful
city, the state Capital, has a magnificent
town hall, with a golden dome, a
beautiful site indeed. Boarded the bus
and then on to Nebraska, the vastness
of the west is breathtaking, never
seen anything like it before on all
my travels. Then on to Cheyenne,
a typical real Siox [sic] village, where
Bill [Lowdry?] lived, saw the Sherrifs
Office etc, exactly as you see in films
and also first place where I saw a
Safeway shop, by the way this is the
Wyoming country. Had supper and on our
way once more.