1985 July/August issue Part 4

Notes from a

Grandmother's Diary

ELISABETH (age five): "Come outside, Granny. I want you to play with me."

GRANNY: "In a few minutes, sweetheart. I've got a few things to do here in the kitchen."

ELISABETH: "Oh, don't worry about all that housework, Granny. Leave it to Mama. She's used to it."

In Sunday School the children were singing "I've Got a Home in Glory-Land," with gestures. When they came to the stanza, "I took Jesus as my Savior, you take Him too!" Elisabeth, instead of pointing forward as everyone else did, pointed straight back over her shoulder at her eight-year-old brother, Walter.

How I Got the Job Done

Last week I received a fat package in the mail which I was not specially eager to open. The galleys of a new book. I was going to the west coast so I had to do the proofreading and correcting in two days in order to return them by the deadline. I feel as Flannery O'Connor felt about reading galleys-it's like chewing all day on a horse blanket, or eating stewed Kleenex-pretty tasteless stuff that I've worked over for years and can't believe anybody in the world will find readable. I have to make myself sit down at the desk and go to it. This time it seemed worse than ever. The only way I got the job done was to set myself small goals-ten pages at a time, then a break: write a letter. Ten more pages: make a phone call. Ten more: walk to the post office. Ten more: another letter. I did it. I got through the 230 pages and put it in the mail before I left for the airport. The title of the book? I'm afraid to tell you! You might say, when you see it on the shelf next fall, "Oh, that's the one she said was like stewed Kleenex." "My character as a mature woman will generally be shaped less by big decisions than by small decisions I make daily in disciplining my life right now." (From a letter from Allison McNeese, Iowa)