MAY 17 1978 EAST VILLAGE JOURNAL ENTRY

The Bruins lost 2-1 at the Forum against the Montreal Canadiens

What else is new?

Hilde Harnett is crossing the Hudson for a Saturday night on the town. She had been babysitting her aunt’s children in New Jersey. Her grandfather had been mayor of Jersey City. A powerful man. Her father is the editor of the Boston Globe. Hilde is no longer a teenager. Or almost not a teenager. I like her more than before, although I really liked her before. She thinks I ignore ( hate ) her, because of how crazy things were between us. Her and Dennis. Me living there, Dennis and I fighting in the hospital, while she was sick with a blood disease. He actually won the fight and her. Actually I’m indebted to her. Without those crazed episodes I might have never left Boston. And not become the me who is now.

And not become the me who is now.

And I loved her back then.

Maybe always will love her back then.

Florida Postcard 2/28/78

This is a postcard from Florida dated Feb 28,1978. Hilde was on a road trip with her extended family; four of her younger siblings, two step siblings, two dogs, her mother Kate and Joe All in a van. My friend Andy was living at the family's Brookline compound with Hilde's older sister, Therese. He can't recollect that trip, which took place after the great Northern Blizzard of 1978, which buried the Northeast from Buffalo to Boston in over three feet of snow. I lived through that winter in a West Village SRO. 27 WEST 11TH STREET. A single room with linoleum floors warped by too many bare feet. Oh Florida.

Hilde - Dear Peter, I just tramped through the Everglades with sighting a single reptile. Palm Springs is very quaint. Florida is --- Dirty, ugly ( like New Jersey ), boring, and rainy. Cold and rainy. THe Hartnett girls are having a fashionable vacation. Luxury all the way. The van unbearably smells of dogs. Winnie and Damion are restless. Mother and Joe are ____we should have known better. Pray for us. Hilde.