Old Roaring Spring Notebooks

This is just a small part of an article in which Paul Zahl talks about the movie Super 8:

Recently I came across ten little notebooks, notebooks for a person’s breast pocket, which I used for my to-do lists during the Winter and Spring of 1972-1973. I was a recent college graduate and quite confused, about absolutely everything. A lot was going on, and just barely underneath the surface. It mainly concerned girls, and sex; not to mention who did I wish to be and become. I was striking out on almost every front, though there were a few shafts of light oddly breaking through. But those notebooks, goddammit!

I read them again. They are lists and lists of “urgent” things to do: letters of recommendation to get, applications to complete, courses to take, contacts to make, professions to pursue, taxes to file. Someone named “Mrs. Watson”, the identity of whom I now have no idea but who was probably the administrative assistant to some academic dean, gets innumerable mentions. Yet the only thing I was really thinking about, I mean really, was the person who would later become my wife ; and how she fit in with some possible other person, and so on.

I love those photos of the notebook in its scribble-covered state. I had some of these Roaring Spring notebooks too:

More about mine in this post. I also liked what he said about what he’d written, as I feel the same way about some of my notebooks– so many random jottings and lists of things to do, but musings about life’s bigger questions too, especially relationships!

One thought on “Old Roaring Spring Notebooks”

  1. I’m sorry. I DID e-mail you back, but I guess you did not get it. I do not have a website to link to at this time, but I am thinking of starting one. I am so excited to see my post and my tutorial here — thank you SO MUCH! I hope that everyone enjoys it. I love your blog!

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