1985-01 (January)

Foote Diary: January 16th, 1985

Opus 2; got assorted cassettes. Walgreen’s; exchanged nonworking Mitchum deodorant. Drove back on summer to get five gallons of coal oil for workroom heater. Back home, recorded the 60 min. Robert Johnson cassette I provided Tommy Black (372-0558) When I heard him playing synthesizer in a three-man combo at Turkie’s New Years Eve party. Called and told him it was ready; said he’d pick it up tomorrow. Rainy, cold: no walk. Reading Seamus Heaney’s Poems 1965-1975. In some ways he is my favorite living poet: not that there’s much competition.

Foote Diary: January 17th, 1985

Still cold; lit workroom heater. Continued reading Heaney poems. Recorded (120-min.) Schumann’s Piano Trio’s 1-3 and the Piano Quintet.

Took Gwyn to Red Lobster on summer for lunch, using a $25 gift certificate from Mississippi woman whose Civil War I autographed last month.

Foote Diary: January 18th, 1985

Not quite as cold, but by no means warm either. Recorded (90min) Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito, a version with the relibativoseco? recorded; made only one brief cut to make it fit.

Walked two miles in comparatively fair weather.

January 19th, 1985

Hard freeze predicted over weekend, but not so far; temperature still in the mid 40’s in afternoon. Drove out to Tobacco Corner; got their new fillers (micro felt tip) for this Mount Blanc pen. En route, stopped by Radio Shack; got two cassettes (a 90 and a 60) to record Mozart’s Nosse di Figaro, which will complete my opera collection- total, five by Mozart.

Temperature, as predicted, fell about twenty degrees in two hours. I walked while it fell; 2 ½ miles, with the wind alternately at my front and back, cutting and sharp. God knows what the wind factor brought it down to… House chilly, too, as is always the case when the wind is out of the north and the thermometer falls below zero. By 5 o’clock it was down to 26.

Gwyn built a living room fire; most welcome. We sat by it listening to Kay Starr and Chuck Weber till bedtime. Small- slake snow began falling at sundown, while the thermometer continued its tumble.

January 20th, 1985

Two to three inches of powdery snow, which receded in the night. Temperature at 8am. 8 below zero. We dressed warmly and settled into a cold Sunday. I began reading Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress for the first time since childhood. Late movie, Woody Allen’s “Broadway Danny Rose.”

Cassettes with Hugs in Paris 1. Mozart, Qts 14 and 15. 60 2. Mozart Symphonies 39, 40, 41. 90 3. Bethoven, Qts. 14 and 15. 90 4. Sibelius, Violin and Sym 3. 60 5. Buslovich, Qt 3. 60 6. Debussy, three sonatas. Rom. 7. Ravel, Qt and piano trio. 60 8. Schubert, string Qut. Rom. 9, 10. Mozart Don Giovanni. 90(2) 11. Kay Starr/ Chuck Webb. 80 12. Ravel, songs. 90 13. Robert Johnson, Blues. 60 14. Chopin, Piano. 60 15. Berg, weber, Chamber Works. 60 16. Mozart, Quintets 3, 4, 5. 90 17. Mozart, Vln. Cons. 3, 4; sing. Con. 90 18. Mozart, Piano cons 24, 25, 27. 90 19. Songs-Berlios, Faure, Debussy. 60 20. Ransom, 26 Poems. 60 21. Browning, Poems.