Two Diaries Speak on Aug. 9, 1965

I had had surgery in July, 1965 at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, so was not yet back to work at U.S. Life on Maiden Lane in NYC when I wrote this diary entry. Our apartment was in Riverdale.  Calling long distance is still considered very pricey in 1965, as you can guess by my noting the time we talked.  The home office of the ad agency Dan worked for, N.W. Ayer, was in Philadelphia, though the office he went to most of the time was in the Time-Life Building at 50th and 6th.

Monday, August 9, 1965
"I got up at 9 and vacuumed the whole apartment. Then at 11 while I was writing to Dan's parents, the phone rang.  Surprise - my mother called to find out how I am.  We talked for 12 minutes....
The sky was overcast and it rained off and on, so I didn't go to the pool.   Wrote to my parents and continued reading an interesting book - The Heartland:  Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.  Dan called to say he would be in Philadelphia over night, then called from Philly at 7.  I read, baked cookies, watched TV.  Stayed up til 1:00."

 On the same day many miles west of us in Oak Park  IL, my mother, Ruth Kellogg, wrote in her diary.  

Monday, August 9, 1965
"Rain.  Phoned Beth & long-distanced to Diane.  As a result of talking to Diane (who is feeling fine), I started making a shift for Diane out of her former sorority curtains.  She is using shift a lot I made her."

, Diane's Surgery in New York City, 1965

Diane's picture was taken in our apartment on Kappock St. in Riverdale, just north of the confluence of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers.  Yes, my hair was long, but done up in a stylish hairdo on top of the head.  

My mother's 1965 diary mentions that I had surgery on July 14 to remove "2 pieces of pencil-like scar tissue and a cyst off of an ovary".  She mentions 10 days later that "Diane phoned during the evening & we all got a word into her - but mostly listened to her - with Ken carrying load of conversation on this end.   She had gone home Thurs. from the hospital."

 I went to Beth Israel Hospital in NYC for an exploratory surgery.  I remember the surgeon later saying he had taken a tiny piece out of the ovary because that would encourage fertility if I should want to
get pregnant.  About 10 months after the operation, Lynn Meredith was born at that same hospital just 5 days before my 30th birthday.

At that point, my parents, Ruth and John Kellogg, were selling the house in Oak Park and about to live in an apartment temporarily.  They were going to have a new place in Clearwater FL re-done, adding a 3rd bedroom and extra bath, taken from the unit next door to them.  The other one became a one-bedroom, one-bath condo.