Mary Ann Mobley

            On Tuesday after midnight I added some fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had become less sticky. I lint rolled the curtain between the bedroom and the bathroom and picked up a couple of bedbugs. I lint rolled the top of my bed and grabbed one. I lint rolled my pillow and it was clean. I shook out my sheet and my comforter on the deck. I went to bed at around 1:35 and had a pretty good sleep until the alarm went off at 5:00. After yoga I found a few bedbugs stuck to the tape on my bed and one trying to crawl away from the tape on the floor at the head of my bed. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian. That’s half the song. 

            I finished working out the chords for “La fille aux claquettes” (The Tap Dancing Girl) by Serge Gainsbourg. The end of each line of every chorus seems to have a different instrumental bit but I didn’t bother to work those out. They’re just accompaniment for a tap dance and so it could be any combination of chords that sound good together. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing the song in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 91.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since September 14. 

            I played my Kramer during song practice and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I removed a few more strips of wood from the north side of my bedroom storage shelf. 

            I weighed 93.05 kilos before lunch. That seems off considering how little I had for breakfast. It’s the same as the early afternoon of September 6. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 92.4 kilos at 18:30. September 11 was the last evening when I was that mean to the scale. 

            I was now four days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I had wedge oven fries with gravy and a chicken breast while watching the first episode of the 1967 TV series Custer. 

            In 1868, after the Civil War and after having been demoted from general to lieutenant colonel for one year because of dereliction of duty, George Custer arrives at Fort Hays, Kansas, for his new command. He finds the fort gate open and the guard sleeping. In the stable the men are shooting dice. Custer steps on the money and confronts the winner, Private James Bustard, who recognizes him. Bustard is a former Confederate soldier as many of the new recruits are. They fight and Custer wins, then from that time on they’re buddies. Custer immediately promotes him to sergeant. 

            In the intro to the show it says that Custer was the youngest general in the Civil War at the age of 24. He was then reduced in rank and sent west. 

            Custer’s commanding officer, General Terry is away from the fort so Custer and Bustard ride to meet him. But from a high position Custer spots some Kiowa waiting in ambush for Terry’s detail. He and Bustard charge through the Kiowa camp drawing fire and causing the Kiowa to mount up and chase them as they head for Terry. Then Terry’s men drive the Kiowa back. 

            Later a rifle salesman named Tyman arrives at the Kiowa camp and the Sioux warrior Crazy Horse is there. Tyman offers them rifles in exchange for $100 in gold for each rifle (that would be $2,359 per rifle today). That seems like a lot. 

            Back at the fort we meet the general’s daughter Ann who is rebellious. 

            Custer reports to Terry who tells him he doesn’t like him but he needs all the men he can get. Terry shows him around the fort and says some of the men are the scum of the earth. No enlisted man in uniform can be arrested or tried for any civil offense. That makes the army a hideout for thieves, renegades, murderers. immigrants, former Confederate soldiers, and mercenaries. 

            Custer starts to train the men to be cavalry soldiers. 

            The 5th Cavalry returns from patrol accompanied by the fort’s scout California Joe who knows Custer and is surprised and glad to see him. Ann is with them and she invites Custer to dinner. At dinner the officers discuss the situation. Once the news spreads back east that there is gold in the Black Hills there will be a rush of fortune hunters. After the prospectors will come the whisky traders and then the land speculators. Custer adds, “and a major attack by the tribes!” He argues that’s why the 7th Calvary needs to be trained to fight. Terry says the 7th already has its assignment: training and work details. Custer leaves in anger. Ann goes after him and asks why he likes to fight. He says Napoleon always rode to the sound of the guns. 

            Crazy Horse and his warriors attack a mining camp and steal the gold. The 7th is clearing land when they hear the gunfire. Custer orders them to arm themselves and head in that direction where they find the dead miners. Custer tells Terry they need to attack the Kiowa now. Terry reminds him that the 7th’s job is to prepare the fort for winter. 

            The Kiowa and Crazy Horse buy the rifles from Tyman. Then they ambush the 5th calvary on patrol. Terry is wounded. He orders California to find Custer and tell him to defend the fort and not to relieve the 5th until he does so. Custer only sends two men to warn Fort Hays and then takes the rest of the men to rescue the 5th. The Kiowa have shotguns and Custer has the range marked at 40 meters. Custer brings his men just up to the markers and then they wait until the Kiowa fire before he orders them to attack while they are trying to reload. The Kiowa retreat. Tyman tries to shoot Custer but he kills him by throwing a Kiowa spear. 

            Later Terry gives Custer hell for disobeying his orders. Custer says he was carrying out those orders but the general hadn’t specified the route he should take on his way back to the fort. 

            Ann was played by Mary Ann Mobley, who was Miss Mississippi in 1958 and won the Miss America pageant in 1959. This led to many guest appearances on popular TV series of that era. She made her TV debut on Be Our Guest in 1960. She made her film debut with a starring role in Get Yourself a College Girl. She co-starred in Harum Scarum (which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer), Girl Happy, For Singles Only, Young Dillinger, She was the first female guest star on Mission Impossible. She appeared 50 times as a panelist on Match Game. She co-starred in the final season of Diff’rent Strokes, guest hosted Hour Magazine 11 times, She was an active participant in The March of Dimes for 25 years.