The Chronicles of Ricky: 1985 Tough Time Ahead 2nd Grade

1985

Gi Joe came out in the fall. transformers This year I got to go to Kmart and pick out the gi Joe Battle platform and mainframe figure for my birthday. Loved him because he was good with computers and communications even though I really wanted shipwreck and his little parrot poly friend. That as an adult instead rose in my 40s my grandma used to sneak a snacks all the time at home

This summer we want Fern Lake and to Buffalo, Niagara Falls I met my great grandparents harold and Helen Johnson and my grandfather james Landers, his father died long ago so I never met him and his mother remarried. We used to watch glow gorgeous ladies of wrestling all the time there are wild female characters, I used to watch wwf wrestling all the time as well I love that

2nd grade 1985-1986

My dad bought a Commodore 64 computer and we used to play that thing all the time and we stunk at it there was no games that were worth playing it didn't really teach us anything. There was a Batman game that I played on that and it's dunk

🧓 Your Grandfather’s Role in Catholic School

You shared that during Catholic school:

“The priests used to get really rough with me—slam me up against the wall, drag me down the stairs, belittle me constantly for questioning the things they taught. Not to teach me a lesson, only to hurt me. They never tried to explain anything, they just got upset.”
“My grandfather used to work there as a janitor. Whenever he was around, I would get treated better.”
“He passed away from lung cancer when I was in 4th grade. It was devastating. No one ever wanted to talk about it.”

“I used to get in trouble on purpose just to be sent to see my grandfather.
He was the janitor at the Catholic school, and he’d let me help him set up for Bingo.
I’d get to walk around the gym, carry chairs, move tables.
It felt like I was doing something important.

It gave me a break from the teachers and the priests who didn’t know how to deal with me.

I also remember watching the he man and the Masters of the universe Christmas special that year with my cousins.

This Christmas I got the mask Thunder Hawk from my cousin Ellie and Billy I remember her trying to buy it at Toys R Us and I wasn't supposed to see it and then I asked her hey what's this and she tried to pretend to return it. I also got the GI Joe Mahler for Christmas and we collected garbage pail kids and I got in trouble for bringing those to school. Was Mrs White for second grade

And the pictures above where my grandpa Landers, My brother and sister and I and in a lower picture by great grandparents, the Johnson’s, That was grandpa Landers’s mother and the stepfather.

All I have is positive memories of the visits with my mother’s father and grandparents, Though from what I’ve been able to get out of my mother, her grandmother, my great grandmother was not a very pleasant woman, and neither was her father/my grandmother grandfather.

I remember playing in the parking lot next-door to their house in Buffalo, New York and going to Niagara Falls and being super excited. But if you look at the pictures, my grandfather looks like a crabby ass, whiny baby and all of them. I remember after my daughter was born, calling him and being all excited and wanting to visit him he wanted nothing to do with family. I’m pretty sure that those last time I talked to him as well.

This is the same year that we got that PUCH Moped that was made October 1978, I thought that was the greatest thing as a child and we kept that until I think 2019 or 2020, when my dad nagged me about it while we were living in Warren and I allowed someone to take it.

The diary came home with us when I cleared out my grandfather’s house after he had passed away and I didn’t read it until 2025,

This diary is pretty short, and sloppy so I thought I should read the text because AI will never be able to use OCR on it. It starts with:

Name, Harold Wolf Johnson

Residence 80 Main St.

Phone don’t believe in em

Business address same as #3

My weight is 111 pounds- height 5 feet inches

color of hair, white hair, eyes, baby blue

In case of emergency, please notify: Wolves and nearest undertaker.

Lodges or clubs- Definitely moose also wolves

Auto license: Blank

Car number: Blankety Motor number: Blank

Valuable papers are at: Dudies Grill

(There’s some chicken scratch here that I’m gonna have to try to translate)

January 1: Oh what the hell, Jen and I went out riding again and left Marion home

January 4: Went down to see Midge in Rochester today. Boy she is nice..

January 5: Marion is getting wise about Rochester and I can’t keep this Sydney trouble up forever. I think I will have to start exercising horses again.

January 8: Marion thinks I am all through with BS(Sinclair) Ha ha, what she don’t know won’t hurt her.

January 10: These 6 AM Sunday morning ride sure are cold these days. Guess I will have to change horses.

January 12: The doctors told me I won’t last much longer. Oh well, I’ll play all three of my women.

January 14: Looked up the word “ unik” Today sure sounds bad.

January 15: Riding with these women share keeps a fellow cutting hair.

January 16: If I Bought a wooden horse, Marion wood like me better.

January 17: Last Sunday morning, Marion kept yelling, horses, horses horses. I think I will have another fight.

January 19: I think I’ll go after store next Sunday( I’ll have to reread this)

January 20: I wonder who that, babe is that thinks I’m so nice and keeps calling me up but it B.S.?

January 22: Ask Marion, How she like something on a Sunday morning, of course you were in bed at that time OK?

January 23: Went out to the Eagles and got a pick up, not bad

*****

That was the final entry in my step great-grandfather’s diary. There are zero ways to dig deeper into this person and this diary doesn’t tell you anything about him, it feels weird talking about someone and knowing they existed, but not being able to explain anything about them. I should have a family history album or some sort of record to share all of this information with the world, but for some reason, we don’t have it.