June 18th, 1941,

Frances, the new girl, eats lunch with Ernie and me now.  She’s only 17 and very young.  Gets tired soon and tell us too.  Not like I used to keep it to myself.  Ed. came up and told me, after all Chet. M.’s studying he didn’t pass his recent physical.  I drove for a while and went to choir.  Lead and was bad.  Joe, John, and Spike bought us ice cream and we listened to the Joe Louis Billy Conn fight.  Joe won.

The introduction to Frances makes me laugh. Babu just seems to have no time for someone so young but also realizes what she was like at that age. I don’t even want to think back to my behavior at that age!

I was curious about the boxing fight referenced. I still laugh when I find something in research she wrote about and think: “It’s real!”

I have two confessions here. One, I do not at all like sports and two, I was not initially going to fully watch this video. Ok, three confessions, I got into the fight by the end. Somehow, knowing how it ended, and seeing Conn kicking butt, I was eager to see how this game could have possibly turned around. Man! It was close!

I loved hearing the announcers voice. At one point he says: “They both seem very tired.” Also, at one point he references the “recuperative powers” of Conn. I don’t know why it made me laugh. I find it interesting that when Billy Conn slips, Joe Lewis holds off. According to the commentary by the announcer, it seems like he was known for, politeness? integrity? in the ring. Very interesting.

I think Joe Lewis is a big deal in boxing. I want to do more research, I really do. It is very interesting and perhaps I will. Someday. I’m a babe in the woods here with all this talk of classic boxing but I cannot stop feeling amazed that Babu always seems to be there for historic events. The modern day sports caster talks about millions listening on the radio and I just thought: Babu was one of them! They called this a “classic fight.” So, of course, she was there.