8/18-8/24/46

8/18 Sunday We went over to mothers today. Lil and Harry there. Susan is very cute and destructive. She grabs hold of everything and shakes it. Fell with a small glass in her hand and smashed it but didn't hurt herself. She says a lot of words answering "Barney" to grandpa and to grandma too. Eugene and Sylvia romped with pop, putting him in "jail" again. In the evening we saw "Lover Come Back" with George Brent and Lucille Ball and "Two Sisters from Boston" with Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Durante and Melchior. The Soviet Union is asking that only Black Sea powers control the Dardanelles and Russia and Turkey share the defense.

8/19 The kids play garbage truck. The wagon is hitched on to the kiddy-car. Eugene drives the car and Sylvia looks for dirt which she puts into the wagon. Sylvia likes to make all sorts of things with the blocks and lock-blocks. Eugene is passing the block stage. This morning the kids went up to Gloria's house. This was unthinkable a few weeks ago on Sylvia's part. Jewish refugees have tried to explode and sink the ship carrying them to Cyprus. Chinese Communist Armies are sweeping forward in Central China. In Calcutta three days rioting between Muslims and Hindus have caused 1000 deaths and 4000 injured.

8/20 Eugene did this puzzle Sunday [see scanned-in page]. Susan is very sensitive. She cries piteously when someone is hitting her daddy or scolding her. Chinese Communists are preparing for a war to the finish. We are feuding with Yugoslavia where two of our planes have been forced down by shots. A Mississippi lynch mob has trapped several Negro families after an altercation. 30000 attended a benefit rally for Negro Isaac Woodard blinded by an N.C. cop. The Great Lakes strike has tied up 120 ships. Fielding Yost is dead at 75. 

8/21 Longshoremen are out again against Ryans betrayal in the contract on grievance committees and vacations. The Price Control Board consisting of Chairman Roy L Thompson banker and Daniel W Bell banker and George H Mead manufacturer has decontrolled dairy products and restored price ceilings on livestock and meat.

I was checking the names of those on the board, and noted that it was actually the  "Price Decontrol Board"!

8/22 Sylvia wanted to know whether she would continue growing after she got as high as the ceiling. The U.S. has given Yugoslavia 48 hours to hand over any survivors from two shot down planes or face "UN" action. We also rejected Russia's request to control defense of the Dardanelles jointly with Turkey. Laborites met with general failure trying to win major party primaries. The "Pirates" rejected the Amer. Baseball Guild 15-3 in an election. NMU pickets were sent to the hospital by police tear gas and clubs. Coffee up 10¢ per pound.

8/23 Yugoslavia has protested 172 unauthorized flights over her territory but received no answer from us. Occupants of one plane shot down have been released but whereabouts of occupants of another are unknown. It is possible they are dead. Tito has ordered no more shooting at US planes. We went to the Zoo today. Eugene wanted to see the "repitillies" (reptiles). Stopped off at Bertha Kooman's and saw her pretty ten [?] month old daughter Henrietta. Lillian "sat" tonight. Latest Indian riot figures - 4000 dead, 11000 injured. Jewish swimmers blew a hole in the hull of the British "refugee" ship Empire Rival preventing its sailing to Cyprus.

Don't know who the Kooman's were, and the age of her daughter is somewhat smudged. 

8/24 Sylvia wet herself last night for the first time in perhaps a year. Yesterday she said we went to the "dezoo" on my "becation". She wants to go to the circus to see the "farmers" (performers). Today we went to Woodlawn. We picked a lot of berries of which Lillian made jam. Split with Alex --------. We have been holding Czech Yugo and Greek ships docked on the Danube in order to force the opening of the Danube to navigation. The Dutch are still battling and killing Indonesians. The NMU has signed two Great Lakes pacts winning concessions. The Ukranian C.P. is being drastically overhauled. Litvinoff has been replaced by two others as Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The judge in "Columbia Negro" trial has seized a sick defendant's bail of $5000 and ordered him brought to court on a stretcher.

Apparently he did not know Alex's last name.

8/11-8/17/46

8/11 Sunday To Woodlawn where I beat Lebost. Mother over for a while. Played with Lillian. We spent an hour in the woods picking berries from which Lillian made jam. In the evening to see "Dear Ruth" a good comedy at the Windsor. Bilbo in a radio talk admitted he was a Klansman. Marshall and Ambassador Stuart see no hope for peace in China.

Picking berries and Mom making jam was always memorable. We called them "blackberries", but found out later that they were really "black raspberries". 
7/15/11 This is what they were - http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/urban-forager-its-prime-time-for-black-raspberries/?scp=1&sq=raspberries&st=cse 

8/12 Beat Mencher. In Alabama a scrap between Negroes and whites nearly ended in bloody rioting but was nipped by prompt action. A white mob marched on the jail to release two men held there, then kept Negroes off the streets that night. None of the mob were arrested.

8/13 Eugene drew "On Charlie Clarke's Farm" by Clarke and Keelor "Pinnochio" by Collodi and "Mrs. Goose of Animaltown" by M. C. Potter. Played some tennis with Lillian in St. James; Sylvia fell off Eugene's bike getting quite a bump but was soon doing tricks with Eugene on a bench. At supper Sylvia has been eating better although she doesn't like a lot of foods. She has to be reminded to eat continually as she is distracted by anything or nothing. Played some chess with Eugene and he was rusty from lack of practice. The British are herding illegal Jewish immigrants in internment camps. They have cut off Haifa. Radio and Cable workers A.C.A. CIO are out on strike. At the Paris parley Byrnes after just barring Vishinsky from speaking on the Italian peace treaty admitted he was wrong and allowed him to take the floor; this follows DeGasperi's speech protesting harsh terms. Negroes are subjected to frequent attacks in Greenwich Village.

8/14 At meals, we play restaurant with Lillian the waitress. We order what we want which is always what Lillian has prepared. H.G. Wells is dead at 89. The British have killed three Jews in a crowd objecting to the shipping of illegal Jewish immigrants to Cyprus. The campaign against Greek democrats is growing into a war against the people.

8/15 Lost to Durst. Sylvia in trouble today for poor eating and chewing her dress. The trial of Columbia Tenn. Negroes opened with defense lawyers charging a jury fraud. Great Lake seamen are out on strike.

8/16 Sylvia pointed to her forehead and asked me if that was her "forest". A Negro in Louisiana, just released from jail was found beaten to death. Children have died on Jewish refugee ships sailing to Cyprus. There were clashes in Cyprus between the Jews and British troops. At the Tenn. Negro trial the judge is approving prejudicial jurymen. Eugene makes things with his erector set every morning.

8/17 Two more Negroes killed in the Carolinas. Soviet delegates in Paris proposed that only countries that were at war with former satellites should have a vote in the treaty commissions. Dorothy Bellanca is dead.

8/4-8/10/46

8/4 Sunday We went downtown to a "movie" this afternoon taking along a bag full of sweets for the kids. After about 15 minutes of the show Sylvia suddenly asked "Are we going to sit here all day without eating anything". For the entire show she kept "noshing", asking "now can I have another piece". Eugene ate a little also. He was very enthusiastic at first but petered out near the end. Both kids laughed heartily at some humorous parts. We saw "Star Spangled Rhythm" with Crosby and Hope and "Johnny in the Clouds" and [sic] English picture with Michael Redgrave. $30,000,000 has been appropriated for special cars for amputees. Lillian took the kids over to Mom's yesterday.

Sylvia and I were almost four, and six and a half years old, respectively. Pretty good if we could get through a double feature!

8/5 We took the Hudson River Day Line boat to Indian Point with Evelyn and Isabel. It was a hot humid day and a crowded boat. Sylvia got a miniature baby carriage and doll of plastic for a present and was delighted with it to the extent of playing with it the entire trip back and forth. At Athens Tenn where GIs took over the town, the sheriff resigned. Strong earthquakes shook the Caribbean and Chile. Gerald Winrod failed to show up a a Bronx meeting but was picketed in absentia. The greatest paid attendance ever - 74,529 saw the Yanks beat the Indians at the latters home grounds 2-0. Feller was injured in the seventh with the score 0-0.
Eugene's poem in honor of the boat ride: "We are going to the boat ride, Aunt Evelyn and Isabel with us. We took a picnic lunch to have lunch and supper there. We'll have a good time, all of us together". Sylvia's poem: "We are going to the boat ride, everyone with us. We are having lunch and supper. We had a good time. We found a picnic table".

Dad did start a new paragraph for our "poems"; I guess we were into blank verse. 

8/6 It is disclosed that Gov. Elect Talmadge visited planter Hester, involved in the lynch incident, on the eve of the lynching. Huysmans has formed a Belgian cabinet. Lillian read Hersey's "A Bell for Adano".

8/7 Sylvia was needling Lillian about ice cream. Finally she said "You know you'll be selfish if you don't get me any". Molotov and Byrnes are attacking each other on procedure at the Paris parley. Byrnes wants majority rule and Molotov, two-thirds. The Klan is menacing Southern union leaders. The lynch scene has been secretly revisited and bullets extracted from trees.

8/8 Penn. LRB has ordered a collective bargaining election among the Pitts. Pirates to decide whether they wish to be represented by the American Baseball Guild. Recently delegates from all Major League teams conferred on grievances. Lillian and Susan over here in the afternoon. Susan is very cute.

8/9 Played some tennis with Phyllis Genandes [?]. Molotov has reopened the question of the majority vs. two thirds rule after the Rules Comm. had proposed simple majority recommendations. LaGuardia has recommended the dissolution of UNRAA after taking some cracks at Soviet actions in occupied countries. Polic Comm. Wallander has denied police brutality against the Negro people. Tony Lazzeri is dead at 42.

8/10 Britain is out to stop all illegal immigration into Palestine and is establishing prison camps for captives. The peace parley retained majority rule over Molotov's opposition 15-6. Arkansas vets are emulating those of Tennessee against a local machine involving a miscount in an election. Sylvia wanted some "greevy" (gravy) at lunch.

7/28 - 8/3/46

7/28 Sunday Woodlawn again. Sam and Molly, the Rosenbergs and the Solomons. Lillian made her first drink in the gallon jug. Eugene calls the drink "Jug". Can I have some jug, he'll say. Sylvia puts on a peculiar baby talk jargon these days. Beat Mencher. We are sharing responsibility for Hungary's fantastic inflation, perhaps the worst ever on Russia's reparations progress. Communists are being arrested and others dismissed and repressed in one occupation zone of Bavaria. Dutch C.P. polled most votes in Amsterdam Holland getting 15 seats - same as the Labor Party. Lillian "sat" tonight. Gertrude Stein is dead. Marcel Bernard won the French Singles over the Czech Drobny in 5 sets. Margaret Osborne defeated Pauline Betz for the Women's title in 3 sets. Riding some bumpy spots on a bus, Sylvia said we were on a "flat, bumpily hill". Lillian read Pearl Buck's "The Patriot".

I remember we all called the dring "jug"; perhaps I invented the term. I remember Sylvia's term as "flat and bumply". 

7/29 Beat Mencher. Many protest meetings throughout the country are demanding apprehension and conviction of the lynchers. UNRAA rice and sugar is reaching black markets in diverse territories. Thousands of Greeks are in the mountains battling the reactionary gov't. Gene Dennis is the new C.P. Sec'y.

7/30 Another Negro has been killed in Georgia - "in self defense". The Georgia and Federal Bureau of Investigation are working on the mass lynching case. Bedault opened the 21 power peace conference at Paris. Drafts of the proposed treaties for the defeated powers were distributed before the opening. It is disclosed that corporations made "billions" during the war through loop-holes in the laws, laxity and Army lobbying. A delegation of 1000 visited Attorney General Clark demanding apprehension of the Georgia lynchers. The New York Klan has been ordered dissolved. A list of 1100 members gotten by a "spy" will be used for prosecution. Lillian took the kids down to Gansmarks [?] and got me two pairs of slacks.

7/31 Beat Levy. The British have clamped a death curfew on Tel Aviv in seeking the hotel bombers. In Paris, Byrnes affirmed willingness to alter "Big 4" agreements if the 21 nations voted by a 2/3 majority against them. Philadelphia has a day of mourning for the Georgia victims. Another Negro was flogged to death in Mississippi. The guilty person in the mattens-theft [?] has confessed. Six are held. A protest demonstration halted a Korean trial against a counterfeiting ring. Several C.P. members are accused with the building housing the C.P. paper the seat of the ring. The building has other tenants. Rep. Coffee accused of taking a $2500 bribe for securing a million dollar war contract claims a GOP frame up. American marines have been killed in a skirmish with Chinese Communists.

8/1 Sylvia doesn't start crying when she has to go to the toilet anymore, but she always comes over and says "I have to make a "B.M." I'll call you when I finish". The Klan has threatened Negroes in St. Albans and burned crosses in two places near Philadelphia. Another Georgia Negro was killed. A Mad. Sq. Park rally against the lynchers heard Yergan, M. Stern, Williamson, Alors. Veterans will get terminal leave pay in 5 year bonds. The Senate failed to invoke cloture against a filibuster against the Anti-Poll Tax bill 39-33. Thousands rallied at Phelps Dodge strikebound Elizabeth plant against company thugs who shot a strike leader. Had Eugene's bike fixed for $4.50.

Not sure of the names at the rally.

8/2 Eugene took haircut. Pickets are in front of many restaurants which have raised prices. Incidentally many have been fined recently in a Health Dept. campaign against dirty kitchens. Yugoslavia has rejected the "Big 4" proposal on the Italian-Yugo. border at the Paris parley being held in the Luxembourg Palace. 1150 Jews have been rounded up by the British in Tel Aviv in the hunt against the terrorists. Two Negroes claim to be eyewitnesses to the Georgia lynching.

8/3 Sylvia went down to the yard with Eugene this morning voluntarily. Thus another landmark is paved. In Paris the parley is fully open to the press setting a precedent for such conferences. Russia rejected U.S. charges that its policies in Hungary are ruinous. Another Phelps Dodge picket shot, is near death. The Georgia Klan has raided the home of labor leader Mike Ross, Klan opponent. Vets in Tennessee running their own ticket in an election, took over a jail where some of their number had been lodged, in a gun battle and forced an honest ballot count, winning over the corrupt long standing machine. Tobacco workers have won a victory over Reynolds getting an unprecedented 65¢ per hour minimum. Marjory Logan who was raped and shot last week and her mother killed has identified a nearby butler as her assailant. Sylvia has asked several times lately when Lillian is going to work

I take back what I said about "milestone"' Dad had his metaphors consistent (although a little strange).

7/21-7/27/46

7/21 Sunday We went to Woodlawn. Molly and Sam there. Sylvia complained that Molly interrupted her in telling a story. Beat Waldman. In the evening Sarah R. stayed as we saw "Night Editor" and "The Green Years" with Chas. Coburn. Selfishness and niggardliness loses out as hard working youth, wavering from belief to doubt and back to faith gains its goal with the aid of loyal dissipating [?] great grand pappy. Teachers and students strikes have grown into widespread rioting in Bolivia. The Pearl Harbor Congressional Comm. after six months study blamed Japan rather than F.D.R. for the Pearl Harbor attack. Macy's delivery men won ten year job guarantees and retention of all rights in their new union.

7/22 Beat Eugene today after he made a double attack winning my rook. Large scale civil war is again imminent in China. Senator Mead, head of the Senate War investigating comm. has subpoenaed Rep. A. J. May with regard to his suspicious relations with the $70,000,000 munitions empire. Nazi butcher A. Greiser was hanged by the Poles despite an appeal for clemency by the Pope. Bolivian Pres. Villarroel is reported killed in the popular revolt which may have ousted the entire govt with 250 casualties already reported. Lillian stayed at the Rosenbergs tonight. We got kitchen linoleum today at $10.50.

7/23 With rain all day the kids are going crazy racing all over and getting into frequent spats. The "Don't Buy" strike starts today. Revolutionists have established a provisional gov't in Bolivia with Nestor Guillen, Supreme Court judge as President. Elections were held Sunday in Turkey with the Democratic party leading. British Army Headquarters was blown up in Palestine killing at least 54. Another Negro has been beaten by a cop here in New York. The Arm Hemisphere Bill is receiving hearings with liberal and labor groups opposing. Sylvia calls Eugene a "bad and naughty boy" when he annoys her. THIS IS EUGENE AGAIN. I AM IN 1B. I HAVE A NEW ERECTOR SET AND I CAN BUILD LOTS OF THINGS WITH IT. Madame Sun has arraigned American intervention and aid to Chiang as largely responsible for the continued civil war. Lillian read Bromfield's "The Wild River" [sic].

See scanned in page for my actual entry in the diary. The book Mom read is apparently "Wild is the River".  

7/24 Picket lines, meetings and demonstrations swept the country against high prices. Many stores closed in sympathy. The "House" OKd the new weak OPA bill 210-142. A weak provision is a 3-man board with control over many foods including meat, dairy products, eggs. Hartford had its first general strike to support two struck plants. Leaders in the fight for justice in Freeport walked out of the farcical "hearing" being held. 17 yr old William Heirens the Jekyll-Hyde who divided his time between attending Chicago U and committing burglaries and murders has confessed [to] the brutal murder and dismemberment of 3 yr old Susan Degnan.

7/25 We all eat lunch together every day now. Sylvia eats a little bit better. This morning the kids took a bath and came downstairs to play a game. I took them to the yard and asked them to stay while I took a haircut and Sylvia agreed as she was anxious to play the game. Another landmark is passed. Irgun and Stern confessed organizers of the Palestine bombing were accused with Hagana and Palmach by the British. And underwater atomic bomb blast was set off at Bikini Atoll sinking some ships but sparing others. A million tons of water were hurled into the sky. James Maxton is dead. Eugene keeps blowing these days, generally on his fingers. A queer habit. Sylvia is learning to ride Eugene's bike.

The barber was in the building, but not right by the yard. I guess he meant "milestone". I don't remember my "queer habit".

7/26 England will call a Palestine conference with all Jewish and Arab groups. It will suggest partition into Jewish and Arab states with a British zone and a British viceroy. Kuomintang forces are advancing against the Communists in a six pronged offensive. Truman "reluctantly" signed the new OPA bill. Rep May suffered a heart attack as he was scheduled to testify in the Garsson case. Hotel workers have finally won the 40 hr week. The kids play together all the time when upstairs but have frequent squabbles. Sylvia is always fighting for equality. "Eugene does this, why can't I?" "Eugene has this, why can't I?"

7/27 Two Negro couples have been lynched in Georgia. A white farmer carrying the four in his car after posting $600 bail for one of them who had been jailed in a knifing, was covered by a gun while the four were shot to death by 20 or 30 men. Previously the only Negro to vote in one Georgia district was killed. OPA, back in business has hiked many products. Justice Jackson in Neuremberg has asked convictions for all 22 defendants, top Nazis. Civilian control of the atom bomb has been won. The Turkish ruling party won about 350 of 400 seats in the elections amidst charges of illegalities. We went to Woodlawn today. Mom, Pop, Lil Harry & Susan also there. She says "D'wanny" for "don't want any". Beat Hovins [?]. At home Sylvia took a shower with Eugene and myself.

I think that's the first time Dad used the more "German" spelling of "Neuremberg".