12/8-12/14/46

12/8 Sunday This is Eugene, I was just promoted. I am in 2a now. But I don't have any 2a work yet. [me again; see scanned-in page. Note that I'm now printing in upper and lower case!] Sylvia wrote with crayons on the wall today. Lewis called of [sic] the mine strike. The country's greatest hotel fire saw 122 killed and 100 injured in the Winecoff hotel in Atlanta. The Bilbo investigation saw scores of courageous Negroes testify they were denied the right to vote after Bilbo's intimidating declamations. Eugene is at the stage where he spells out words he wishes to say. In the evening to Manhattan Plaza for the wedding of Thelma Altschuler and Harold Seigal. The feature was the 92 year old grandmother of Harold who danced several times.

We (Sylvia and I) believe that the Altschuler's were relatives, but we don't know the connection. 

12/9 Eugene drew "The King's Stilts" by Dr. Seuss, "Angelo, The Naughty One" by Helen Garrett, "How The Automobile Learned To Run" by Ilin & "The Story of Noah's Ark" by E. B. Smith. Eugene read about the big fire in the "Worker", his first news reading. Sylvia finally got a little bottle to use as a baby bottle for her doll. The UN Subcommittee on Spain of 18 nations called for a break with Franco. The Sydenham Hospital, only private inter-racial hospital had its Ambulance Service saved by public contributions. Got Capablanca's "Chess Fundamentals" in the library and started chess again. "Memoirs of Hecate County" by Edmund Wilson has been banned as obscene. Laurette Taylor is dead at 62.

12/10 Sylvia had a couple of squabbles on the sliding pond today but managed to survive. Eugene measured 51 1/2 inches in school today and was told he grew two inches since the last time. The UN Political Security Comm. voted to recall all ambassadors & ministers from Spain 23-4, 20 abstained. The UN Comm. on disarmament voted to ask withdrawal of armed forces of member states in other countries.

12/11 Sylvia wouldn't go down with Bobbie R. today as she couldn't take her bike or carriage in the street or go on the sliding pond. Eugene was doing a cryptogram from the clues I got and was almost late for school. Acting Sec'y of State Acheson has proposed a program for food relief which would interpose political considerations. There is a big shake-up in the Police dept. in the slain Scottoriggio's district. The Columbians in the South have been exposed through some confessions as a Nazi-modeled and aided conspiracy to overthrow the gov't. There is a consipiracy by big business to provoke strikes making a crack down on labor inevitable. Damon Runyon is dead at 61 and Walter Johnson at 59.

I hadn't done cryptograms for many years until a year or so ago, when I started doing the Newsday one every day.  

12/12 Sylvia threatened not to give me a bite of anything she eats if I don't let her look at the bag of pictures. Perusing them, she names every person and what they're doing out loud, Eugene came home from lunch with three nice things. The purchase of a stamp pad with a stamp bearing his name by Lillian was featured in his News of the Day. He also read part of a story to his class and corrected subsequent readers. Finally he learned subtraction with three figures. Yesterday he had been much upset when the teacher unjustly accused him of a scream. After lunch Gloria S. called for him and they played with the lock-blocks for ten minutes. Economist Robert Nathan has prepared for the C.I.O. a survey showing that industry can raise wages 25% with present prices. Labor must have a 23% increase to return to their January '45 status. JD Rockefeller Jr. has offered to buy a permanent site in Manhattan for the United Nations for 8 1/2 million dollars. Iran claims Azerbaijan has already capitulated to gov't troops after a two day attack.

I remember that stamp; I believe we still have it someplace. 

12/13 Sylvia threatened not to read Lillian a story from her book if she didn't get a cookie which she is always clamoring for. Eugene remarked for the first time that I wanted him to beat me when we raced to the corner. A fire at an abandoned ice house culminating in a reported blast which blew a brick wall on an old tenement house at 2515 Amsterdam Ave. caused a holocaust burying scores of tenants, killing and injuring many. The Senate War Investigating Comm. is now holding hearings on irregularities in war contracts involving Bilbo. Leon Blum has been chosen first Premier of the Fourth Republic as a compromise choice. Eugene broke his first lens carrying his soft case in his pocket. 2 hours O.T.

Definitely not the last lens I would break. Overtime for my father, a Post Office clerk, always grew towards Christmas 

12/14 Eugene is copying a story from one of his books in his nice script. Sylvia, in the yard with Eugene, started crying she wanted to go up but wouldn't go by herself. Victims are still being unearthed in 2515 Amsterdam Ave. Lillian and the kids went over to Sadie's after lunch. Later they had supper at mother's. 8 hours no comp day.