Friday, August 26, 2011

10/27-11/2/46

10/27 Sunday Went to mom's today. Eugene fell in the foyer leaving the house, again on the street and again on the subway stairs. He is in high spirits and careless. At mother's Sylvia played with the dice beads as usual. I played Eugene and pop in consultation a chess game. Won after being in trouble at first. Leaving we couldn't find a pawn or Eugene's tie! Norway and Chile called for action against Franco at the UN Assembly.

10/28 Took Sylvia down in the morning and she joined some children in games turning shy just for a few minutes. In the afternoon we kept Eugene out of school and went downtown to pick up his glasses and buy shoes for the family. Went to Export shoe again. Sylvia got black shoes Size 12 - $3.50. Eugene fancy light brown with crape soles Size 1 1/2 - $4.25. Lillian got high heeled patent leathers trimmed with python Size 8 1/2 - $5.00. I got wide blacks - $6.50. At home played some chess Eugene wearing his glasses and looking adorable in them. On the bus we nearly had an accident. Getting off, Sylvia was left on the automatic door, the door closing on her and the bus starting. We both had our hands around her and Lillian's screams and my shouts stopped the bus right away. Incidentally, Lillian is delighted with her fancy shoes which are for the coming weddings. The Italian C.P & S.P. have obtained unity on political action. Bulgarians voted yesterday, the Fatherland Front apparently winning a big victory.

10/29 American intervention in China was denounced at the UN Assembly by Byelorussian Kiselev. Thousands of Italian Fascists demonstrated on the anniversary of Mussolini's coup. Many were arrested. Stalin, answering many questions sent by U.P. head Baillie denied war tension is increasing, branded Churchill and his followers the chief threat to peace, admitted Russia does not have the atom bomb and said the Soviet Union had sixty divisions in the West, to be reduced to 40 in two months. Read "Nicholas Nickleby" where virtue triumphs over rascality. Much humor is present.

10/30 Beat Mencher. One other child in Eugene's class wears glasses. Both leave them on the teacher's desk when they go for lunch. "American Action" leader M K Hart wants firing squads, deportations and life imprisonment for "communists" and their supporters. Molotov at the "Assembly" asked for a reduction of armaments, ban on atomic energy for military use. The City Council OK'd 10-35% raises for city workers. The British Embassy in Rome was bombed. The kids went to a Hallow-een party.

10/31 Beat Levy. Sylvia insisted I was George Washington today and she came to visit me with her lock block people saying I lived in the river. Wallace approved Molotov's disarmament proposals and charged Vandenberg and the War dep't are needling Byrnes into war. He called Churchill the greatest red-baiter. We are ready to cut arms but not the atom bomb. Bulgarian elections gave the F. F. 3 million votes against 1,200,000 opposed. C.P. got 2,250,000 of the F. F. total. Terror is again rampant in Dominican Republic.

11/1 Eugene asked if he could take two stars but decided to take a few more since he hadn't had any for a long time. The kids get a penny for every two bones they find in their food. Three C.P. members were given cabinet ministries by Pres. elect Videla in Chile setting a S.A. precedent.

11/2 Eugene drew "Don't Blame Me" by Richard Hughes, "Red People of the Wooded Country" by T.O. & E.W. Deming and "The Animals Own Story" by E. C. Babbitt. Helen Bannerman, author of "Little Black Sambo" is dead. Albanian shells drove off a British cruiser. A new terrorist group, the Columbians, is attacking Negroes in Georgia.

10/20-10/26/46

10/20 Sunday Today went to Moe and Mary Weitman in Lynbrook. Eugene played with their boy Bobby, his age. They also have a girl Renee about 11. Their 18 yr old boy Jimmy has just enlisted. Mr. and Mrs. Winkler who live with the Weitmans were there, also, Moe's mother. Mortie and Ray [sic - see below] Steindler and their boy Walter in an Army uniform also came over. Another couple also, Flo and Irving. Sylvia recited an original poem about the visit as usual and ate all day, being the first seated at the table when we had a bite. Going home Mortie and Rae offered to take us to Jamaica but generously took us all the way home. 4000 people went to Albany to interview Dewey and other officials on the question of veteran's housing, raises for state employees, and increase in appropriation for education. Quill, Levine, Strauss and Mills were among the leaders. 70 "vets" in a spectacular move took over the Senate chamber and started a sit down until they see Dewey after receiving runarounds from all officials. Judge Murray upheld the C.P. right to be on the ballot after a court fight. Other minority parties were thrown off the ballot. Tudeh members were dropped from the Iran cabinet in a shuffle.

Most of those people are not familiar to me. I didn't know we ever went to Lynbrook.

10/21 Eugene is in the bright row in school. He took Mrs. Curry's place today calling out children who were talking. Dewey saw the entrenched vets but refused to do anything about housing. Turkey refuses to discuss Russia's proposal for joint control of the Dardanelles. Rep. Barry is dead.

10/22 Beat Levy. Lillian Eugene and Mollie went down to Co-operation Opticians yesterday for eye examinations. Eugene may need reading glasses. Lillian is getting new lenses and frames for $6.25 representing 10% discount for union members. Examinations by an eye doctor are $1. A report concerning the Nazi fifth column in America based on German Nazis testimony is being suppressed by the Dept of Justice. Elections in all zones of Germany saw the Social Dems win getting 950,000 votes, Chris. Dem 430,000 Soc. Un. 380,000 Lib. Dem. 180,000. The Int'l Assembly of Women is being held upstate with delegates from many countries. A&P is open today.

10/23 Lillian went over to Molly's to get a dress she got her for the weddings. It was $10. wholesale price. Eugene takes a little classmate home from school - at her request. She lives along his path. Sylvia took down her aeroplane today and "flew" it in the "aqueduct". 75,000 in Stuttgart protested the recent anti allied bombings there. We recently cancelled a Czech loan because of their "hostile" attitude. C.I.O. Marine Engineers have won preferential hiring and wage increases. Board of Estimate approved transit wage increases. Ernest Thompson Seton is dead at 84.

10/24 Eugene needs glasses for reading and school. The cost will be the same as Lillian's. Coughlin asked the Nazis for help in fighting Roosevelt. John L Lewis was contacted by the Nazis through oil man Davis. These facts are from the suppressed Dept of Justice report. Truman addressed delegates of 51 nations at the opening of the General Assembly of the UN at the former Worlds Fair site in Flushing. He stressed the need and possibilities for peace. The O.P.A. removed controls from all foods and drinks except sugar and rice. Landlords in Seattle are refusing to rent vacant apts. until rent control is lifted. We are intervening in Bulgaria to "assure free elections".

10/25 Eugene had his dental examination for school by Dr. Levy who said his teeth were "one in a thousand". Sec'y Gen'l Lie of the UN called on the General Assembly to act on Franco Spain in order to restore democracy there. Henri-Spaak is presiding at the Assembly. The British T.U.C. heard Atlee attack communism and defend British action in Greece. A resolution criticizing British policy there was defeated by a show of hands. The Nazi razer of Lidice Daluege was hanged.

10/26 Lillian had asked the kids to call her mommy or mother instead of Lil. Last night Sylvia had to go to the toilet and Lillian heard a little voice whining "mother". Eugene at lunch today said the "koshe" was delicious. Immediately after he asked if he could leave some. Questioned, he said "it's delicious but I don't like it very much". German workers in the Russian zone have been sent to Russia for work there. They were transported early in the morning. It is claimed they had contracts and were sent when a train was available. The T.U.C. voted for a break with Franco. Estonian "refugees" here are winning the sympathy of the administration while Spanish loyalists are to be deported to Spain or France although they have visas for Mexico and Venezuela. The UN Assembly voted to discuss the veto question. Att'y Gen'l Clark has fired Rogge for divulging Nazi testimony concerning Americans who helped the Nazis. T.W.A. pilots are on strike.

Friday, August 12, 2011

10/13-10/19/46

10/13 Sunday We visited the Arons today. Had a lovely dinner including duck and ice cream and huckleberries for desert [sic]. The kids did the meal full justice tho' Helen didn't eat much. Sylvia kept plodding along. Eugene had two plates of soup, asked for more desert [sic] and insisted on his milk immediately. Joe played Eugene a game blind-fold. Helen and Sylvia played nicely of course Eugene joining them later. Holding the wishbone, Sylvia wished she lived there. The kids loved the B.M.T. ride because the train went in and out of tunnels. Henry Wallace will edit the "New Republic". Lillian sat tonight. She read Elliot Roosevelt's "As He Saw It".

10/14 Sylvia has been getting Copperin B [?] pills in her milk for some time. She has a tendency to get blisters in her mouth due to the absence of some food, it seems. Eugene is learning "a new kind of addition", he says. This is the adding of two groups of numbers each having two figures. The French approved the new constitution endorsed by the C.P. SP & MRP by a million and a quarter votes.

10/15 The kids like to fill a jeep with little lock blocks making believe these are people. Some are babies - Susan for instance which they imitate by talking like a baby. Sylvia is worried about an apartment when she grows up - as if she knew about the housing shortage. She says there can't be any empty houses when she grows up. She wants to marry Eugene when she grows up but will settle for mommy, daddy, the doll - anyone. At night we saw "Portrait of a Woman" - French with Francoise Rosay and "Hymn of the Nations" with Toscanini. German elections - French zone. C.D. one million S.D. half million D.P.P 180,000 C.P. 150,000 - all approx. Progressives are finding difficulty in getting visas. Timone has been "cleared" by an investigating commission for his B. of Ed position. Pres. Truman in his Monday radio speech announced the end of all meat controls accusing the Republican Party of sabotage but yielding to it in effect. Beat Levy. Played some chess with Eugene.

10/16 TODAY WHEN WE WERE READING MISS CURRY HAD TO READ SOMETHING AND I TOOK HER PLACE. [my printing again - see scanned-in page] The first day of decontrol saw a little more meat but higher prices. The Paris peace parley ended with the Anglo American bloc opposing the Soviet bloc as against the original Big Four leadership. Ten Nazis were hung as Goering cheated the gallows at the last minute by taking poison. The "supermen" took their medicine badly. In a stirring seventh game of a great series, the "Cards" beat the favored Red Sox Harry Brecheen winning his third game when called for service in the 8th inning. York starred for the "Sox". Slaughter for the "Cards". The Conference of Progressives asked for the end of atom bomb manufacturing. Sylvia says "I pledge allegiance" after a fashion. She is playing with Bobby Rosenberg right now.


10/17 Sylvia is in bed with a slight cold. The Pope has excommunicated all Yugoslavs concerned with the prosecution of Archbishop Stepinac. Slavic waiters and musicians coming here are being asked to register as foreign agents. Beat Mencher. Eugene went to synagogue with Gloria and Vivian for a "Simchas Torah" party.

10/18 Lillian went downtown for a dress and came back with cookies - scarce. Food is at an all time high. Raisins - 27¢ box Coffee - 45¢ lb. Bread 15¢ Milk 20¢ Meat 85¢ lb. Eggs 83¢ Butter 93¢

10/19 Sylvia better so we all went downtown to Seidman's 202 Canal St. where I bought a top coat - $30, We bought a little bird book for Eugene. When he looked for it at home later, Sylvia's doll Eleanor was reading it in her carriage. Played Eugene some chess. We have accused Tito of killing American citizens in prison camps. These are persons of German ancestry who collaborated during the war and now claim American citizenship. Many who can prove their claim have already been given exit visas. Budenz and the World Telegram claim that Gerhard Eisler is really Hans Berger and is the Moscow agent who transmits orders to the U.S.C.P. At night we went to the I.W.O. affair.

Friday, August 5, 2011

10/6-10/12/46

10/6 Sunday Went to mother's for dinner with Lilly and Harry also. Susan speaks a little. She is soft spoken - says Nonny for Susan, says many words well. Later Lilly and Harry took us to the Zoo in their car. We enjoyed the gibbons shrieking and swinging. Archbishop Stepinac's trial has been going on in Yugoslavia with witnesses to his friendliness to the Ustache. Taft sympathized with the doomed Nazis. Restaurants have won a 15% price rise. The American-Soviet Trade Union Comm. is meeting here.

10/7 Jewish butchers and delicatessens are closed indefinitely due to the absence of meat. Iran is undergoing Civil war. The Kuomintang Army is gaining in the vital battle for communist held Kalgan. Beat Evers. Dr. Moscicki is dead.

10/8 Beat Levy. Green asked for the end of wage and price control at the AFL convention. An American transatlantic liner crashed in Newfoundland on Thursday killing all 39 on board. Sadie and the kids came over for Sylvia's birthday bringing an aluminum set for her. Fredi raised Cain. Arlene is very cute.

10/9 Sylvia's birthday. Lillian made her doll a complete outfit. Eugene gave her a paint set. I gave her a peg set. Frieda's check came as usual. We had a little party with Mom, Lilly and Susan and Molly. Lillian ordered a birthday cake. Lillian got Eugene a South American jig saw puzzle. Sister Lillian brought two pairs of pyjamas and a book for Eugene. Molly got Sylvia - pyjamas. Sarah R. brought up a blouse. The B-29 Pacusan Dreamboat flew over the North Magnetic Pole in an historic flight. Per Albin Hansson, Swedish premier is dead. Schacht has been arrested by the German police. Lillian went to the P.T.A. meeting tonight hearing how the new rapid advance system works. Stayed home from work today. Lillian came home deliriously happy this morning with some meat.

10/10 30,000 unemployed Italians stormed the seat of the government. Yugoslavia paid $150,000 indemnity for the five dead airmen. 100,000 Ford workers were laid off on a pretext of shortage of steel.

10/11 The kids went down with kiddy car and bike and alternated rides on each. Eugene is telling us of the elephant who didn't like nuts. Soviet scientists have developed a serum effective against throat, cervix, uterus and breast cancer. Kudish [?] is out of the Grocery Clerks union due to financial irregularities. The "Times" retracted an anti-union article by Hanson Baldwin against maritime workers after picketing by thousands of seamen. A military uprising in Portugal was reported put down in short order. A&P's and Safeways have been closed for weeks refusing to sign with truckmen.

10/12 Archbishop Stepinac has received 16 years in prison as a collaborator. General Stillwell is dead at 68. [...]

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

9/29-10/5/46

9/29 Sunday Today we had the surprise party for the 40th Anniversary of mom and pop's marriage. Present also were Lil Harry and Susan, Mrs. Thaw and Tauby, Ida and Max, Sandra and Adeen, Rochel & Mayer, Blume and Abe, Anne Mac and Barbara, Izzy Goode and Rose, Harry and Molly & Lilly, and Sam Molly and Milton. Lillian made Chow Mein, a salad, salmon salad. We had tomato juice and jello, tea and the anniversary cake we ordered. Rochel made her cheeseless cheese cake. Milton took pictures. Lillian read my poem, when we presented the set of dishes for mom and opened the other presents. Eugene won his first chess game, beating pop. A Conference of Progressives opened in Chicago sponsored by the NCPAC, ICCASP, and the CIOPAC to Elect a FDR Congress. Russia again asked a joint Dardanelles defense. The Compromise "French" line border between Italy and Yugoslavia was adopted in Paris.

I can place almost all the people at the party in the family tree. The spelling of "Adeen" surprised me, as I had "Edeen" in the tree, now corrected. but "Izzy Goode and Rose, Harry and Molly & Lilly" are not really known. My grandfather had sisters Molly and Rose, but Izzy Goode and Harry and Lilly don't seem to fit.

9/30 Sylvia and Barbara got along beautifully at the party as they are both quiet and unaggressive. The Soviet chess team again beat the American team 12 1/2-7 1/2 in Moscow. The Cards and Dodgers wound up in an exact tie for the first time in Major League baseball when they both lost on the final day of the season. Each has 96-58. There is a popular clamor for nationalization of the meat industry.

10/1 When the kids are ready for their milk at meal-time, they say "petty por py pilk". Sylvia loves to drag her doll carriage up the stairs like a real carriage even though she works so hard at it. "The Conference of Progressives" just closed in Chicago is considered epoch-making. Among the participants were Ickes, Morgenthau, Murray, Patton, White, Pepper, Kroll [?] and Benson. Chicago AFL head Fitzpatrick is dead. Buddy Kerr, Giant shortstop broke two Major League records finishing the season with an unbroken string of 52 successive errorless games and 274 chances. F.B.I. chief Hoover called for deprivation of civil liberties for Communists.

10/2 Eugene and Gloria are always quarreling and making up. Lillian has to scold Sylvia for stuffing her carriage full of things. She says her baby needs toys to play with. Sylvia won't work when she grows up because her husband will work. She won't work before she's married either because who will take care of her children. The Nuernberg tribunal sentenced Goering, Von Ribbentrop, Streicher, Von Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, and Bormann (in absentia) to die by hanging. Hess, Raeder, and Funk get life sentences. Von Schirach and Speer got 20 years, Von Neurath - 15 years and Doenitz - 10 years. Schacht, Von Papen and Fritsche were acquitted. The Soviet judge dissented from the acquittals and leniency for Hess. The Hitler cabinet, General staff and High Command were also exonerated of criminal guilt. Milk, freed of controls had gone up another cent. C.I.O. Marine engineers and West Coast longshoremen and AFL Captains and Mates struck in united action. The C.P. is fighting an effort to remove it from the N.Y. State ballot.

10/3 Split with Mencher. The Army has asked 5,000,000 men and a year of military training. President McGrath is out of the CIO shoe union after redbaiting the other leaders.

10/4 Movie set makers are again on a jurisdictional strike involving the usual Hollywood violence. Two AFL unions are involved. Yesterday Lillian took the kids over to mom's bringing home the nice new doll carriage Ma got for Sylvia's birthday. Sylvia clings to it like a leech. She took her two babies Helen and Eleanor out in the carriage today. Beat Mencher. We had a session with Eugene tonight about his breaking into tears at the slightest pretext. Baruch and Wallace are quarreling about the former's atomic energy plan. Reconversion director Steelman warned of a depression resulting from rising prices. Millions of pounds of meat are being discovered in caches as virtually no meat is available in stores in the drive to do away with the O.P.A. Teachers are demonstrating for a $1000 raise. The Cards defeated the Dodgers two straight in a playoff for the N.L. pennant. Stan Musial led the N.L. batters with .365 Mickey Vernon led the A.L. .353. At the Tenn. trial Vincent Sheean of the H.T. was cursed and threatened by highway police chief Bomar with the condonement of Judge Ingram.Lillian sat tonight. Eugene drew "A Week With Andy" by Pitman and Dearborn, "Hoot-Owl" by M.G. LaRue and "Davy and the Goblin" by C.E. Carryl.


10/5 Went to Molly's for dinner today. The kids behaved well, Eugene reading and Sylvia playing around. 23 Negroes in the Tenn. trial are free but two face prison sentences of 21 years which will be appealed. Truman again asked for Jewish immigration to Palestine. Block who led the redbaiting drive against the U.E. leadership lost his own district presidency. At night we saw "A Stolen Life" with Bette Davis, Glenn Ford & Dane Clark and "Sunrise Pass".  Sir James Jeans, Barney Oldfield and Gifford Pinchot are dead.

Interestingly, I can't find a movie called "Sunrise Pass", but there's a 1946 movie called "Sunset Pass"! Looks like an error, and the movie probably didn't impress Dad much (he didn't even list the stars, as he usually did).