1/18 Sunday Hy and Milly N. over with Sandy. The two girls played together all day. Hy beat Eugene and me at chess. Eugene then read his comic books after going to several friends for trades. We had supper then played records and chatted. In the morning we had gone sleigh riding at St. James. Ghandi [sic] broke his five day fast in protest against the civil war in India. Starvation in Bizonea [?] is causing great unrest among the inhabitants. Jews in all the Middle East countries are being subjected to a reign of terror since the partition. Hundreds have been killed.
1/19 Sylvia told me she doesn't call us Is and Lil anymore. Then she wanted to say something to Lil and she called "Lil". Several Americans have been killed in Palestine. The 2nd annual P.C.A. convention voted to affiliate or merge with Wallace's projected "Third Party". Free Greece is opening schools, peoples courts cultivating land and building bridges.
1/20 Record cold waves and a critical shortage of fuel is causing hardships. 1500 individuals, many representing organizations attended a rent hearing where demands for a 5% reduction was voiced because of the drop in service. Oklahoma U. will set up a separate law school for Ada Sipuel to get around the Supreme Court ruling. A bill to block vet. benefits for Communist G.I.'s was blocked in Congress. Many Anti-Soviet movies are again being produced.
1/21 Eugene's Birthday Mom Pop Lilly and Susan over for Eugene's eighth birthday. Lilly made "gefilte fish" cheese and potato blintzes. We had a nice birthday cake. Gloria and Vivian S, Norma G, Sylvia and Susan sitting at the table when Eugene blew out the candles. Then Eugene and Gloria played with the Erector Set (#6 1/2, $9.75) we got him. Susan Norma and Sylvia played. Mother got Eugene a good pair of pants. Lillian brought a shirt and socks. Norma brought a model craft set. The Singer kids brought baseball, football and checkers in one. Won and drew with Pop in two chess games. Pauline P. came up in the evening with "Tom Sawyer" and chatted long with Lillian. A Danish Communist and a former member were barred here.
As I remember it, the #6 1/2 was the smallest set which included an electric motor, which I wanted.
1/22 Eugene warned me he may have to help Mrs. Gerhold after school in the near future. Sylvia has been making little paper chairs and cradles for her dolls. Hoover asked a world-wide front against Communism.
1/23 Lillian is wearing the hood of Sylvia's new coat as she won't wear it because she doesn't want to be "Little Red Riding Hood". Eugene is fascinated by the names E. G. Gogs and Pogs Siggles and Biggles [???] I am reading him in "All About Us". The C.I.O. Exec Board voted 33-11 against a third party. The State Dept. released secret Nazi documents concerning the Nazi Soviet pact.
1/24 Eugene and Gloria played with the erector set, modeling set and checkers game after the morning radio programs. Sylvia hung around more or less. The City Council held a stirring open hearing on the question of seating Gerson to replace the late Pete Cacchionne. So far Gerson has been denied his seat on the question of whether the C.P. is a political party. The C.I.O. approved the Marshall Plan, left wingers again dissenting. Cuban M.P. Union and C.P. leader Jesus Menendez was killed by a Rural Guardsman.
My father started a "diary" in 1945 (more accurately, a journal, covering both family and current events), and I'm going to see if this is a decent way to publish it. Since I'm doing it as a blog, to get to the beginning of the journal, you have to go to the beginning of the blog.
It's great to see my words on this Internet thing, whatever it is. Since some of you have been wondering how I would react to your current political conditions, I'm going to have to repeat the exact words I used in this diary to characterize the awful "witch hunt" of the '40s: "[you] are now entering a point of monstrous political perversion." Good luck!
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