10/24-10/30/48

10/24 Sunday To Mother's where Peggy was the cynosure of all eyes. She rarely cries and gets up around 8 A.M. The kids as usual enjoyed themselves by dressing up in adults jackets and coats.

We always did that at our grandparents' apartment.

10/25 Lillian took Eugene down to Columbia U. to see about his eyes. He needed new lenses although there was no radical change. Sylvia was whiney all day apparently due to a slight cold. A citizen's Board of Inquiry into Germany heard Sol Surowitz, prosecutor of Ilse Koch, J S Martin, former decartelization chief in Germany, Richard Sasuly and others criticize American policy in Germany. The N.L.R.B. banned mass picketing. Franz Lehar is dead at 78. 

10/26 We went down to "Fed's" Optical Service "Eye Service Inc." At 149 E. 60 st. getting a whole new pair of glasses for Eugene and Lil. Cost was about $15. We hadn't played chess for about a month. Eugene agreed to miss his 5-6 programs to play a game which was hard fought. Sylvia made babies of the captured pieces on the floor. Lillian made jelly apples and delicious cookies. Bus drivers struck for one day to force companies to raise fares so they could get increases! Russia and the Western powers rejected each others plans on the Berlin crisis. 30,000 troops seized French mines. Fighting broke out again in Israel.

10/27 The kids skated after school, then Eugene went to the Singers for television. Quill tried to call of the bus strike which he suddenly decided had been planned as a 4-hour stoppage. At a meeting he claimed a majority for return to work in a 'hands' vote, disputed by most observers. Thousands then moved to Transport Hall to listen to Hogan. Supreme Court Justice Rutledge gave bail to three Denver Communists who had been in jail. Ten were jailed in a [sic] L.A. witchhunt. 22000 in and outside of Madison Square Garden heard Wallace promise the new 'party' was here to stay. Other speakers were Fitzgerald, Isacson, Rogge, Ada Jackson. Lillian went to a parents meeting as I stayed home from work with a sore throat.

10/28 J L Lewis asked Truman to deny funds to a French gov't which is shooting down hungry mine strikers. He repeated his anti-communist beliefs. More top Nazi Generals were freed by an American war crimes court. Israel refused to give up territory it had captured in the Negev. Bus drivers finally voted to return to work, many denouncing Quill for selling them out.

10/29 Sylvia had a Halloween party in school for which Lillian made some cookies. The kids were playing house. For food Eugene told Sylvia to get some animal which would hit itself in the head and so be dead. Millions saw Truman and Wallace invade N.Y. Truman's spectators were more numerous but Wallace's more enthusiastic. Several bus [?] firms broke the front by capitulating on the basic speed-up issue to the strikers. Stalin in an interview with Pravda put the finger on the Western Powers as seeking a new war and unwilling to make a peaceful agreement in the Berlin crisis.

10/30 We visited the zoo for a while as the warm weather returned. We had pop-corn, peanuts and hot dogs. At home played Eugene two chess games, Sylvia bringing in the canoe and jeep in which to put the captured pieces. Two dept store union pickets were fined and sentenced to jail for violating a court order limiting picketing. Marshal [sic] law was declared in Greece.