12/5-12/11/48

12/5 Sunday Anniversary Sylvia has been making Santa Clauses galore and asking questions about the authenticity. Eugene has written a beautiful poem for our anniversary which will appear in the diary soon. Lillian got me a 'Jacques Kreisler' gold plated key chain. I will give her perfume. The painter did not come this week-end. Lillian read Langley's "A Lion is in the Streets" another Huey Long story. We both read Abraham Bernstein's "Home is the Hunted".

Dad didn't paste in my card immediately; I suppose they both wanted to enjoy it before it would disappear into the diary. He put it in at Christmastime, so I will scan it in where it appears. 

12/6 Eugene's favorite happening on the trip to the museum was the 'race' among the three buses. Sylvia can recognize several words which gives her a thrill. Western Berliners snubbed Communist pleas not to take up vote in municipal elections, 85% voting with a majority for the Social Dems. UnAmerican Comm. members were rounded up all over the country to meet in a new spy scare.

12/7 Eugene got his report card. He got only B in Literature 96 in spelling 90 in Arithmetic. His memory needs improvement. Sylvia still eats and tears everything she gets her hands on. Whit Chambers again attacked Alger Hiss, this time accusing him of giving him confidential documents for transmission to Russia. Manhattan bartenders struck. Truman attacked the Greek Army for failure to defeat the guerrillas. Quill and his right-wingers defeated the MacMahon-Hogan left wing slate in T.W.U. elections. The I.E.B. will now be controlled by the right wing.

12/8 Sylvia comes home from school by herself! Eugene's report card was one of the two best in the class. Israel's application for UN membership was referred back to the Council without recommendation.

12/9 Lillian cooked some delicious corned beef but Sylvia wouldn't eat it. The painter finished Tuesday doing the closets and apparently using good paint, both unusual these days. Lillian painted the kids toy shelves, grocery closet etc. Reforms in the tubercular ward at Bellevue will follow the "Star" exposure of intolerable conditions coupled with 28 nurses threat to resign if nothing was done. Sumner Welles, Isaac Don Levine, a sec'y to former Ass't Sec'y of State Sayre, both Hiss brothers were among the witnesses heard in the new spy trial. A stormy meeting of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture was held on the scandalous milk prices. The UN gave Israel 48 hours to free 2500 besieged Egyptians. Russian zone of Berlin cut off mail to the Western zone.

12/10 Eugene didn't want to get up for school this morning. He was all tired out from pulling the heavy quilt up over his head. He got up anyway. Got Griegs piano concerto Bruch's violin concerto and "Pancho goes to a Fiesta" as Mom and Pop's anniversary present. Man. bus lines won the 7¢ fare. A combined ride is 12¢. The Justice Dep't is warring with the "UnAmerican Comm" over the latters [sic] sensational methods in the spy scare. The T.W.U. with leftists purged voted to bar Communists from office. Former State Dep't official H.J. Wadleigh refused to talk on the witness stand in the Hiss-Chambers case. The UN voted 55-0 to outlaw genocide. Bevin declared Germany must ultimately join the Western Union as an equal partner.

12/11 Sylvia calls the "Norwegian Dance" on her record the "Human Dance". Eugene grumbled so much while drying the dishes because he wanted to play records that he earned a good scolding. L. Dinnyes, Hungarian Premier was removed after a castigation by his own Small Landholder Party. Worked 8 hours - all O.T.

The extra blank space below appears to be a result of my having done this in two sittings; the blank space does not appear in the draft area.

11/28-12/4/48

11/28 Sunday Played a chess game with Eugene after which he joined Sylvia in playing with the jeep, boat and pieces. Sylvia has the sniffles.

11/29 Sylvia didn't go to school today. I took Eugene to the Grand after school where we saw "In Old Los Angeles" and "A Date With Judy" with Robert Stack, Jane Powell, Eliz. Taylor and Wallace Beery. Then Lillian went to the Valentine to see "Johnny Belinda" with Jane Wyman & Lew Ayres and "Embraceable You". Bus fares went up to seven cents with a combined ride still 12¢. Chinese Communists encircled Suchow. Executives of Phi Kappa Psi upheld the suspension of the Amherst chapter for pledging a Negro.

11/30 Eugene was among those chosen to take an intelligence test. Sylvia returned to school. She intends to bring her wish-bone there. The pier and truck strikes ended. Russia accepted the UN plan for solution of the Berlin crisis. This entails mediation by a neutral commission.

12/1 Sylvia is delighted with her first brief case. Eugene is doing his 300 piece jig saw day by day. Several lawyers were arrested in a divorce racket raid. Communists set up their own Berlin regime to rival the Western supported one. England conceded the Negev to Israel. The opening operat opera at the "Met", "Otello" was televised on Monday for the first time. 

12/2 The gov't is desperately preparing to defend Nanking from the oncoming 'Reds'. Mme Chiang arrived in Wash. on her unofficial mission to ask aid. Left wingers heckled Berlin meetings in the U.S. sector resulting in violence.

12/3 We got an O.P.A. order reducing our rent 15% which finally brought the painter to our house this morning after three years, the legal limit now. Sylvia thought the kitchen was beautiful when she came home for lunch. She also "snitched" on Eugene, against his protests, that boys threw his hat across the street and another time a boy hit him and knocked his glasses off. The Bernadotte Plan was finally killed by the UN's
Polit Comm. A milk war temporarily brought prices down to 12 1/2¢ in B'klyn. Chinese Communists took Suchow. Stan Musial won the N.L. M.V.P. award.

12/4 The spy scare starts again with microfilm found concealed in a pumpkin on Whittaker Chambers farm containing secret material from State Dept. files. Three thousand Chinese refugees were feared dead in an explosion on ship [sic] outside Shanghai.