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53

Father seems to have asserted his rights during the summer of 1913 and apparently didn't write every day. He seems to have played golf twice a week at home and didn't come up to Lake Clear every weekend either. He had an ear infection early in August and had to nurse that along for a bit but he writes of having p1ayed golf with Dr. Wose and others, and of making an arrangement with Dr. Halsted to play golf with him regularly. He enthuses in one letter about having gotten a 54 for 9 holes which seemed to please him very much. Miss Keefer was on the job and he mentions having taken in $48 at the office one day. He reports Dr. Hotaling's death and assures Mother that he is now taking good care of himself and getting outdoor exercise that he needs. He had dinner at the golf club occasionally as well as the Onondaga Hote1.  He reports on one dinner at the golf club when there was a two—piece orchestra for dancing "but no turkey-trotting, everything was decent." It sounds like he's really having a little fun and feeling well. I find one strange telegram to him at Lake Clear as follows from Syracuse: "Dear Dr. can you come right down one man hurt me.  Ada Stanton." There is no explanation of this but I'm assuming it was from a patient.

In April 1914, Mother and I visited the Lees for about a week in Washington, D.C.  They showed us a very interesting time including sightseeing, theater, visits to Rock Creek Park near their home, and just a general good visit. The one thing I remember most, vividly was the day Fritz and I went walking in the park and took the Lees' Airedale with us; going down a rather steep, rocky embankment, the dog lost his footing and simply rolled all the way to the bottom, maybe 20 feet, and he apparently broke his back because I think he died right there on the spot. It shook me up very severely and was one more incident in my developing life that proved to me that all is not always milk and honey and fun and irresponsibility. I recall the good southern cooking at the Lees and especially, the candied yams. While we were visiting the Lees, Father was attending a medical convention in New York and I find a letter from him to Mother c/o Ralf w. Lee, which would indicate that Ralph must not be a common name in the deeper south. A few days later, Father is back in Syracuse and writes again saying he has an old man at St. Joseph's Hospital who is blind in one eye and has an ulcerated cornea in the other and he is fighting to save his sight in the one eye, requiring day and night care. The visit to the Lees was very pleasant but I can't actually remember anything too specific about it save the dog tragedy.

In a letter dated April 29, 1914 written in Syracuse by Mother to Father who was out—of-town again for some reason, Mother says: "Do take care of yourself, Sammy dear, and be cautious about windows, and oysters, and beverages." There's that suggestion again that when away with the boy my Father may have occasionally let his hair drawn a bit. I certainly hope that he did.