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[underline ] Note [/underline]:
The next letter I find in the collection of letters I considered worthy of keeping, is one to Willie dated August 26,1926. The interim between this time and my last letter around mid-June was taken up generally by the visit Mother and I paid to Louis Ville starting June 26th, a trip Willie and her parents made to Atlantic City, and a trip Willie made to Erie where she stayed with Mother and me in the rented furnished-apartment Mother and I took for the summer on Poplar street. And, of course, since Mother and I were together in Erie, there are no letters to her for the summer. So the record for most of the summer of 1926 will have to be covered by the many photos which were taken since there was a total lapse in my diary from mid-May to September 19th.

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[underline] To Willie, August 26,1926 [/underline]: My battleship (the big C&NW battery locomotive I tested) was sent back to the drydock this morning for repairs and additions. The temperature where the engineer was to sit being 170 degrees F, made further work impossible until lagging could be put on the exhaust pipe and base of the Maxim silencer, and ventilators could be put in the roof to take away the hot air. So now I'm a gentleman of magnificent leisure and can rise at 6 a.m. and only nine or ten hours later see my day's work done. My leisure will probably last until tomorrow night when the battleship will heave into sight again, and then they will want to work all day Saturday and Sunday to catch up the time they lost. ...... This afternoon, I declared a one hour vacation for myself and rode about 30 miles on "the Central." On one trip, three of us stood on the front platform of the locomotive and Harry (Craig) had her up to 72 mph. The tears rolled down our cheeks, the wind was so terrific, but what a thrill! Imagine [underline] nothing [/underline] before you but a straight track and landscape, and that racing by and under you at about 100 feet per second. I wish you could have been there too. A rollercoaster would feel cheap beside us. ...... I shall know what I'm going to do in a couple of weeks now and will let you know first thing I find out, you may be sure. ...... How are your cooking lessons coming? I'm particularly interested in that.

[underline] To Willie, Sunday evening, September 5, 1926 [/underline]: Mother, Ken (presumably Ken Walker) and I are now up in Mother's room (at the Lawrence Hotel). Ken was due to arrive at 8:26 p.m. yesterday but was an hour and twenty minutes late and I took him out to spend the night with me. Today we've visited, shot a movie, eaten a great deal, and been down to see the waterfront. This evening at sunset time, I suggested we go down to the Steel Pier and look at the water and the boats and the sky. So we did and it was beautiful as ever even though the sun sank into a heavy bank of clouds that precluded any chance of