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of the Cost Department, Doc being a great impresario of Company outings as well as a jeweler and abortionist on the side. When the latter avocation finally got out into the open, Doc was summarily fired--but he had been a good cost man, everybody's buddy, and he was missed. The last two bottles of beer we had that night were evidently no good and Gouldy and I were unfortunate enough to draw these, becoming sick as dogs later--I've seldom felt so utterly miserable. I guess everyone had headaches of varying degrees for three days afterward. I was satisfied that drinking in moderation was okay but otherwise just plain crazy. I was able to drive myself home successfully in spite of being pretty "heavy." The next morning, Perk and I fought around for eighteen holes of golf but what a struggle! I parred the first hole and then took five putts on the second green. I was all shot from there on. The headache lasted practically the entire Labor Day weekend and I swore I'd never let it happen again. But we did manage a nice family picnic Labor Day down near Union City and the fresh air helped. I can still see the spot--on a side road just off the main road and at the bottom of a hill near a bridge across the creek; I think I could go right to it now.

On September 11th, I went to Syracuse on the sleeper to attend to some business for Mother and spend the weekend with Fred Thalman. I concluded my banking business, met Fred at the Onondaga, and we drove to Rome. It was great to see him again then as it is now. He had a fine moustache and looked tanned and fit as a fiddle, having been out of work and enjoying the summer at the Country Club. We played eighteen holes of golf in the afternoon (score unrecorded), had dinner at home, and then after two beers, returned to the Club for the dance. Mrs. Thalman had gained a lot of weight but still looked remarkably young for 60. Carol, the adopted daughter, was 16, very attractive, and boy-crazy (later she was to have a shotgun wedding). Fred and I played around the Club that evening and I danced a couple of times, once with an Alpha Phi junior from Syracuse studying art. Fred and I had a couple of gin cocktails and felt just right according to my diary--they sound like bathtub-gin martinis and I recall having some of that once with Fred in the Hotel Utica. Fred enjoyed drinking then and he still does--and so do I. We retired about midnight and played 30 holes of golf the next day; it was so hot that we cut the match short six holes. Fred and his mother drove me to Utica late in the evening in the La Salle, a beauty, to catch the sleeper for home. I'd had a hugely satisfactory visit with "The Kid," as I used to call Fred at that time, in fact, still do on occasion.

However, in spite of getting along famously with everyone I knew, I was still fighting diffidence with just about everyone I didn't know and this battle was to go on and on and on--in fact, even today I retain some of my diffidence and reticence. I've had to fight these two obstacles all my business life.