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22

   Mother didn't always approve wholeheartedly of the GE's influence on me. One evening she and I were sitting together in the car and I said, "Gosh, I should say so!" or something to that effect. Mother said, "Forman, I wish you wouldn't say 'Gosh' and talk in that common way you've picked up since you have associated with that crowd at the GE. You don't sound as though you'd gone to Harvard or Yale." My reply was, "Well, I haven't." To which she replaied, "No, you haven't but you've been brought up with people who have--and besides it doesn't sound right coming from you. You're an aristocrat and you look like one--I've never seen anybody who looks more so. It will mean a good deal to you in your work to appear well and talk well." And while I didn't agree that merely saying "gosh" occasionally, marked me as a rube, I could see that in general she had a point. In fact, as I've said before, my impression of the big men in GE had been that most of them were obviously gentlemen and talked and acted the part. I realized too that to handle oneself well would go a long way toward breaking an inferiority complex. I wasn't seeking a "superiority complex" but I did want to be normal and look at others as no better than equals. One thing the Colonel did for me that was of great help in this regard was provide me with superb tailor-made suits occasionally so that I was perhaps the best-dressed man in the department regardless of position.
   On the last Saturday in August, I took Willie and Bab to the beach at the extreme east end of the Peninsula where Bab had a ride in the lifeguards' boat and was in her element. The next day was Bab's 4th birthday. We were very proud of her and loved her very much. Also she seemed to promise so much. I had a great urge to be a worthy father to her as well as Rog and to help them grow up to full lives. However, as I look back now upon their childhood, I know that in spite of my good intentions, Willie's influence upon both of them has overshadowed mine ten-to-one, not because I didn't care but because my work, particularly my extensive traveling, interfered with what I'd have liked to do. But on Babbie's 4th birthday I didn't know all that and we had a good time together. Again we'd gone to the end beach which Bab was so fond of. The view from there was exquisite. It wasn't the coast of France or Italy or England, but the coast of the dear old U.S.A. stretching away to the northeast along the lake. The high, wooded shore--beyond, the hazily-blue hills and then the sky and the white fluffy clouds. A silboat cut through the deep-blue water. And there were the long beaches fading away, and the gulls flying above them. And the anchored boats and the city and beyond that, the whole world. It was good to be alive when looking at a scene like that. And that night the stars blazed as brightly as they sometimes do in the winter. And what vast thoughts they call to one's mind. I thought I could live better after such thoughts as these--at least, I was determined to try and try very hard.