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6

On April 9th I received an urgent wire from Frank Faron in New Haven telling me to get back down there at once. This was not part of my plan, with Willie still away, because I didn't want to leave Mother alone with the responsibility of taking care of Rog. I'd just had a letter from Willie saying that Bab was under the weather with one of her periodic colds. These ever-recurring colds of Bab's worried me and to our great disappointment, removal of her tonsils seems to have done almost no good at all. I'd concluded that we were going to have to do something pretty drastic to put a stop to them because it wouldn't be right to allow her to carry such a weakness out of childhood with her. I think we even gave some preliminary thought to arranging somehow to move to a better climate. But when I got Frank's wire, I had to phone Willie to find out if and when she could return. I was very much dismayed to learn that Bab was worse and they were getting a specialist to look at her. Returning to Erie at once was out of the question. I had to stall Frank but I believe I did go to New Haven the following night, leaving Mother, with the aid of Madelyn, to hold the fort for a few days. This was neither the first nor the last time that Company business got tangled up with my private life but there was usually a satisfactory answer if not an ideal one. Unfortunately, my diary suddenly died until May 30th, so I don't know the details of the outcome of this particular situation but I have to assume it was good even if a bit nerve-racking while developing.
While Willie was gone, I seem to have had a fairly busy time. For one thing, Mother and I had a lot of fun with Rog. On one of those Saturdays, we took him for two "bye-byes" in the Plymouth and he was so grateful that it was a joy to observe his reactions. He would sit on Mother's lap and take in everything with excited exclamations. Trains thrilled him and whenever he'd see one, he'd cry out, "Mercy! Choo-choo! Mercy!" he was about as bright and adorable as they come and Mother was wild about him as was about everybody else who even laid eyes on him.
We had the grand finale of the bowling season one night. It was the GE "engineers' league" which I'd belonged to since working for Lew Webb and I'd finally gotten my average up to 156 which indicates I was never a star bowler but I did enjoy it thoroughly, particularly the comradeship and the competition. One contribution I made a few times was to draw humorous cartoons of the bowling brethren for use in the annual banquet program and I found that I still retained quite a bit of my old ability. At this grand finale, however, my bowling was not at all good although in the doubles, paired with G.E. Porter, one of the stars, we were low but I had a 150 to his 149, which set me up considerably. It was a good bunch and we had a lot of fun and rivalry while at the same time being drawn more closely together into the wonderfully cohesive team that we were. I doubt if it's that way now or even near it.