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wrote the following in the diary that day: "Money and position are hollow things--they can mean something only if the other things are what they should be. This lovely May day at the start of summer, I want to pledge all that I have of character, common sense, talent, taste and experience, to living from now on as I have never lived before--for Mother, Willie, Bab and Rog. To live without a lapse is to know the greatest satisfaction of life and to be able to appreciate life and all its experiences to the full. That is my aim and I am going to accomplish it this time." I must say now, forty years later, that I never attained this but I tried and think I've been the better for it.
There is no record of the summer of 1934 except a few snapshots and the diary of the Quebec trip. The pictures were all taken at the Peninsula. The children appear to be enjoying it and considering that Rog was only a couple of months beyond his second birthday, he looks remarkably self-sufficient. Nana appears in four of the pictures and if one didn't know how ill she was, I don't think one would think she appeared abnormal. At this point, she still had over a year to live and I'd judge that her visit along with the Colonel was about as it had always been although she must not have felt at all well. The picnic pictures are especially good although I note that three males are missing--Walt Scarborough, Rog and I. Rog was presumably home with a babysitter and Walt may have been out of town on business or otherwise tied up. These are probably the best pictures of Maybelle that we have and give some idea of how attractive she was. Looking at her as she was here, it is almost inconceivable that she had such tragedy ahead of her, and all so utterly unnecessary. Willie, Barbara Reed and Charlie look so wonderfully natural, it's hard to realize this took place forty years ago. In the shot of the actual feasting, it is noteworthy that the plank upon which these three are sitting has a decided bow which appears to attain a reverse crest directly beneath Barbara, who was a "big girl" even in those remote times. The shots of the Colonel are excellent right down to his after-meal cigar. Only our Babbie didn't take a good picture, apparently moving. This was Nana's last visit to Erie, perhaps her last to the Peninsula. All of us knew this except Nana herself possibly. But in spite of this, it appears that we were having fun--it were ever thus, I guess. Life had to go on and some day our time would come. But I doubt if any of us considered this at the time.
Along this same line, I shall wind up this section on our family life by recounting something of two parties Willie and I attended probably in the year 1934--at any rate, 1934 is close enough. The material comes from the memories of the Reeds and Cratons and at best is somewhat fragmentary but it is worth recording to show what devils we'd become, particularly after the repeal of Prohibtion, which had occurred in December 1933.