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Erie, Pa.
Sunday, Oct. 23, '38
Assisted Rog considerably today on his orange crate home he is building on the sandbox (or what's left of it) as a foundation. This afternoon we drove out into the country and gathered some stones for a walk up to the entrance. Rog was all for getting concrete to set the stones in but I demurred on that, so he merely set them in earth and made a good job of it. He certainly is full of ideas and nothing seems to faze him. He'll tackle almost anything and usually with remarkably good resourcefulness for a 6 year old.

Had a very tense and unhappy evening with Mother tonight. She said Willie had been ignoring her all day. One incident at dinner this noon explained it partially at least. Roger was complaining about something he had to eat and Willie, already upset, said something about not wanting to have to "cater" to "everybody." Mother immediately turned her head, looked at me and made a sort of an amused leer at me. Naturally, Willie, sitting directly across the table from her, couldn't fail to see it and I could tell from her expression she was plenty mad. But I couldn't tell Mother about that; it would merely make matters worse because Mother cannot take a word of criticism herself. So I simply pleaded ignorance. That incident of the dinner table is a good example of the utterly poor judgment Mother uses in trying "so hard" to get along with Willie. I know Willie meant nothing by her remark other than perhaps she was tired of having Bab refuse one thing and Rog another. But Mother, in her supersensitive way takes it as a slap at her, and then proceeds to clearly show it by giving me that queer, leering, one sided smile right in front of Willie! If she had deliberately tried to do some thing calculated to antagonize Willie, she couldn't have

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