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Met Zeke Tinkey in the hall today and inquired why he didn't join us for dinner Saturday night. Zeke replied, "Well, ah had a lil' date lined up with the Caterpillah boy and' ah thought p'raps you boys wanted to talk business, you know -ah -" I said, "Yeah, you wanted a drink that deep in a wash boiler!" Zeke grinned.

Saturday I cleaned up an old crate from the cellar for Dusky's bed. This evening Mother began to question me about the crate - where did we get it, etc. She was so upset because I couldn't positively assert its origin that I had to go out, wake Dusky, examine it, and finally identify it as having come from L'ville when the Colonel shipped us some effects. In the meantime Dusky escaped into the house and raced around barking wildly which upset me considerably. Then Mother broke down, declared she was warning me she should be in an "institution" and was "warning" me. I tried to calm her down but it was an unhappy incident. She is getting to worry about awfully silly things lately which disturbs me.

Erie, Pa.,
Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1940.

We got some encouragement today on the 5"/38 job; the "letter of intent" should be in Cliff Clark's hands tomorrow although we aren't sure it will satisfy the Company sufficiently to allow us to order tools. In the meantime the machine tool situation is getting serious as far as decent shipments are concerned. The delay seems almost criminal.

Cash called Shapter and me into conference today to discuss [[strikethrough]] ed [[/strikethrough]] Cummins' engine ratings and Cash showed Shap a copy of the memo we made with Dan Worth yesterday. Shap immediately said it meant nothing.