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We were back at the Tavern at 1 AM. Neil continued to imbibe scotch heavily, got pretty tight and told me a lot of things about Roy's family life that he probably wouldn't have told me if he had been sober. I went to bed thinking that Roy indeed has a problem.

En route Boston to Erie,
Saturday, Nov. 9, 1940.
Again we breakfasted in the Tavern grill room and again admired the little waitress, trim, demure, attractive as ever. Doris was there too, dusting - announced she had gone to the dance last night after work; apparently she had arrived just after we left at 12:45. Doris told us her working hours are 8AM to 10AM and 6PM to 12:30AM. She said the bartender really has the hours - 12 Noon to 1AM! I inquired, "Seven days a week?" "Oh, no," said Doris, "on Sunday he only works eight or nine hours." Then she added, "They never heard of John L. Lewis up here." About then Roy burst in all smiles and sat down to eat breakfast with us, having spent the night at the Laconia farm of Helen's parents whom he knows well. "What Lewis is that?" asked Roy. "Joe Louis? He's another Willkie man!" Roy reported it was suspension bearings on the two locomotive's at Westfield, alas!

We went over to Jim Moriairty's office where we found him, Harry Balch and Duff Foster. From there we went to ride the locomotive. Roy was delighted with it. The engineer characteristically wouldn't pull the throttle wide open and complained she was slow on the heavy work but did the light work faster than a steamer. But he liked her. He was the day man, not the enthusiast of Thursday night! I was much disturbed to witness the end steps vibrating horribly. But nobody seemed to care.