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[[strikethrough]] SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1936 [[/strikethrough]]
278th Day   17th Sunday after Trinity  St. Francis of Assissi  88 Days to come
cont.

exactly the right person. To be either an excellent listener to impersonal things, or an excellent talker impersonally one must have knowledge, & Jay & Frank & Kim do this beautifully. I have to talk about art or skiing or people which are all personal, or play mental & personal tennis if I am in the mood, [[strikethrough]] & aside [[/strikethrough]] which are all personal, or I have to listen to such personal things which I do beautifully, but this is O.K. when I am young, & I dread to think how I can converse when I am older because I can't emit anecdotes (which one must remain very sensitive & brief & appropriate about) or knowledge. Frank & Jay got going that night way above our heads, & I was spellbound. Alan said that Harvard lays much stress on verbal expression & that [[strikethrough]] if is [[/strikethrough]] he remembers Lyman & lots of his friends doing it at college age, but where has it flown to - for they don't do it anymore. He says if you take the beating he [[strikethrough]] has [[/strikethrough]] & his friends have taken in business since then you let [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] youth talk, & you sit back & listen - & I can quite see that. We went to

[[strikethrough]] MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1936 [[/strikethrough]]
279th Day    87 Days to come
Cont.

the dance - & they introduced me like angels to all their little friends (who graduated this year) who thought I was 19, so I let them think so & had such a time as no college widow has ever dreamt of! Alan was an angel to me, even when we got stuck, & Frank wondered if I was hitched up to him, & Jay watched us rather jealously, & Gaier & a German named Ernst & Frank & Jay & Alan & I all ended up at a table together. The mob psychology works wonders on young boys, & as long as I was with one of them they all wanted to be with me, which I was thankful for in my old age & worries of not getting cut in on. Jim Field was another I met at the last moment for a delightful few minutes, & Frank got drunker & drunker - & Alan & I left at 5 a.m. I [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] felt awful about Alan who had been out of the picture since I had met the others, & he knew no one & had to rise early the next day & had taken such good care of me - & it was another night like the