3/16/39
Precious Girl:
I rather haven’t expected too much mail from you this week because if my calendar coincides with yours, it is about time and things. Sorry I can’t be there to hold your little head when it hurts.
Glad to hear that the first half of the Webb business is over. OK on the personal test. Take it easy, he’s done dozens of other females the same way. But don’t let him get his thermometer mixed up with anything else, hi. So you ups and fainted, why honey! I can’t imagine you fainting! But I saw one of the boilermaker feetsball players do the same thing from the same cause once. So I guess I can’t blame a little bitsy girl like you for it.
Cashed my check today and did a number of worthy things. I sent out $11 to Louisville to cover the cost of my eye exam and glasses. Also, don’t faint again, plopped $40 into a Postal Savings account. This left me $38 in cash, which should hold me over to payday. When I get $100 clear, I shall start paying back cousin John. But I would like to have that much first just in case. Went through more red tape on the postal job than when I joined the Navy.*
I’ve been corresponding with the patent department about signing a patent waiver. I took exception to one of the clauses and deleted it. Went over there today, and as soon as they found that I was trying to protect patent rights for the companies for whom I have worked, rather than patent rights for any personal work, they became most friendly. They said that it was almost a new experience to have anyone consider the company for whom they worked. They are making out a special waiver which will keep both of us happy.
Because we have been held up on parts for the receiver upon which I am to work, I have been helping out with the mechanical design of the thing. As a circuit engineer, I am not supposed to know anything about the mechanical end, but I seem to have established somewhat of a reputation for mechanical brainstorms. Really, I have done nothing other than apply some of the experience I have had in the past. This will remove most of the bugs (that I can foresee) before the set gets into production, where most of the bugs are generally removed. Gunther, who is head of the division in which I work, was most pleased about one innovation from Scott, and it will probably find wide application on future designs. I believe I am safe in saying that I have not disappointed anyone, and I hope that I can go even further (but in circuit work, not mechanical).
Just as I was putting the finishing touches to Brinkley Manor last evening, Al Howell called. He wants me to come to dinner there tomorrow night and take in the Philadelphia Forum after that. Apparently it is in one of the ultra-ultra neighborhoods (his home) as the people with whom I stay uttered some of those awed little gasps when I replied to their questions about its location. As I shall not be home until too late to write and have it get to you this week-end, this will have to hold you until Monday. The next letter you get won’t be on my new stationary, but the one after that will. I hope we like it. The trouble is that about the time I get ¼th through it, I will move or something and the address will be screwy. That is why I only got 200 of the letter-head and same amount of envelope.
Well, Darling, it is about dinner time. I haven’t done so well on this letter, but I have been terribly tired all day. It was raining cats and poodles last night and I stayed in all evening. Maybe that is what was wrong with me.
Say hello to the Huntoons and Doris and Cliff for me. You might breeze over to the former and stir up a little excitement for them. They probably miss JH and I messing up their household every once in a while, and Mary isn’t old enough to take over just yet.
Followed a pb** hairdo and figure like yours for about a block this afternoon. Same weight and everything. Walked a couple blocks out of my way to avoid passing it, because I knew the front view would spoil the illusion. There may be hairdo’s and figures that come close, but there’ll never be a face as sweet and
beautiful as my darling’s is. There are also other forward features which can’t be duplicated. If you get what I mean. Tsk! Tsk! Just a masher at heart.
If the Webb affair should come out adverse to our best interests, take it on the chin and don’t worry. There isn’t anything that will develop quickly, and in the meantime, a complete cure can easily be effected. I am not in the least concerned, but being the pessimo-optimist that I am, I plan for the worst and expect the best.
I’m starved, precious. I wish I was eating with you tonight. Everything would taste so much more spicy, no matter what I was eating.
Would you be interested in Brinkley Manor? It is easy reading, and a honey. It is a grand mix-up of a would-be psychologist, always “helping” people (into bigger and better jams), his friends (a great variety) and the proper application of alcoholic lubrication at the right moments. I think you would get a kick out of it, even if by Wodehouse. If you want it, I can send it at a little cost, and it might while away some dull evenings.
Your baby, Cy.
*I believe this is an example of Buddy’s humor. He did not join the Navy, but we do know that The RCA was doing a lot of work on radio, radar and sonar for the Navy and the Coast Guard. His reference to the “Postal Job” appears to be a comment about setting up the Postal Savings account and I think he’s comparing the red tape of that with what he went through to get employed at The RCA.
**”Pageboy”