1938

Professional Engineer

On March 19, JJL receives his license as a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas, Serial No. 1485. He is now both a licensed attorney and a registered engineer — the culmination of a decade of self-study alongside full-time work. On the same day, Jack Wallace breaks out with chicken pox.

The Boys

The diary is thick with childhood incidents. Bill is hit in the head with a tin can by a neighbor’s child on February 4 — Dr. Stowe puts in a stitch. Jack gets a cut on his left eyeball while dueling with kite sticks on February 19. Bill has been stuttering badly (noted April 16). Bill is diagnosed with asthma in June.

Bill’s tonsils and adenoids are removed at Providence Hospital on May 16, by the same Dr. Frank Schuster who operated on Jack two years earlier.

Took family to picture show tonight. Saw the ‘Hurricane’. This is the first time Bill has ever been to a picture show. (May 6)

In November, Bill enters nursery school at the El Paso Tech Institute. He is four years old.

Career

JJL is promoted to Engineer at the IBC at $3,800 a year. He receives an inquiry from the Federal Power Commission about a position in Washington, D.C., at the same salary, but declines unless transfer arrangements can be made. He does fieldwork at Presidio in October — the Phillips Hotel costs $1.00 a day.

In December, he applies for the position of Assistant Attorney General of Texas. The diary ends with the family still in El Paso, but change is coming.