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I wouldn't have dared to tell him. You didn't want that to get overworked. You didn't want Missy to get overworked, you know, or overloaded. Of course, she never had any authority about it. She would just arrange it, you see. And the President would say to Pa Watson, “Oh, by the way, I want to see Miss Perkins,” you know. “Can't you tell her to come in late this afternoon after that bunch goes?”
The President must have been a party to this then?
Oh, he knew. When anybody was working through Missy he knew it. But I mean, Missy did not abuse it and I think if anybody had abused the approach through Missy it would have been stopped right away. Because sometimes I had things to talk about to the President I didn't even want to tell Pa Watson about - you know.
Would he expect you to tell him what you were about to discuss with the President?
Well, more or less, - yes - so that he could gauge whether you just wanted to come and growl because somebody was stealing your authority away from you, and just weep on the President's shoulder, as Pa used to say. “He just wants to come in and weep on the President's shoulder.”
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