It's genetic

 

May 22, 1931 - I got up at 5 o'clock this morning and finished my nature Study notebook.  The Nature Study and Management tests weren't so bad.  I came home with Tillie Eckert.  This evening Ralph, Ray, Florence and I went up to Uncle Hans'.
May 23, 1931 - Ray's birthday.  I washed out a few of my clothes today and cleaned up the house.  Marie and Clifford, Annie and Ola, Uncle Max and family, Dora and George, Hans, Edwin, Martha, Willie, Lilly, Louise, Ralph, Florence and Bill Frink were here tonite for Ray's birthday.  We played cards.  Willy stayed all night with Ray.
May 24, 1931 - I cleaned up the house this morning.  Florence, Ralph and Edwin came about 11 o'clock and we went to Emerson.  We stopped in Wakefield to get a film and I saw "the Owl."  We had a picnic dinner, went down to the springs, took pictures, Ralph got "stuck in the mud", played baseball.  In other words a good time.  On way home saw the rest of the plane in which Guy Strickland and "Red" Putnam were burned to death.  We went to the movies and saw "Skippy".

It is comforting to know that both Dale and I came by our procrastination, especially when it comes to schoolwork, honestly.

I had never heard of a plane crash in our neck of the woods.  I found this in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune for May 25, 1931:

     "Guy Strickland of Wayne and Wayne Putnam of Naper, Neb., were killed yesterday when a plane Strickland was piloting struck a down current of air and went into a tailspin, at Wayne, Neb."

     Here is some information about "Skippy":  Skippy is a film that was released in 1931. It was one of the first films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The screenplay was based on the comic strip Skippy by Percy Crosby. For his performance, Jackie Cooper, at the age of nine, became the youngest person to earn an Academy Award nomination for  Best Actor in a Leading Role.  The film also did well enough to inspire a sequel called Sooky.  The story involved Skippy's efforts to help his new friend Sooky. Sooky is played by Jackie Coogan's brother Robert. In the story Sooky lives in a shantytown, and both he and Skippy try desperately to save a dog. In one scene, director Norman Taurog needed to get his nephew, Jackie Cooper, to cry, so he told young Jackie that he was going to kill his dog. Jackie did the scene and proceeded to find out his dog would be unharmed. From this point on, Jackie Cooper had mixed feelings toward his uncle, almost to the point of hatred, and rarely spoke to him again. 

I would have to agree with young Mr. Cooper here.