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15

he really was--my guess is that he was an atheist. Mrs. Bennett was one of the sweetest and gentlest women I ever knew and Dana must have been a trial to her. He would have wild tantrums when he couldn't get his own way. The house was usually a shambles from Dana's failure to pick up anything. He once persuaded me to go home at recess from Fanny Baldwin's school and then claim we'd thought it was the end of the day: what we did was go to his house and spend the rest of the afternoon climbing a willow tree in the backyard. He felt it was simply funny to swipe stamps from somebody while you were ostensibly trading stamps with him. Dana wound up a writer and would-be politician and wasn't much at either one. I saw him in Vermont in 1940-[[Strikethrough]]XXXX[[/Strikethrough]] when we were vacationing at Basin Harbor and he was living in the country up there, having married a wealthy wife. He was still the braggart of old, was writing very successfully, was aide to the governor of Vermont, and was going to Europe shortly, and on and on. What a guy! I guess I liked him because I secretly wished that I were just a little more like that myself.

And then there were the E. Alexander Powells who lived a few houses off James Street on Oak. They had a son, Ed Powell, Jr. who was a friend of mine. Powell, Sr. was a well-known writer of historical books. The only one I have today is "Gentlemen Rovers" published by Scribners in 1913. The Powells also were at Lake Clear for summer vacations.

Speaking of writers, Jimmie Halsted had a cousin, Annette Andrews, who lived on Highland Avenue a couple of blocks from us who married Hervey Allen. While I knew her, I guess her age must have been enough different so she didn't figure too much in my affairs. 

On the corner of James and Oak Streets, lived the Grays in a mansion constructed entirely of gray stone, a veritable fortress. The Grays were in the shoe manufacturing business and well heeled with cars and chauffeurs and a magnificent gray stone barn matching the house. The Grays had a teenage son, John, maybe college age, and a pair of twins, boy and girl, about my age whose names I just can't remember, getting all mixed up with Lady Jane Gray and other historical characters. The principal thing I recall about the boy (I think his name was Robert) was his method of self defense; he would whirl both arms before him in vertical circles rapidly and then advance against his opponent.

Across the street from the Grays, lived the William Allen Dyers in another mansion. Mr. Dyer was a partner in Chappell-Dyer, a big downtown department store. They had a son, Bill Dyer, Jr., with whom I became very well acquainted. The Dyers had a billiard room in the attic where we spent a lot of time.

Transcription Notes:
The page numbers in these documents are not "pre-printed". They are personal memoirs, the numbers are typed there by the author, they are NOT company letterhead.