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89

As I think again about the episode at Selkirk with Nelda, I remember that when she fainted as I held her in my arms, I was terribly disturbed about her and I kissed her.  And with that, I shall terminate my story about Nelda.  I only wish that there were more to relate because whenever I think of Nelda, I have a warm, happy feeling about out relationship, just as I do about Virginia Kingsbury.

I cannot remember how or where I met Louise Neill.  I thought at first that it was at North High but I question now if she went there; more likely she went to Goodyear School.  It may have been at Miss Scroeppel's dancing class which I rejoined in my teens at its new location downtown on South Salina over Burdick's men's store and where I renewed contacts with many of the old gang on Highland, both male and female, and with one addition whom I seem to remember better than any of the others, my very first girlfriend, when I was 3 or 4 years old, Virginia White, now grown into a very pretty teenager who could dance like a dream -- but somehow the old magnetism failed to return completely and little ever came of this. One other likely possibility regarding Louie Neill was that I met her through Puss Marvel, Nelda's friend, who also was a close friend of Louie.  At any rate, along in my last year in high school, my memories of Louie begin to unfold and for the first year or so, they are very happy ones; then they begin to turn to resentment and finally to sadness after many years, for life was not what I'd call too kind to Louie in the overall.

When I first knew Louie, she was about sixteen and as pretty as a picture -- tall, slender, graceful, with a lovely face, framed with dark glossy hair, her eyes almost black, her cheeks rosy and as smooth as a ripe peach. The attached snapshot of her sitting on her front porch will give a small idea of this. She lived in a pioneer house way out on the Camillus Road with a big red barn out back. Her father must have been approaching 70 at the time and had a white beard, a distinguished looking man; he was retired and I don't know what his profession had been but the Neills were obviously comfortable. Her mother was around 50, a large tall, handsome woman. My first recollections of Louie involve primarily my going out to call on her when we still lived on Douglas; it was a quite a project. I was working at Bardeen's at the time so my visits had to be in the evening. I'd take the car downtown where I'd catch a Camillus bus at the big Clinton Square bus and interurban depot; it must have been 5-6 miles on the bus out West Genesee into the country where the Neills lived. I'd return in reverse, catching the 10:30 p.m. bus for town, and then the streetcar home from downtown, the trip taking an house or more each way.

On these calls, the elder Neales would leave us largely to ourselves to visit, play pool on their full-size pool table,

Transcription Notes:
Author names friend Louise at first, but then switches to Louie. mandc: "an hour or more" not "an house or more."