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98

big social mistake. I don't think that she was ostracized entirely and since she inherited considerable Armstrong money, the Thalmans could live in style in a huge mansion on North George Street, Rome's Fifth Avenue. But the Thalmans were no longer "in" and Fred was ignored by the Dekes whereas they would have been after him hard had he not been blemished by his father's antecedents. Nor do I think that Fred's father actually worked very much; at least, I've never heard Fred allude in any way to any business his father might have been in. In Fred's junior year, he joined a local Greek letter fraternity but he continued to live with us and in his senior year, after I'd gone to Schenectady, he stayed on. Meanwhile, he'd become more like a member of the family than a roomer and the relationship between Mother and Fred was very close to that between mother and son; in fact, I really think that Fred was more fond of Mother than he was of his own mother, with whom he didn't get along too well. The story of Fred is a long, long one stretching over the years and I shan't undertake to write it here, particularly since much of it is written in subsequent diaries of mine. But the coming of Fred was a real break for Mother and me, and I think Fred would say it was also a break for him.

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By not making a fraternity, my social life in college suffered but was not wiped out. In the first place, I continued to see Louie Neale, merely switching my base of operations from Douglas to Waverly. Then Betty Bump pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma and invited me to several Kappa dances which I thoroughly enjoyed because I'd known Betty for as long as I could remember and I liked her and she was good company. She wasn't a pretty girl but she was plump and jolly and she could really dance -- something like Barbara Reed is now although Betty would have had to give fifty pounds to the current Barbara. Then I got looked up by another sorority girl who'd recently graduated from Southern Seminary and Peg Robey had referred to me, and she invited me to one of her dances -- I can't remember the name of the sorority. But she was a very clinging type who gave many indications of wanting to seduce me and I didn't take to her and that was a short-lived affair. And then in the fall of 1921, Louie entered the University and she soon pledged Alpha Phi which was the female equivalent of the Dekes. However, she lived her freshman year at a cottage on Walnut Place just around the corner from us. I think I took her to a University dance or so at the gym and I used to date with her at the cottage. In fact, I remember that one evening as I was leaving her at the door of the cottage, she suddenly demanded that I kiss her goodnight , so, overcoming my usual bashfulness, I did, and I think [[underlined]] on the cheek [[/underlined]], and she acted as if she were going to faint -- and I ruminated over just how sincere all this was. It is very