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I mention Marian Klock primarily because I never knew her although she was a distant cousin by marriage, her father's name being Crouse Klock, a relative of Cousin Charlie Crouse. The Klocks lived in a magnificent mansion on East Genesee near University Avenue and obviously were loaded. They had the works -- cars, chauffeur, porte-cochere, pillars, pomp and prestige. But it seemed that the gentry on the south side didn't mix much with those on the north side and I never got to know Marian although I'd met her at a few parties here and there. One thing that always tickled me about the ultra-bourgeois Klock family was the fact that they had a great benefactor who lived, I think, in New York City and whose name was Mrs. Hogan; I think perhaps Mrs. Hogan was related to Mrs. Klock. At any rate, I'd hear now and then about Mrs. Hogan visiting the Klocks and it sounded as if Mrs. Hogan were God Almighty -- but with the name of an Irish scrubwoman. I gathered that Mrs. Hogan had extensive means and was close enough to the Klocks that eventually they might expect to benefit thereby.

Another wealthy young person we knew slightly was Purp Stearns, the son of the owner of the Stearns Mfg. Co. whose main product was bicycles. The Stearns lived on James Street in the block behind us, in a huge Victorian mansion although a trifle run down in appearance. Purp was a teenager in long pants when I first became conscious of him and hence was never a pal of mine but I recall admiring his very stylish clothes. He was always very nice to us younger kids and somehow, with his glasses and his grown-up attire, and driving a car, he seemed to epitomize what we hoped we'd some day develop into. Although before the day of John Held, Jr., Purp might have served as one of John Held, Jr's. models as I recall him.

Which reminds me of a real dude I knew at North High named Andy Hollenbeck who wore bell-bottomed pants and bought tailored suits at Peters men's store on McBride Street, moreover always had his clothes pressed to the point where it appeared you could cut yourself on the creases in his pants. I was a bit poor at the time and I used to look at Andy's clothes and think that to be able to afford such finery would be the consummation of an impossible dream. In an effort to at least keep a good crease in my pants, I used to press my pants often and to keep them flattened out at night under my mattress, all this being inspired by Andy Hollenbeck.

And it's funny how one memory will lead to another. For the first time in maybe 40 years, I think of another slick dresser at North High, a big, tall, slick-haired blond named Ed Durst. And he had a girlfriend at school named Arline Altman who really had quite a bit on the ball -- a dark-haired, swarthy-skinned beauty who, for a mid-teenager, had a good deal of sex appeal. As A and C are close together, I'd often be seated near Arline and admired her dusky, Spanish-type looks very much.