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128

[[underline]] Miscellaneous [[/underline]]

Fred Thalman's mother had three dogs plus a white cat. And, in spite of having Fred and his sister, Rhoda, she also adopted a girl. I believe she had some sort of a complex.

My mother was extremely fond of the Barney cat, Pete, and she and I used to invent various names for Pete such as Bootch, Pedro, Pedrova, Woolrova and Peterkins.

I always liked to dress well but while I was in college, I just couldn't afford much of a wardrobe. One dream I had was to some day own a coonskin coat, which were the rage when I was in college and the stamp of great affluence. But a coon coat was as impossible for me at that time as a car or a trip to Europe or getting married. I think they ran around $250-300 for a good one. I loved button-down collars but I owned only a couple of them whereas I'd note longingly that Bill Gwynn, a Deke brother of Rog Casler, seemed to wear one all the time; so I asked Rog how many button-downs Bill owned and Rog allowed at least a dozen. All I could think was, what affluence! what an incredible situation to be in that you could own a dozen white oxford, Arrow button-downs! My one extravagance toward the end of college was to buy a few Irish poplin striped ties at Alvord's tailor shop at $2.50 each -- they absolutely fascinated me and when I wore one, it seemed to make up for the lack of a coon coat. And then, right after I graduated as I recall it, I wen t down to Pete Reynolds men's store, [[underline]] the [[/underline]] collegiate store of town, and blew myself to a beautiful pale-blue tweed suit complete with plus-fours, for the fabulous price of $60, and that was a lot of money for a readymade suit in 1924. But I wore that suit for a number of years and Frank Carlton, a friend of mine in Schenectady, used to call it my "potato bag suit," I guess because it was loose and a bit baggy -- but was it a beauty! I don't think I've ever been so proud of a suit since then.

The name of the Merchants & Miners ship Mother and I took from Norfolk to Boston was the JUNIATA. It seems to me there was a JUNIATA plying the Great Lakes later on and I wonder if she was the same one.

Somewhere along the line, when Fritz Lee was in West Point, I went up there from New York and spent a day with him but just when this occurred is a mystery to me. I was much impressed but not drawn to the military life. Nor do I believe that Fritz made a life work of it.

My greatest claim to fame as a tennis player, came at Star Island when I played a man who'd once played Bill Tilden -- and my claim is based on my having taken one game from this guy who had taken, I think, one game from the maestro.