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31

   I lived at the Hotel Martinique in Manhattan, Hoboken being somewhat of a dump. The Martinique was no prize either but it was clean and comfortable and was located on 33rd Street near Broadway and more importantly, near the uptown terminal of the Hudson & Manhattan tubes on which I could very conveniently go to and from work. I very definitely failed to live high off the hog on this assignment. I presume I had some sort of expense allowance for this kind of work which prevented spending lavishly on meals, I had almost no occasion to do any entertaining, and besides all that, I'd come back to the hotel a dirty mess very often and worn out and was in no mood to go gallivanting around to the fancy places. Besides all that, I did considerable night work--that is, all-night work. A favorite eating spot for midnight snacks as well as lunches was the drugstore in the Hoboken Terminal. Many's the time Eric Ericson and I would sit in there at the fountain at one o'clock in the morning having a chicken-salad sandwich and a chocolate milk and how good they tasted! The worst thing gastronomically that could happen to us was to get stuck at Secaucus at meal time and be forced to eat at the Erie Railroad YMCA restaurant better known as "The Greasy Spoon" and "The Dump," where the food was greasy, gravy-sodden, somewhat tasteless, repulsive and served up by a sweating counterman attired in a soggy undershirt and a dirty, food-stained apron. The New York Central restaurant at the Wesleyville roundhouse, which we'd patronize when on locomotive test and no prize, was like the Waldorf alongside the one at Secaucus. When I'd have dinner in New York I got into the habit of going often to a nearby Caruso's where the food was good and the place clean and pleasant if not fancy. Because of Prohibition, no bars were open and as I never got to be a speakeasy habitué, I did little drinking on this assignment. It seems to me we'd get beer occasionally somewhere in Hoboken but I can't recall any detail at all. The greatest break I got out of the assignment asides from the railroad experience, was the opportunity to go to the opera quite regularly. Bob Williamson was an accomplished cellist and music lover and he and I went to the Metropolitan a number of times, usually sitting in the balcony where you could get a good seat for two or three dollars. I remember vaguely telling people I'd spent some $35 for opera tickets down there in about three months which meant we went perhaps once a week on the average including the Sunday night concerts, which were fantastic. And we heard the greatest opera singers of the era--Gigli, Scotti, Pinza, Bori, Fleischer, Tokatyan, Albanese, Ponselle, Mueller, Rotheir, Swarthout and many more. It was an absolutely thrilling experience every time we went to the Met. We'd go to the movies occasionally but that was somewhat of a letdown. I recall going to the Paramount one night when the young Bing Crosby was the live attraction and he stood up on the big stage before the footlights and sang some popular stuff but it was pretty weak fare compared to what we'd been getting down the street.