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14

We played bridge regularly with Katherine and Harold Holmes with whom we bewailed our economic difficulties because Harold was having an even worse time at Hammermill than I was at GE. I have already covered Lenore and Bill Anderson. We became friendly with Jack and Dorothy Anderson, Jack being in Motor Engineering at GE and the son of a former prominent member of Motor Engineering in Schenectady, but even this connection failed to keep Jack in the fold as things continued to worsen and he was finally broken to the factory organization and at last let out completely. Jack remained in Erie as a manufacturer's agent and did well (maybe better than he'd have done in GE). His mother was a Southerner and it developed that Jack and I were either distantly related or that his mother was a good friend of my Aunt Hattie Chapman, my father's sister. Ben and Toni Luther were close friends of ours right from the start as I've noted before and this continued. Moreover we had not only the mutual tie of bridge sessions but also a love of good music and the latter was indulged in listening to good radio programs such as the GE Hour, hearing both Lily Pons and Rosa Ponselle on this in 1932. All this blossomed into phonograph activity and particularly operatic recordings as time went on. We saw the Delahookes occasionally but this didn't seem to catch on too solidly for some reason. And we began our long friendship with Carol and Guy Wilson which remains strong to this day. We were friendly with the Brandensteins but they were several years older and a bit more staid, neither drinking at all, although a nice couple-- but this one failed to develop strongly and Brandy's relatively early and untimely death put an end to whatever there was except for occasional contacts with Billie. We began a friendship with Ethel and Jake Brauns that is still intact although it never developed into a close relationship like that with the Luthers. In January, I find that Jake took me to the home of old man Parker, the owner of Parker Whitemetal and the father of Norm and Bob, and Jake and I "swarmed under" old J.W. Parker and W.W. Brown at bridge by 1200 points, playing from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.. I was quite impressed with Mr. Parker as being quite a guy -- very informal but a "real guy" in spite of his money -- an up-from-the-ranks type. Little did I dream that someday I'd be a fellow board member with his son Norm, at the Erie Yacht Club. Jake and Ethel lived in a small brick house on East Sixth at the time and in April Willie and I went there to a "Pounce" and "Hearts" card party and had a fine time. Jake and Ethel liked to give unorthodox parties like this and they were, somewhat surprisingly to me, usually a lot of fun. Ethel was a native Erieite and Jake an Iowa farm boy, both filled with unlimited energy, and they made quite a pair and still do, having been near-neighbors of ours for the last 27 years, besides Jake having been a close business associate and appearing in my diaries over a long period. Another family who might have been friends but weren't were the Van Dyke Millers nearby but Johnnie Miller was perhaps Bab's first boyfriend.