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31
After Al's departure, Bill, Maurice, Johnnie Walker and I drove to the Public Dock where we parked for awhile and talked. Then Maurice took us all to his house for his long-promised beer-drinking session, Bill Hamilton being quite a beer lover Nothing would do but Bill get rye bread, cheese and pretzels to supplement the beer. The outcome of all this was that we drank beer, consumed huge cheese sandwiches and played rummy until midnight. Bill was a huge man and very beamy and must have weighed at least 250 -- and he could really put it away. Also he got into a very jovial mood whenever he drank and he and Johnnie put on what was in effect a belching contest, at which Johnnie, although a small man, was no slouch. The belches from them were long, loud and frequent, each trying to outdo the other, until Maurice and I thought we'd bust a gut laughing at them. I know it sounds ridiculous but it didn't seem so at the time and to relax this way in the face of the worries we all were carrying, perhaps had a therapeutic value which actually did us some good. We engaged in all this in a breakfast alcove off the kitchen but I think Maurice, as tough a character as he could be if he chose, got a bit worried that his family, who'd apparently retired, might be awakened by all this revelry. At a session like this, it was usual for Bill, who obviously liked me, to grab me around the neck, give me a squeeze that threatened to fracture my spine, and whisper in my ear, "Forie, how's that son-of-a-bitch Caruso?" I have previously written about Maurice's home on Kahkwa and recently I took a photo of it to include in here. It as well as the surroundings look about as they did in 1932.
[[image of a red brick two story plus attic house with a white roof and trim in a neighborhood. The house has a one story room on one side. There is a structure in back with a white roof as well, possibly a garage. There are two trees in front of the house on the lawn, a row of small shrubs lining the driveway, and a white picket fence surrounding a garden plot.]]