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get a better view and the view, moreover, is in all directions. Moreover, it is informal, comfortable, and to a nonrailroader, something adventurous and different. It always thrilled me.
Outside of our railroading experiences, which were always fun, we had also a little "social" fun with Sam Reigel and his boys. We discovered they had one ritual which they followed religiously and which I had considerable difficulty adapting to. Every afternoon at 5 when the day's labors were over, the gang would adjourn to a bar near the Lackawanna offices, and standing with one foot on the rail, have a minimum of three straight whiskys followed by a beer after each. And it seemed as though this was what [[underlined]] everybody [[/underlined]] had and if you had anything else, you appeared to be not only a dissenter but a pantywaist. So I tried to play along but the first day or so, I didn't think I was going to be able to get the whisky down. It would gag me and I'd try to cover this up as best I could but I was miserable. Finally, I got to where I could handle this ordeal reasonably well but I never learned to enjoy straight whisky no matter how good it might be.
When Sam and the boys were in Erie, they liked to raise hell every night but at home in Scranton it was different. After the 5-o'clock rendezvous in the saloon, which would last a half-hour or so, usually they'd go home, which was a lucky break for us. Bob and I were staying at the Hotel Casey, which I believe was a United Hotel in the same chain as the Lawrence in Erie. The Casey was a good hotel, the best in Scranton anyhow, and they had good food and service. It didn't have the class of the Taft in New Haven but, after all, Scranton wasn't New Haven, either. However, our life at the Casey was quite mundane. It was a comfortable place to eat and sleep but that's about all I can remember about it. I think the thing about it that appealed the most to me was its name -- The CASEY -- seemed like you might see Jiggs and Maggie walk into the dining room any minute.
When Bert Pero came to town, however, you could expect things to pop and they did on one of the two real evening occasions that I remember on this Scranton assignment. The other was with Charlie Williams which I'll relate presently. But the one with Bert still leaves me mystified because, for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it was really all about or where we had it. This sounds strange but I'll explain it. Normally, Bert's visits to Scranton to call on the Lackawanna were aimed primarily at selling electrical stuff to the signal people--transformers, wire and cable, switches, fuses and so on, as well as maintain his contacts and good relations with them. On the occasion in question, he came up to pay a courtesy call on Moffatt, Reigel & Co. and exhibit interest in our study but after those chores had been disposed of, he turned his attentions to the signal boys as the ones who put the real money into our coffers with their steady and profitable 

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