Talk #320

Old Time Too: I remembered the '62 Summer vividly. It was the best summer job I had with earnings of more than $ 1000. The resort was called Tanana Lake House in Roscoe, N. Y. It's main attraction was a 18 (eighteen) hole golf course, the lake, and its close proximity to Hotel Concord where lots of famous entertainers got started. The summer season started on July 4th (Independence Day) and ended September 4th (Labor day). Most of the guests stayed for two weeks, playing golf. The only famous golfer showed up that summer was Sam Snead. The card game was called "Paralasi". Something close to Russian Poker, or thirteen cards. If it were operated in NYC's Chinatown, the protection money that went to the police would be quite large. In Tanana Lake, we didn't know. Albert was quite good at it since it was his second season. We three won big once like Desmond said. The waiters were college kids and Philipino professionals that came on land during the summer months. The latter were the ones working on cruise ships the rest of the year. I remembered one night, the dining room was serving Long Island Duckling a la Orange, and the item ran out on the guests cause all waiters were ordering that dish to stash away for mid-night snack. We had quite a few that night. Desmond acquired a BB gun afterwards, and one afternoon even shot a sitting duck on the lake. We were using the gas water heater in the bathroom to barbarque that duck. It was quite tasty. Another hobby that we started was collecting different glasses for drinks. Close to the end of the season, some fancy ones were all gone. After Labor Day, we went shopping on 5th Avenue before returning to Illinois. I bought a pipe, small Canadian, Dunhill for $ 20, and a Samsonite two-suiter. Desmond bought a navy blue car-coat with red lining from Lord and Taylor. It became a real winner in the winters to come. Carl Man and his dislike of the fraternity house, I might add a little to its why? I think, his was not exactly the social type. It was more like a co-op for chemical engineering students. Chemical engineering was the only engineering belonging to LAS (college of Letters and Sciences, not engineering). It requires a foreign language. Carl was taking French among others with some high school French. May be the pressure from French and the missing old test files that the social fraternity houses had affected him.