This party was one to be remembered. Debbie and GG Carolyn had just moved in to a big old house on the outskirts of Cleveland. It is about 200 yards back from the road and thus very private. It had snowed quite a little so the view into the woods from all the windows was that of a real "White Christmas". Since they had moved from an apartment into a seven or eight room house and had done so only about 10 days before, they didn't have enough furniture nor rugs for the place and there were still boxes of stuff to be unpacked, curtains to be put up, etc. But they had unpacked the priceless ingredient for a party like that. Their own friend- liness and hospitality and the spirit was picked up by all who came even from several hundred miles away such as Diana Joyce 32-H-4 FPE from up Buffalo way and l'il ol' Virginia from a couple of thousand. Debbie and I had stopped and bought a big seven foot Xmas tree on the way down from Cleveland. We chopped off its lower branches to make it fit the holder they had and then made wreaths and sprays from the branches. Our hostesses having only been married the previous year had not acquired any tree decorations and were too busy to bother with any this time. So all of us pitched in and with various kinds of handi- work and painting and cutting and donations of jewelry, corsages, etc. we decorated our own tree. Somebody cut out and painting the individ- ual egg cups from an egg carton to make bells, we popped a container of popcorn and strung that on string, cut the tinfoil from the container into strips for tinsel, painting and cut out various shapes like balls, bells, and triangles of paper or tinfoil, and anything else that we could think of and put it on the tree. The result was a beautiful tree and an old fashioned Christmas before Woolworth and Kress got into the act. I loved the doing and the challenge of it.
We had the usual refreshments, and then our gift circle which every- one enjoyed. I had received a couple of special presents on the trip and I decided to open them there instead of back home. That was my Christmas there with my dear friends, with "our" tree, a white Christ- mas outside and warm hearts inside. It was so nice. It makes me warm just to write about it and to know that my efforts of the last 10 years have brought me friends like this in most any major city I might go to. Thanks so much to all of you.
While in the hotel in Cleveland I had gotten a phone call from Gisele in Chicago concerning my arrival there and discovered that I'd made a large booboo. I was scheduled to do WLS-TV on Monday nite and I'd thought it was Tuesday when I'd made the arrangements in Philly. So I had to call and cancel that but told them I'd be available Tuesday if they could change it and gave them my hotel in Chicago. So Sunday
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