The Ceasars had been meeting with the other two couples about once a month for an evening meal, each wife taking her turn at acting as hostess, leaving the other two free of duties for the evening. Babysitters looked after the children. Harold asked us to join the group so there would be four couples. Albert Rambow was a clerk in the Muskegon post office - he had graduated from a business college - and his wife, Avis, like Harold Ceasar, was a junior high school English teacher. Avis was an intelligent woman - she later taught Spanish in Muskegon Junior College and was an exchange teacher in Australia after WW II. She had an unpleasant voice, however, as she talked through her nose. She didn't realize it until tape recorders were developed and she heard herself speak. The fourth couple was the Willinghams, Rollie and Florence, a rather staid, formal couple, who, nevertheless were good fun. They were strict Methodists. The Ceasars were Baptists, the Rambows Congregationalists and the Courtrights generally attended no church at all after the Hollisters left Muskegon though I was frequently asked to play in the orchestra when special programs were put on, such as the Messiah at Christmas or Easter. Each of the four families had two children, all about the same age. The Rambows had two boys, Paul, who had dark hair and eyes like his mother, and Carl (nicknamed Bill), with blue eyes like his father but extremely homely features. He was Alan's age. Avis always considered him a genius, which may have been a contributing factor to Paul's suicide not long after he was married, though marital problems were undoubtedly the principal cause. The Willinghams' older child, David, was a little older than Yolande, their daughter, Ella Marie, about Alan's age. Alan and the two Rambow boys became very good friends but neither of our two children had much contact with the children of the other two families.
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We Move Into a House on Baker Street
Saturday Classes in Kalamazoo