THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY

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                                       Hagedorn & Brownmiller Incporporated

On April 13, 1929 publication of "Appreciation." The New Yorker. The firm sponsors a dance to thank and honor its employees for contributing to the best year ever. " Far be it from me, men, to risk a violation of the Pro'bition Amendment, but I think you may take it for granted that the punch won't be exactly, well, a slap on the wrist, if you get my meaning? ... "The directors have asked me to request you men not to escort any of the female employees to the dance."

                                                 A Pal-Joey-Like Story

On April 13, 1946 publication of "Like Old Times." The New Yorker. Hellbox. At a night club: "I and this friend of mine we went in and sit down at the table near ringside, but not ringside. It's as you go downstairs and on the left as you get on the same level with the ringside it's to your left, one table away from ringside. A good table. Why it's a good table I happen to know because whereas the big spenders, black marketeers, they always get ringside, the ones that really count, they don't sit ringside. Ringside is a sucker play. The real regulars practically never sit at ringside, becuss they know you get knocked your brains out by the kids kicking you or giving you the elbow when they do their chorus number if you're sitting ringside. Also you spend."

                                                  A Gibbsville-Like Story

On April 13, 1963 publication of "The Ride From Mauch Chunk." The Saturday Evening Post. The Hat on the Bed. 

Mauch Chunk is the old name for Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. It's about thirty miles northwest from Pottsville.

"One evening long ago ..." I'm almost positive the story takes place in the twenties. The references to the chauffeur and the Vincent Lopez orchestra could place it between the twenties and the forties, but Markel's Orchestra was only around in the twenties.

A college student has just attended a large wedding in Gibbsville and is about to board the train  from Mauch Chunk to New York.

   "The young man (Jarvis Brittingham) stood aside to let Maudie McWilliams precede him into the Pullman car and, she guessed, to get a better look at her. A few minutes later, when the second call for the diner was announced, he followed her, as she knew he would, and permitted the steward to  guess that they were traveling together and put them at the same table."

The young man is a first year law student at Columbia. His ego matches his huge ambitions. Their dinner does not lead to any romance. They never see each other again. Maudie returns to Vassar, writes a letter of gratitude to the man she plans to marry, she does marry him, and several years later she reads that Jarvis did become a big success but ran afoul of the law.