THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY

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                                                         Grace Tate Birthday

"Grace Brock Caldwell was born, the only daughter of William Penn Caldwell and Emily Brock Caldwell, on the twenty-ninth of April, 1883, at the Caldwell farm, which was and is in Brock Township near the borough of Becksville, Nesquehela County (not to be confused with Beckville, In Schuykill County)."

From A Rage to Live (1949)

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On April 29, 1939, publication of "The Ideal Man." The New Yorker. Files on Parade. 

A young couple with three small children have a spat at breakfast when the husband, Walter Jenssen, discovers his wife has given a newspaper interview.

"Is your husband attentive to you now that you are married as when he was courting you? Answer: Mrs. Elsie Jenssen, West 174th Street, housewife: Yes, in fact more so. Before we were married my husband was not exactly what would be called the romantic type. He was definitely shy. However, since our marriage he has become the ideal man from the romantic point of view. None of your Tyrone Powers or Clark Gables for me."

Walter calms down and they make up.

She smiled and got up and put her arm around his waist and walked down the hall with him to the door. It wasn't a very wide hall, but she kept her arm around him. He opened the door and set his hat on his head. She kissed his cheek and his mouth. He rearranged his hat again. "Well," he said. "See you tonight." It was the first thing that came into his head. He hadn't said that in years.