Bits of Yarn, Calico and Velvet Scraps                                                            Page 7

PEOPLE

My understanding of people and life came from

public life; life in the hotel with all the characters

who made up the cast.

The men: boarders, drifters, drinkers, commercial

travellers, business men, barmen, chefs/ priests

(mostly Irish)/ men from 'properties'/ in town for

the day.

The women: housekeepers, cooks, waitresses,

barmaids, the women who drank in the Ladies'

Lounge, boarders, wives of the men from the

properties, with their children/ nuns who ate in a

room by themselves.

This procession of people - flamboyant/ eccentric/

unconventional/ down-and-out, proud, certain, lost

- wound its way through my days and nights.