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Casimir
Lynn Casimir
IRS
3/2/00
The Day - 7/5/67
I met Annabelle on July 5, 1967. It was
the day we each reported for duty at the IRS-at 300 N Los
Angeles St, LA, CA. The session was scheduled to start at
8:30 am. There were about 300 new employees reporting that
day-auditors, revenue agents, revenue officers, etc. I was
late for the orientation, and tiptoed in, standing in the
back of the room, couldn't see an empty seat. After about
15 minutes, I went out and down the hall to an office, and
asked to borrow a chair. I rolled it in the orientation room
and sat down. A few minutes later, another new employee arrived,
looked around and began standing in the back. I offered her
1/2 of my chair and she accepted (we had smaller butts back
then). It was Anna, and we were fast friends ever after. We
were in the same group for basic training, we collaborated
and consulted each other on every case, we held contests of
production results to ease the sometimes boredom of walk in
audits, and we formed a circle of about 6 of us that helped
each other along throughout the training phase. Anna kept
better track of everyone's life since we all eventually parted,
and she would always write me with the updates.
Dermatologist
Anna and I each had acne, well into our
later lives. Anna found a dermatologist in San Bernandino
that would see us in the evening, and who actually did a "puncture
and drain" procedure, which is what she was looking for.
She talked me into going with her after her first visit, but
we got through work at 430, and we had to be to his office
by 5 for our appointments - she would drive (I shudder to
think of the mph) and my job was to ride turned around, watching
the rear for police. We never got a ticket, and, we were never
late for the appointment, a trip that would normally take
almost an hour one way. At the doctor's, Anna would always
go first, and she had a very high threshold for pain. When
it was my turn, she would participate, pointing out more and
more of those zits that she thought he should eliminate, even
when I begged for mercy. It was an adventure.
Ear pierce
About 1970, Anna had her ears pierced
by a doctor husband of one of her friends. She convinced me
(how, I don't know) that there was no need to spend the money
for my own piercing, she could do it surely and safely. Well,
the first lobe went ok, but when she attacked the second one,
she could not get the needle through in one firm "poke",
had to give it a second try, and the end result is that I
have forever had a little "crook" in my right earlobe
so that when I put on pierced earrings, I have to wiggle the
right one in order to get it through. I always fondly recall
Anna when I do this.
Gambling
We each loved to play cards, and to gamble.
It wasn't long before we were jaunting over to Las Vegas together,
usually meeting up with Pop and Esther when they came down
from the San Martin farm that they had at the time. Esther
was always following Pop around the tables, trying to nag
him into quitting if he was losing, trying to get him to give
her the chips if he was winning.
My job, assigned by Anna and Esther, was
either to distract him and they would scoop away some of the
chips, or to get him to give me a handful to play and then
I was to turn them over.
Although we cooperated a little with Esther,
it was a lot more fun to just be with Pop while he was gambling
- win or lose.
During our first few trips over to Las
Vegas on our own, we played mostly blackjack. One of us would
play (we pooled our money) and the other would stand behind
as "coach", in case there was a difficult decision
to be made, but also to help keep track of the cards that
had come and gone already-in those days, they dealt with one
or two decks at the most, so it was easier to track the cards.
We did moderately well, usually played for several hours the
evening we arrived, slept, then headed home. We did not necessarily
stay in a hotel, just took turns driving, did our gambling,
took turns driving and sleeping on the way back.
Then, on one trip, we were there overnight,
can't remember where we stayed, but we were gambling during
the day' which was a little unusual. We had done quite well
on slot machines at the Lady Luck casino-we had a "system"
of standing around and watching while people poured a lot
into slots, then left, then we would swoop in and play and,
hopefully, collect the medium sized payoffs. We were tired
of slots, we went over to the Mint for a buffet, and picked
up some coupons for the crap table, which we did not understand.
They were also advertising free crap lessons so we went-it
was a film-we sat through it once, discussed what we learned,
sat through it again, then headed to the tables with out coupons.
The casino was very slow, and the dealers at the crap table
were patient with us, and we eventually were "hooked"-we
left with the most money we had ever won, had a great time,
and couldn't wait to get back-we had a "system "
now for that as well.
Over the years, gambling in Las Vegas
was one of our "girl" fun times together. Years
later, after we began having children and lived at separate
ends of the US, (especially when I lived in New Jersey (1977-1983)
I flew there to meet Anna, usually at some kind of high school
reunion junket she was with 2 or three times.
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