Manor House

Tee described his post-340 move to Howard Avenue or the "Outpost of Humanity" as fairly full of action, not necessarily the kind of action we were accustomed to at the Club but at least not boring.
I moved from Millersville to my next abode,Manor House Apartments in June of 1979. It was on the second floor with sliding doors that opened to a back porch,three bedrooms and one bath. City L and his dog Scarlett from the 340, Vicki Charles and myself were the tenants. It was a reverse of the old TV show,Three's Company without the sexual tensions that beleaguered John Ritter's character,Jack,now portrayed by Vicki as the sole female of the house not counting Scarlett.
Absolutely nothing ever happened there. There never was a party as far as I remember. We all just usually stayed in our own rooms,although City and I were visited,unknown to each other at the time,by our other roomie occasionally to help "re-arrange some furniture".
When Tee called and asked "what was going on there", I always replied,"nothing". In fact to this day when things are unusally boring, "Manor House" is still our vernacular term to describe a place devoid of action..
My only two noteworthy recollections of my stay there was my 30th birthday and near the end of my residency at Manor House, The Bat Incident. I turned 30 on July 7th,1980, R.E.Lichty who also celebrated his birth that day but was born a year later had reserved several rooms at the Hotel Brunswick in downtown Lancaster for us and all who was left after we partied all night.
I started at the Harmony Inn, an attractive waitress named Cindy,caught my eye. I lamented the fact that I was turning 30 and mentioned how my life was over. I didn't believe it for a minute but I thought I try the sympathy "line". Well apparently it worked because she kept telling me how 30 wasn't really that old. I told her about the rooms we had at the Brunswick and she said she had to work till 2 but maybe she could make it. The night became a blur, all I remember is being at the Broad Axe and being given what I thought were shots of "kamikaze's" although in reality it was just water, I couldn't tell the difference.
We all ended up at the Brunswick and sure enough the waitress from the Harmony was there along with a bunch of other partyers. I have tried to reconstruct the events of that night many times but to no avail. When I awoke the next morning, I was on one bed, Cindy on the other and R.E. on the floor. I think I left with the two of them still sleeping and headed home.
That night I returned to the Harmony and Cindy came over and asked if "I remembered last night". Sheepishly I said,"No",expecting her to fill me in on the details. Apparently that was not the answer she wanted to hear because she never spoke to me again. I did have a sort of a post-depression period after turning 30. I came right home after work every night and played solo-APBA not desiring to return to the social pattern I was accustomed to. This went on for about two months until I came out of it.
My other favorite incident came when 328-er Dan Joyce had moved into Manor House after Vicki left. He was employed on friday nights at Zangari's South as a bartender. City,Scarlett the puppy, and myself were in the living room with the sliding doors apparently not fully closed. I noticed that Scarlett started leaping up in the air which I thought was strange until I saw what the problem was. A bat had entered the apartment. After flying around it ended up in Dan's bedroom where a quick thinking City L,slammed the door shut. I called the "South" to inquire of Dan how business was. He said everything was going well and then I added an oh-by-the-way,"when you get home tonight there is a bat in your bedroom."
Well Dan flipped out and demanded City and me get rid of the critter. Being a street hockey player I figured out a stick would be our best weapon to implement. I retrieved one from my bedroom and handed it to City and said "Here". Thinking discretion to be the better part of valor,I told City that bats carry "rabies" and Scarlett needed to be protected so I took the puppy into my bedroom and shut the door leaving City with the task at hand. I remember peeking out and saw that the bat was on Dan's window drapes. City "whacked" it with the hockey stick,stunning it, then skillfully used the stick to pick it up using the flat part of the blade and carry it out throught the sliding doors and depositing it over the balcony.
Manor House,indeed, I was getting tired of it. Where would my next home be ?