most, some seeing so well, others less so. Also, thanks to my wonderful neighbors, we’d have a progressive dinner or a dance party that we would all put on jointly. At times, we would just have a house tour with interesting and interested people attending. That always was most rewarding. Once, setting the dining table with the silverware my Belgian grandmother had chosen for me at birth (perfect for a Wright house), a Dutch friend dropped in and noticed that the silver needed polishing. “Who is coming for dinner? The King of Spain?” she asked, noticing the damask napkins, the Leerdam crystal, and the flower arrangement. “No,” I replied, “Vincent Scully.” She knew he was a well-known Wright scholar, a superb teacher and a marvelous speaker. “Well,” she said, “give me your silver polish. If you aren't going to polish your silver for Vincent Scully, who ARE you going to polish it for? The King of Spain?” and then she polished all the pieces on the table. A true friend, indeed! Early on in my stewardship of the Tomek House, with the help of another architect, I got in touch with the well-known Dutch architect, Hendricus Theodorus Wijdeveld, a friend of Mr. Wright. This many years, culminating in my receiving a gift from him after his 100th birthday. It was his small book entitled Mijn Eerste Eeuw : “My First Century .” He was a man with a sparkling personality, and some of our correspondence that I donated to the archives at Taliesin must now be in Columbia University's Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library in New York, which houses comprehensive records of Wright's work in their archives. My involvement with The Olmsted Society in Riverside also brought Walter Creese, who sat on that with marvelous photographs by Paul Rocheleau). H. Alan Brooks came more than once, admired my paintings and enjoyed my Dutch pea soup under those lovely laylights in the dining room, also admired by Neil Levine and once by my neighbor’s friend, Professor David van Zanten, during a dinner. Paul
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