Free On Tuesdays, They Played Mah Jongg by Milton Stern

Quarterly Club was established during Prohibition. After Prohibition and before liquor-by-the-drink was re-established, one had to carry his own bottle to a club, so hundreds of private clubs were established in Bible-belt states to accommodate those who wanted to go out and have a drink rather than get drunk on the porch.
    My mother told me that she learned to drink Scotch because my father, Adam, told her when they first starting dating that he was not going to carry two bottles, and he drank J&B Scotch. Did you know that President James Buchanan kept the White House stocked with J&B Scotch because there was a rumor that the whiskey was named after him? Many guests were impressed when the President poured them a drink from his own private brand of Scotch …
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    “Michael, what are you going on about?” Dr. Mikowsky asked as he stopped writing and took off his glasses.
    “What do you mean?” Michael asked the doctor.
    “You have gone from Florence and Karl going out for a drink to a history of liquor laws and President James Buchanan,” the doctor said.
    Michael started to laugh, and Dr. Mikowsky smiled as Michael loosened up for the first time during this session. After a few minutes, he gathered his composure.
    “Sorry Doc,” Michael said, still smiling and chuckling a bit. “I have been researching the possibility of writing a treatment for a mini-series about President Buchanan, and I have been caught up in his story.”
    “That is all right, Michael,” the doctor reassured him. “I just felt I should stop you before we spent two hours discussing Buchanan’s policies.”
    “Don’t worry, Doc,” Michael said. “I save those conversations for my agent. I found that if I drone on about American history, he works harder to keep me busy during the summer hiatus.”
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    Florence was a member of the Huntington Club as were the rest of the girls, and since the dance was at the American Legion Building a few blocks away, she thought it was the best place to go afterward. Curiously, Florence’s interest in ballroom dancing enabled her to establish a group of gentile friends, which set her apart from the other girls. I often envied Florence for being a part of two such distinct social circles. Her life was not all about Mah Jongg and synagogue life.
    Karl was immediately impressed with the Huntington Club with its unoriginal décor consisting of leather upholstered chairs in the bar. There was also a room with a dance floor that usually was host to a live swing band on the occasional Saturday night with this particular one being the exception. There were only a few patrons in the bar, and Florence, who was wearing a blue-sequined floor length dress that was cut very low in the front, and Karl, who was wearing a dark blue pin-stripe suit, decided they should sit in the two chairs around the small table in the corner.
    When Florence stopped by the house earlier that evening to show my mother what she was wearing, she proudly announced that she was not wearing a bra. My mother asked how she was holding up her enormous breasts, and Florence showed her how she had sown bra cups into the dress. Florence was also a wiz with a sewing machine.
    When the cocktail waitress came over, Karl ordered Scotch on the rocks, and Florence ordered a club soda.
    “Are you sure you don’t want something stronger?” Karl asked.
    “I think your dry cleaning bill is high enough,” she answered, and they both laughed.
    They sat there and chatted for a while about the usual, the weather, favorite restaurants, old TV shows, the good old days, and the conversation turned to my mother when Karl asked, “How long has Hannah lived here?”
    Florence, who was my godmother and my mother’s closest friend, told Karl the story of my mother and her moving to Washington in the 1940s, my father and Hannah’s second marriage. Before she could tell Karl my mother’s favorite color, she stopped to think for a minute.
    You need to know that