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While my life at work was very unsettling, my personal life was initially enjoyable. After work hours were spent settling in our new house. Our furniture had not arrived yet and our time was spent doing general cleaning and painting the interior of the house. The previous owners had some unusual color schemes and repainting the purple hall walls was a top priority. With my help at night and Anita working on it most of the day, we were able to repaint most of rooms before our furniture finally arrived.

An immediate problem that confronted us was how to mow the one acre of rapidly
growing grass. Mowing the lawn with our hand pushed power mower required four to
five hours a week and that quickly became a chore. Since we couldn't afford to purchase a riding lawn mower, Ursula and I took turns keeping the lawn under control. Besides the rapidly growing grass, we had to contend with a plethora of dandelions which were springing up all over the area. We decided to let the dandelions flourish since it was well into the summer by the time we moved into the house.

The local community had two sets of public outdoor tennis courts so we
occasionally found time to sneak in a set or two of tennis. Tennis was one of my favorite recreational pastimes, and like most things I did, I took it seriously and worked hard at it. In my previous job I had belonged to the company tennis ladder and had done fairly well. In a company playoff tournament to determine the tennis champion, I lost a closely contested three set match to the number three seed.

Anita had first sparked my interest in tennis when we lived in Florida and we played together quite frequently. Actually, she knew my game so well and played with such confidence against me I had difficult time beating her. If she had a particularly good day or I had a bad day, she would occasionally beat me. I also found that Jeff from the lab played tennis, and we occasionally would stop at some near-by courts after work and play a set or two.

In mid-August, a notice for a tennis tournament that was being held at a local club was posted on the company bulletin board. It was a handicap tournament which benefited a local charity. The reason it was on the Gamma bulletin board was that the Clines were supporters of the tournament and the awards dinner was being held at the Full Sails Restaurant which the Cline family owned. Bobby Cline, the younger brother to Arnold, ran the Full Sails and a couple of other restaurants which were part of the Cline's Resco Corporation.

When I first arrived at Gamma Supplies, the Full Sails served as a Friday after work watering hole. Every Friday the management group along with Darth, Arnold and Bobby Cline would gather there and consume a fair amount of alcohol. All the managers attended except Carl Host and Ravi. Of course, the laboratory workers never attended although they were all aware of the ritual. Bar tabs would frequently disappeared which meant the drinks were in essence, on the house. The free drinks encouraged drinking and the meetings frequently became quit boisterous. These gatherings took place regularly for the first few months I was at Gamma and then they suddenly ceased. In addition to the sudden cessation, no one ever mentioned the gatherings. But, for the first few months, this gave me a weekly social hour with other people at Gamma Supplies.

One of our last Friday gatherings occurred in a Milwaukee hotel lounge rather than at the usual meeting place, The Full Sail. As usual, Darth was the center of attention and he talked incessantly on a variety of subjects. And he receive some kidding about his pig covered, mcp (male chauvinist pig) necktie.

It was still early in the evening when the gathering began to wind down. I was about to leave when Jay and Cliff came over to me and invited me to a private party. I quickly said “No Thanks,” but the were insistent and kept badgering me. Then they started telling me about all the women that would be at the party and how attractive these women were. They emphasized that there would be a lot of attractive women ther and only a few men. As they were trying to sell me on going to the party, I could hep but wonder why two single men would want a married man to go to a party to meet attractive single women. Finally, over their protests, I said “NO” and left.

As I drove home, I had an uncomfortable feeling about what had just transpired. I kept thinking about how a one night mistake at a party could be used to blackmail me in the future. It almost seemed like a setup to me and given what I was perceiving to be the morals and ethics of the people I was working for and with, the idea didn't seem all that far fetched. In fact, several years later I saw the movie “The Firm” with Tom Cruise and that type of blackmail scenario was part of the plot.

The following Monday I went to work and shortly after my arrival I got a call from Josh, the Chief Financial Officer. Josh said he wanted me to come to his office right away. I was bewildered as to why Josh wanted to talk to me and was a little apprehensive as I hurried to his office. After we exchanged pleasantries, Josh got right to the point.

He said, “I hear you didn't go to the party Friday night. You know those women were there for you!”