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Message: [QUOTE="Bestiarius, post: 2254640, member: 1939"] I presume you're referring to Gardiners Island in New York. It's a place with lots of history and worth googling. Back around 1966 I worked in New York City with Louis DeBarth Gardiner of Gardiners Island family. He was probably in his late 50's at the time, and considered himself the black sheep of the family. He was a fascinating individual to know. His claim to fame around the office was his ability to tear a 4 inch thick NYC telephone directory in half with little apparent effort. He would collect the phone books in preparation to impress each new hire. We all knew what was coming when a new person arrived and watched the show with interest and amusement. Louis was an endless source of amusing stories of his past and present. His wife was the harpist with the NY Philharmonic, and he even had a story about that. His wife and her co worker, a cellist went to the exclusive NY shop Bonwit Teller to purchase long black gowns to be used during performances. Bonwit's was a high class store with very refined staff and clientele. With their gowns on the ladies viewed them in the mirror, but had to perform one last test before purchase. The both sat down and threw their legs open, much to the shock of staff and customers. Of course, this was necessary because playing the cello and harp require appropriate leg room. Satisfied, the two ladies paid and left the store without explaining their odd behavior. Louis frequently came in with a beautiful piece of jewelry from Tiffany's to show us his latest gift for his wife. Although he was the black sheep, he was a rich ram. After hearing his many wild stories we started to wonder about how true they all were. It got to the point that we began questioning him and researching his claims. We were never able to catch him in a lie. Once during WW2, he told a story of a secret mission flight from a town in Borneo to Calcutta that ended in a plane crash. I asked him how many miles that trip was and he answered immediately. We researched the air mileage and his answer was spot on. This type of thing happened frequently. Probably the most interesting person I've ever known. [/QUOTE]

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