Monday, May 5, 1919

Beautiful bright day.  To College 9-2:30.  Father, Mother and I out to John Myers with Ford.  To Church to Sunday School Board supper.  Took walk with Merris.  Bowled at Star.  To bed 12:30 A.M.

**********
According to the 1915 New York census and 1920 Federal census, a John E. Myers lived in Schenectady with his wife Anna (AKA Hannah) and their daughter, Esther, at #1 McClellan Street.  He was 56 at the time.  This may be the John Myers who appears frequently in the diaries (along with his wife Anna).  Mr. Myers owned property about three miles from the Clossons (according to City records).  He worked as a moulder at General Electric's Schnectady Works; his daughter was a stenographer there.  She was also a Notary Public.  In 1889 John E. Myers from Schenectady witnessed a last will and testament of John Bub from Glenville, NY, a farmer who lived near Thomas Closson in 1880 (according to the 1880 Agricultural Schedule of the census).  That may be a connection Myers had to the Clossons.  Mr. Myers may also have been a member of the Methodist Church where the Clossons worshipped.

A moulder at General Electric was responsible for fabricating iron castings used in making the metal products the company produced.  Here is a picture taken from The Shop Apprenticeship System for Boys, published by GE in 1917 as a guide for prospective apprenctices, showing an apprentice and the iron casting he helped make:
  
Merris, also referred to in the journal many times as Mr. Merris (sometimes in combination with his wife, Mrs. Merris), may be Carl E. Merris, a well known electrical engineer who also worked for GE in those days. In 1919 he was 30 years old.  Like the Clossons, Carl Merris lived near Union College (according to the 1920 census) at 620 Rugby Road (an address that no longer exists).  From a write-up about him that appeared in Who's Who in Engineering, published in 1922, we learn that he was a Methodist. That may have been his connection to the Clossons.

What Stanford calls the Star is one of the three bowling alleys in Schenectady.  The other two were Morse Bowling Alley and the YMCA.  Stanford frequented all three and mentions them often in his journal.  Here is a link to a notice that appeared in the April 4, 1919 Schenectady Gazette, detailing news about bowling leagues: Bowling Tonight.  Look for it at the top of the second column.  It gives you a sense, I think, of how much bowling was enjoyed back then.