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Why (as in yaverbaum)
the firm, a levy that had stopped my new employer from paying my sal- ary to me. The government was telling the firm that I had failed to pay my taxes! (“Young man, can you explain this to me?” was hardly a pleas- ant sentence for a very young associate to hear.) I soon discovered that the problem had come about because of two stupid errors that occurred in Harry’s small accounting office, but, when I explained my embarrass- ing and extremely unsettling problem to Harry, he merely laughed unapologetically. His reaction was that I was being a baby over nothing. Never mind that the firm had to send an attorney to the IRS to straighten things out.
In 1972, Phyllis and I, primarily at my urging, had decided that we wanted to move out of Brooklyn and buy a house. While I could afford to carry a house on my salary, I knew that there was no way that I could come up with the equity. There was only one way that we could accom- plish that, and we went to the Rebells, who graciously said that they would help us out when we found something that would work for us.
We soon found 31 Farragut Road, as to which we struck a bargain and turned to the Rebells. The Rebells would give us $30,000 toward the price, and we would finance the rest. Harry told me this in Mahopac with a good deal of fanfare, out of Phyllis’s presence. (Phyllis had little understanding of finance and exhibited little interest in money as such, but she had no doubt that there would always be a safety net if there were trouble.). A few weeks earlier, also out of Phyllis’s presence, Harry had gone out of his way to let me know that the daughter of one of his clients was divorcing, that it was a mess, and that, as I should know, it is always difficult for parents to face that kind of problem, especially when they have been generous with the separating couple. This, he elabo- rated, was often a problem for wealthier people. I nodded sympathetically. (The truth is that, although I found the conversation strange and dis- comfiting, I wasn’t at all sure why.)
Then, after Phyllis and I ultimately contracted to buy the house, Harry announced to me that the deed would have to be in Phyllis’s name only. I didn’t object; neither did Phyllis. I was a co-signer of the mortgage note, which I would pay down out of my salary, but she would
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