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In those days, we spent our summers joyously in Clermont from the day school ended until the day before school began again. But on the particular weekend of June 2, opening day for the refurbished Clermont Harbor Hotel, we were still in New Orleans, because my brother Roland and I had just graduated from grammar school. We had a house guest for the night, a fellow graduate, who overheard my father's response to an early morning long distance call.
What we overheard was that the hotel was burning. Within hours, all that remained of the endeavors of many who loved the Clermont Harbor Hotel were its foundations, a spacious verandah, and four stark Roman . columns, still reaching, monument-like, toward the sky.
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