0ne Fourth of July we had a bushel basket of fireworks and were to setthem off after unlit. I was sitting on the steps with the other kidswhen someone threw a lighted punk (used to light firecrackers, etc.)into the basket. The whole bushel went off at once! You never saw sucha sight; kids running in all directions with Roman candles andpinwheels swirling around them. The house did not catch fire, but theevent charblack the siding and the porch floor. Nobody was blamed for itbecause no one was very certain how it happened. It was probably thefastest celebration of the Fourth that I ever had.....and the mostexciting!

Ray and I went to the movies every Saturday night to see the very agedwestern movies. We would run all the way to the theater and the firstone there got the corner seat in the first row of the balcony. Afterthe movies we would go up to my house and my mother would make each ofus a slice of cheese and cheese with sugar on it. Next we would run upto Arsenal hill and play cowboys. We had a cave dug out of a mound ofdirt and we would defend it with spears made from long platinumenrodstalks sharpened on the thick end. In the winter we nailed a woodenbox on two barrel staves and would sit on the box sliding down hilltrying to dodge the trees. In those days they did not plow or sand thestreets and when we finally got sleds we slid down Chapin Street. 0nefriend had a bobsled which held about twelve kids and we rode that fromBrigham Hall, down Thad Chapin, down Chapin Street to the Sucker Brookbridge. The only dangerous intersection was at Chapin and PearlStreets and we would take turns watching for cars. There were somewhat fewcars in those days so it didn't bother us somewhat much.