We liked to go places together on the weekends and one of our favorite places was a park on a hill, above the city of Worcester. It was like another world. Most parks were such a long drive, but this was pretty close to us and one minute you were in the middle of a big city, and the next you were in the very large park with a zoo, playground, picnic tables, a lake, and even a flat-bottomed boat for cruising the lake. We took a picnic with us and fishing gear; the children really enjoyed this place.

Another place we liked was Crane's Beach, it was up the coast from us, and quite a ride on one of the most notorious highways in all of MA. It took about 1-1/2 hours to get there, in very hectic traffic - so we only went about once a year. The sand on the beach was almost white, and ever-so-fine. It had been owned by Mr. Crane, who made all the toilet fixtures that have his name on them; when he died, he left the beach to the city for a park. On the hill overlooking the beach, there was the castle he lived in...a literal castle. It was open for visitors on certain days, but never when we were there.

I had always been quite the letter writer and now thought that I should put my writing abilities into something more deep. I wrote an article against "planned parenthood" - about all our children, how they weren't planned but every one was love and wanted. I sent it to a Catholic magazine that I received regularly; they sent me $5 and published it --- I was a "professional" author!

A few years later, I had written another article and had submitted it for publication; but, events in our lives took a drastic change: I wrote to them, saying that I didn't want it published. And, now, I'm getting ahead of myself...