Halloween at your house was the best, Chris. I remember a haunted house with scary noises, and  bowls full of cold wormy things ( spaghetti???) and eyeballs (apparently peeled grapes). And it was sort of a juxtaposition, in my mind, because your house – -like Desiree’s – -always seemed pretty strict. Treats were monitored, TV time was carefully doled out there was always a parent there…… But its funny, now, that this seemed strict. I guess it was strict compared to mine; we never had any parents home, and junk food was a staple.

There was an annual block party on Barry road. The entire neighborhood came. There were steamers, and corn on the cob, and games for all the kids, and the night always ended with some lame-ass fireworks. One year , one of the fireworks sailed over a house, and landed on the roof of your next door neighbors (The Woods????? The name escapes me). It caused a massive fire ( in my kid memory, the house burned to the ground, but I doubt that this is true).

I was over at the Parkers house with my sister Dori, Deb and Laura Parker. We were in the kitchen. Mrs Parker had just bought a set of Corell LivingWare dishes. They were heavily advertised on TV as being unbreakable, so we decided to test it, and smashed  at least half the set on the floor before she walked in.