It was The Sugar-Plum Tree by Eugene Field, and all the children dreamed about the tree after the party.

All the children on the street came to the party. There were Cammy Kearns and Marianne and Denny and Ford and Elizabeth Ann and all the others.

Donna Lee Strong wasn't there. She was my best girl friend until she moved away. I had lots of fun with Donna. I cried very much when she left. She went to live near Chicago. We loved each other.

Her mother, Arlene, was with us a lot. She liked athletics. She helped Donna and me with lots of games.

We had mothers with "motherality" on our street. Cammy's mother, Denny's mother, Ford's mother, all the mothers had "motherality." They all looked out for all the children. Gail lived nearby. She was a little older, but we liked to have her with us whenever she came.

We had a Halloween party. All the children came to listen to records. It was "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." We heard the broom in the music, and we heard all the sounds of the story as Mommy told it.

We all had costumes on. I was little Red Riding Hood. Ford was an animal with a long tail. We all sat around in a circle and listened. Nobody made any noise. We paid attention. Then we ate ice cream and candy and cake, and then all my friends went home.

Ford and I were always running in and out. We were always adding to our treasures. We collected silver foil from anything we could find. We rolled this into balls.

I had all Mommy's old jewelry and old pocketbooks in my collections. Ford liked to draw. So did I. So we had lots and lots of boxes of crayons and pencils and chalk.

I collected combs, too, for my dolls and for my friends and me. I had charms from everywhere, especially from bubble gum machines. One charm was a ship. Ford gave it to me.

A lot of charms were presents to me. One charm bracelet had scissors that opened and closed, a ground roller, and a diary that opened.

When I had to stay in, if the weather was bad or if I had a cold, I could see out my corner bedroom windows. It was on the first floor. One window looked at Ford's house. One window looked at my little ash tree with red berries and lace leaves. I liked to look at the white snow and the rain, or we made cookies. Aunt Celeste sent cookie cutters and a pastry tube to make fancy cookies. She knew Mommy and I were always making cookies in the green kitchen.

Mommy and I had one mother-and-daughter set. It was a pinafore-one for me, one for her-with ruffles. We always put them on.

Then we made the dough. We rolled the dough. I had my own toy utensils. I loved to roll the dough that Mommy gave me. I put all kinds of fancy things on top. We had colored sugar to sprinkle on, and silver balls to put on top and chocolate jimmies.

Page 4