One day we had a picnic there. We packed our wicker basket and took our jug too. We stayed all day. We had lots of fun.

Ford ran so fast he almost fell over himself lots of times. I laughed and laughed because he was so funny. We looked at the different kinds of trees. They were all sizes and shapes. Some were straight. Some were crooked. We talked about the kinds of trees there.

Ford and I went to the Leal School Kindergarten together in 1947, when we were five years old. We walked to the school. It wasn't far. We liked it very much there. I went to Sunday School at the Jewish Temple in Champaign, and I rode on the bus to get there or drove there with friends.

We had a circus at the Leal School. I played the piano for the rocking horse bareback rider. It was the Leal School Circus. There was a write-up in the paper by Bobby Sink's father who was the editor of the Urbana Courier. Bobby was an animal trainer. His big cat was in a box and was the lion in the circus. Bobby's mommy was my mommy's close friend.

Bobby's father's paper gave us free tickets to a real circus too. I saw clowns and dancers and all kinds of acts. Daddy took me and the newspaper photographer took our pictures. The clown was very queer. He made faces. I thought everything was puzzling.

My last party in Urbana was a Maypole Party. Mommy and I made streamers of different colors, and we all danced around like little fairies dressed in our party clothes. There were little presents attached to each streamer. When the dance was over, we pulled down the gift with the streamer.

Everybody got all tangled up in the crepe paper, and we all screamed and giggled while Mommy kept on playing the piano for us to dance around to.

Our piano just fit into the very little dining room. It was next to the window. With the window open we could hear the music of the piano.

Mr. Linton made the piano out of two old pianos for us. He had a shop in the twin city Champaign. There was a big old rosewood grand piano and a 100 year old Henry F. Miller piano from Boston. The piano had a rosewood case made from the grand piano.

The piano cost some money, and Mr. Linton was willing for Mommy to put in old clothes, jewelry, and old shoes. Mommy put in her confirmation ring and her old watch and her high school ring because we wanted a piano so much.

Mr. Linton had a second-hand shop, and he also refurbished old pianos for people. He made us a beautiful piano to fit the corner in the alcove. With the front door open and the window open in back of the piano, Mommy could see, while she sat at the piano, the front and the back lawn. She could always see me.

We played and sang all the time at the piano. The staff that held the music was the most beautiful wood, real rosewood. Mrs Linton wanted it for a coffee table top but Mr. Linton decided to use it on our piano. Mrs. Linton was very, very kind, and she let him do it.

The day of the Maypole Party, the piano was part of the fun. The streamers were so many pretty colors. The crepe paper could be made into many other things.

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