Describe a favorite childhood friend and something you did with her or him. (Mimi)

I don't remember having a lot of childhood friends. I was the oldest of five children and I remember playing mostly with my sisters when we were little. One of our favorite games was playing school with Karen and I fighting over who would be the teacher and Teri NEVER getting to be the teacher. We also played store with empty boxes provided by Nana. We also used to "hike" to the Shoe House and to Matthews Stables which was owned by your Grandpa Art's family.

We went to Catholic school and our parents were a bit snobbish about it and felt that we shouldn't associate with the neighbor kids since they weren't Catholic. Every now and then I was allowed to play with Cheri who lived down the street. Her family was from Buffalo and she was nuts about horses and the most memorable thing that I can remember about her was her obnoxious laugh. We also occasionally were allowed to play with Eileen and Carol who lived next door to us. They were the oldest two children in a large rather rough family. My mom was very hesitant to allow them in the yard for fear that their bad qualities would rub off on us kids.

During the school years, I remember having a different best friend each year. My childhood was rather controlled by my mother and we didn't do the things that other kids did so it was hard to have anything in common with my schoolmates. They would go to parties and to outside activities such as bowling or roller skating and I was not able to join them in any of these things. There were sleepovers that I was never allowed to participate in. My mother didn't drive and my father worked second shift most of my school years so we basically went to school and came home. I think that might be part of the reason that I developed into a book worm as a kid. I was the loner who was content to sit in the corner with my book and the one place that I did visit regularly were libraries.