My mother used to organize us into fairs-- art fair, science fair, nature fair. This is one of them, with the neighbor kids from the last apartment at the very end of the building. The kids were Dede (Dierdre), Dodo (Dorothy) and Randy, and their mother never spoke above a stage whisper and was always "ill." By which I now understand, always drunk. Never saw their dad. There was another girl about my age, I only remember her mother's name-- Stephanie-- and that Stephanie had had a severe postpartum depression at a time when this was considered shameful, and evidence that you were a bad mother.

Facing page is Hallowe'en on Ellis Road. All the neighborhood kids-- Jan with her cousin Susan and some unknown friend or relative. Diane from across the street with her older brother, who has clearly been coerced into taking her trick-or-treating. My brother and I as Red Riding Hood and, I guess, just a hood. Jan's older sister Julie with Diane's older sisters and another friend. When Julian was little I ran into this friend at a resale shop in Wilmette, and recognized her, because of this picture.