"One of my fondest recollections is of Christmas.  We would hang our stockings from the mantle in front of the fireplace.  Mother and Olive made doughnuts and taffy and put in the stockings.  Christmas eve, Peter or Henry would wrap a sheet around them, knock at the sitting room door, and come in.  I was half way afraid of them, but it was fun.  They would throw out nuts and grab at us when we would stoop to pick them up.

"Another gala day was the Fourth of July when we would have a Sunday School picnic.  People would take baskets of food and put it on a long table made of boards, and while the band was playing patriotic music, we would march in a line of twos to the table where we divided and each went on a different side.  John played a tenor drum in the band.  I felt quite rich one Fourth of July when Mother gave me a nickel to spend.  I bought an orange with it.  I didn't know I would be living on an orange grove in California.