When I was six years old, we still lived in West Lafayette, Indiana where Papa was going to school at Purdue University (Grant, this is very close to where Grandma and Grandpa live).  We lived so close to our school that we could walk, so my brother (Uncle Allen) and I would walk to school together every day.  I was in first grade and I remember that I really loved my first grade teacher, Mrs. Dean.  She was much nicer than my kindergarten teacher.  I remember going to the school library a lot because I loved to read – it was my favorite thing to do (and still is)!

I think I met my best friend at school.  Her name was Clare, and it was great because we could walk to each others’ houses to play, and I felt very grown-up when I was able to walk there by myself because she was a few blocks away and I had to cross a busy street.  We loved to play together – I remember that she had a gerbil and that was the first time I ever played with one.

Aunt Leslie and I shared a bedroom, and I remember Allen and David sharing a room, too.  David was still in a crib!  It was cold in Indiana during the winter, and we had lots of snow.  I remember one time we actually had a blizzard and it snowed so much that we could build tunnels in the snow and crawl through them!