Life on Maple Street seemed good. The kids were healthy and did well in school. Simmy was advanced a grade because of her high test scores, and Lefty was becoming a baseball expert. He collected cards and could quote the scores of all his favorite Yankee players.
The children went to En-Joie pool in the summer, and in the winter, they skated on the ice-covered tennis court at West Endicott Park across from the shoe factory. Behind Frey Avenue, a creek ran tangentially to Maple Street where the kids often caught minnows and climbed the trees along the creek bank or picked wildflowers in the nearby field.
A popular pastime in the neighborhood was dodgeball, a game the children usually played one block away under the arch of towering trees that lined Elm Street. Although Lefty was younger t
