My father grew up on a small farm in a very small town in northwestern Ohio, appropriately called Hicksville. Its claim to fame is that it is mentioned in Huckleberry Finn. My mother's father during the 1930s worked at the YMCA so that his family could eat meals in the cafeteria. That was his pay. My parents both graduated from Ohio State University. They married right after my father returned from Italy, where he had served in the army during WWII.

I grew up in Northville, a small town in southern Michigan. Everyone was either management or labor, and everyone supported either Michigan or Ohio State (in football). Our town was economically diverse, but otherwise pretty homogeneous. Our minorities were the Catholics.

My father was quite successful over time. We moved to Oakwood, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, which was much less economically diverse (but there were more different religions). My parents lived quite well after all four kids were through college and had several wonderful years of travel and adventure after he retired.

These are my stories... .