Memories of David Uncle Harold's story about arriving at the house when David was a very small boy: Uncle Harold knocks David answers the door Says Uncle H, " David, where are your pants?" " UPstairs!" Mrs Redahan remarking in her strong Irish brogue, "Poor David! He always gets sent from the table just before dessert!" David and Dad (Granddad) working on paper drives during WWII David dispatching chickens. David and Grandma could not perfect the art of wringing the chickens' necks so David made a chopping block out of an old stump and with the help of a sharp ax decapitated said chickens while the neighborhood children watched in horrified glee. Enter much flopping and flapping. Afterward the chickens were hung from the laundry line. Subsequently Grandma sat on the back steps and plucked the chickens, then cleaned them and burned off the pin feathers over the gas stove. I can still smell it! Most of the chickens were put in a large freezer locker in White Plains. No one had freezers in those days. Imagine Grandma who had been presented at the Court of St James gallantly plucking chickens. True sophistication. David in BSA Troop 3 marching in the Memorial Day Parade. I think the troop had a monopoly on first place in the marching competition. David's wreck of a bedroom on the 3rd floor at 315 where he had his own bathroom! David's homemade monopoly set; his croquet set arranged in an impossibly difficult way. As a kid David somewhat ostentatiously eating cereal every morning from a large vegetable dish. He could eat the most incredible amount of anything (as you well know!) David being stopped by the police while he rode his bike to his summer job at Winged Foot very early in the morning. The police thought he was a kid running away! David working on his very first car before he set out on a solo trip to the Smoky Mountains. David sending me handkerchiefs for my birthday the first year he was at college (Yale) I was amazed that he remembered (and this I have never forgotten) David returning from Basic Training in Geneva. He stepped off the plane at Westchester Airport ( which at that time still sported a wind sock). D was wearing full Air Force uniform complete with visored hat and enormously long heavy wool uniform overcoat. He looked ridiculously young - like he should have been in a military prep school. David receiving his law diploma at Fordham. Marty was in the hospital having one of the babies so David had an extra ticket. I went with him and Grandma. At that time David had a tiny red sport car (Triumph?) with two seats. Where to put Peggy? There was a narrow space behind the seats to store the cloth roof (?) and there I perched all scrunched up. And this with a man who always insisted we use the seat belts at a time when no one else had ever seen one . ( It was a hot sunny day and the university conferred all its degrees at the same outdoor ceremony. Very l-o-n-g and very b--o--r--i--n--g!!! David singing Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall on the night Grandad was very seriously ill in the hospital. For some reason someone had bought box seats and Grandma and Aunt Julia were afraid David would see the empty box and fear the worst. Corky and Peggy were delegated to go and sit through that performance wondering what was going on at the hospital. But David sang at Carnegie Hall. David's summer job at Winged Foot involved raking sand traps and I remember our father insisting that he take salt pills because of all the sweating. Were both the sport cars red? I remember one so low to the ground that you could touch the driveway with your knuckles. It was probably one of those cars whose tail pipe ws wrapped with pajamas to get it through inspection - a very temporary "repair". David came home from Lackland on leave and drove back nonstop. Joe, a Scarsdale Bus driver, asked Grandma about David (I think Joe had driven our school bus- even to IHM!). Mom expressed concern about the trip and Joe replied that David had too much respect for an engine to do anything foolish. David, in his skivvies, is flopped on his cot in the Lackland barracks. A not very bright fellow lit a firecracker and tossed it at him. It landed in a very strategic place (but did no harm). David was off the bed in a flying leap and socked him in the jaw. Nobody raised a finger or made a complaint. Speaking of socks, many years earlier, Grandma responded to my loud wails from the porch where we were playing. I already had a large knot on my forehead. When Grandma asked what happened David replied, "I tried to hit Patsy in the nose but she ducked." All Grandma could think was "Thank God!" as my nose probably would have been obliterated. In early '36 Dad's job took the four of us to CA but within six months the company closed and we trekked back by car (with Mom's Aunt Helen now added). Uncle Harold had houses that were empty because the mortgagees had walked so we, jobless, lived rentfree in Mt. Vernon. Aunt Helen went back to her NY apartment. Dad got a job in NJ and was gone Mon-Fri. When Mom was pregnant with Peggy and morning sick she still had to get the two of us off to 2nd grade and kindergarten. The only bathroom was upstairs so the kitchen sink was pressed into service. David asked, "Mother, why is it that when Patsy and I get sick you put us in bed and call the doctor but when you get sick you say 'Oh damn' and have another cup of coffee?" After overhearing us worrying about her health she told us about the new baby but it was a big secret as Aunt J would have thought it not a good idea. Several months later at a family gathering David slipped and mentioned the baby and then blurted, "I forget - does Aunt Julia know about our baby?" A cross-the -street neighbor, Bobby Fuller, and David went down into the woods to Carpenter Pond which was a small reservoir (and a great place to skate when there was enough ice - it was quite deep). The dam was out for repairs so the pond was pretty empty. They found a 32 pound snapping turtle which they carried home and put in the Fuller's bathtub (I hope they had another bathroom). It was given to the Bronx zoo and traded for a lizard from Chile or Peru, I forget which.