Long Walks And The Smith Family

Our new home on the San Francisco base was right on the edge of the housing area. We could cut through on a path between the tennis courts and the woods and be in the outskirts of the city. In fact Danny's school was very near that area. We quite often took long walks through that area just looking everything over and enjoying the sights. We also did a lot of talking on these walks. We just strolled along slowly, we weren't in any hurry because we were going nowhere in particular. Walking slowly also gave Laura's short little legs a chance to keep up, afterall she had to take a lot more steps than we did. We would usually stop at a little diner and have a soda or an ice cream cone. After the refreshments and the rest, we were all ready to head toward home.

About six to eight months after we moved in we got new neighbors. The Smith family moved in next door to us. The couple was Pat and Dick and they had two little girls named Shannon and Monica. Shannon was Danny's age and Monica was about a year and a half older than Laura. Danny would have liked it a whole lot better if Shannon had been a boy because we ended up being very close friends with Pat and Dick. The four kids were together many times because us four adults would be playing pinochle at the house. Pat and the girls also became part of our walks and other outings we would take. Monica and Laura played real nice together and there was rarely a problem out of any of them.