I sat under trees and the kids from the neighborhood would join me. There, in the shade we created our next game. We played “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.” But also Miss America and then, when there were enough boys around, cops and robbers.

Storms came in the afternoon and we loved to hear lightning and thunder and we even got doused with rain, staying out as long as we could before our parents called us in.

It was hard to believe that I could be anyone I wanted to during those three months. I was the Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman. I rarely played a male. Although I was. I could get away with such things before the kids turned older and started having opinions that became stronger than my own.

How did that happen. How did I end up with the least squeaky wheel on the block?