"There are people who have money and people who are rich."

We never had much money when I was a kid, but we didn't notice. We ate a lot of hamburger, but my mother had a way with hamburger. She made this great meatloaf which she frosted with mashed potatoes. It was magnificent. She made American chop suey, and it is still a favorite of ours. Many of our vacations were day trips. We'd spend days at the beach and have the best times swimming, skimming rocks and chasing seagulls. Sometimes we'd go to a museum. I remember the one at Harvard with the gorilla heads in jars. That was about the neatest thing I'd ever seen. When I was in high school, I went back to that museum just to find the heads. We went to the MFA, and I loved the Egyptian room. Once my dad got Celtics tickets from his job, and there was a reception after the game. Bill Russell was there, and my dad stood behind him so we clould see how really tall Russell is. My dad came to about the small of his back. Another time we went to the Hood dairy farm. I remember the white fences and the cleanest barn I'd ever seen. We'd go to Maine and stay at the cottage of a friend of my dad's. Sometimes twelve people were crammed into the tiniest place. We thought it great fun. We never wore designer clothes. I don't even know if there were any back then. We went to Tom McCann for our shoes, and they were sturdy, last a school year shoes. Every afternoon we'd get home from school and take off our school clothes. Winter jackets were handed down. We never noticed. At Christmas my mother always outdid herself. We got the neatest presents. Her stocking stuffers are still the subjects of legend. We had everything we needed. We thought ourselves rich enough.