Our earliest memories are living in Albany on Livingston Ave and Colonie Street.  We were born in Albany and Dorothy and Emma attended school there. 

In 1938 Dad was working on construction, running a bulldozer, in Austerlitz.  He found an old house for rest and moved us in the for summer and stayed forever.  Margy was the baby only 6 months old.  Dawn was 2 years old and Evie was 4 years old. 

Our rented house had electricity but no running water (a pump in the woodshed).  We had an outhouse for the first winter we were there.  One of the first improvements was an indoor bathroom and sink with running water. 

Isabel, Gail and Jim were born while we lived in Austerlitz. 

We all attended the little “red school house”.  After the 8^th grade, we attended Chatham high school.  We also had our religious training in the church next to the school house. 

We had a wonderful, sheltered, safe childhood growing up on Austerlitz, a hamlet nestled in the Berkshires.  We walked to school, to church, the grocery stores, post office and we roamed the hills picking berries.  We swam in the brooks and ice skated on the ponds. 

As teenagers our musical entertainment was in the form of a player piano that our parents had purchased as a Christmas gift.  Our parents taught us to sing in harmony and how to dance.  We also had an annual Halloween Party.  Saturday nights were special to Shirley Dorothy and Emma.  It was the night Dad took us square dancing.  He would polka and waltz with us, leaving the square dance to the young people.