Losing the key was one of the problems. We had neighbors across the street who had a spare key to our house in case we lost it. We were there almost everyday. Sometimes we would go over there pretending to lose the key and spending time with them. They were an older couple. They were like spare grandparents. I really did love them. They were immigrants from a Slovic country. They were very nice and never talked down to us. I wish we could have had them as our sitters at times.

Instead, we had to go home before our parents got there. They expected us to have all the dishes clean, dinner started, homework done and the place to be clean. We were 6 and 8. What do you think was going to happen? The last straw was when we came home from school and wanted to make a snack. We put bacon in a toaster over to cook. It started a fire. I panicked and called the fire department. By the time they were through, my parents just got home from work. After they were lectured about the dangers of leaving kids our age at home alone, mom yelled at us. She wouldn't speak to us for over a week, but made arrangements with a sister for daycare. Her teenage daughter would be there and they lived across the street from school. They had three other children who were around our age. It was perfect.

Things went smoothly the rest of the year. We had sleep overs at Sister Ortez' house almost every weekend. My mom made arrangements with her to keep us over the summer. All of us kids liked that idea.

We children had dreams of a similar nature. We all loved to sing, dance, act, write and entertain. We all wanted to do that when we grew up, but were torn. We were told that it was a foolish dream. The end was going to come soon and those who seek fame must bow to the will of Satan and will get under his control. We would never discuss it much with the adults. It was our guilty little secret. We would choreograph dance routines. We had a circus act. We would sing along with records for each other. We were a very supportive audience to each other. Too bad we were scared away from pursuing it in the open.

We would play a lot during the summer. We jumped rope, played house, school, Kingdom Hall. Then their father would hang around the house a lot when he wasn't driving a truck. Sometimes, Sister Ortez would go out on errands and he would be there to look after the kids. He was really no friend of the family.