Sweatshirts and snowsuits and deep, fluffy snow
High as the bannister - what a great show!
Toasted cheese sandwiches, Oliver Greene
These are a few of my favorite things!

Cindy and Susan look so cute wearing their matching red hooded sweatshirts. They're playing on the big porch out back, a good place to ride a little trike or just "jump and holler."
When we lived on Willow St. in Shamokin (we were actually in Coal Township, before it got its own zip code) the school was about 4 blocks away, so the kids could come home for lunch.  They got an hour for lunch.  Toasted cheese sandwiches were pretty cheap to make, so they were a frequent lunch food.  I always had Oliver Greene, a radio evangelist, on WPGM from 11:30 to 12.    Cindy told me years later that she always remembered Oliver Greene and toasted cheese from the years she attended Ferndale School.

Jacob and Margie lived up the street.  Margie was sweet, little Tricia (mentioned later) was kind of brazen, Jacob kind of wild--or at least it seemed that way to us.  The alley gang, including Jacob, were the kids who hung out in the alley at the top of our yard, and they were all rough kids.  We didn't let our kids play with them because they would have been a bad influence.

We always had birthday cakes and little "parties" for each one.  The birthday boy or girl got to choose their favorite meal and I would make it for their birthdays.  They also were not required to do any chores that day.  These were traditions passed down from my family when I was growing up.  Bill's family didn't celebrate birthdays much.

When Billy was pretty little yet, he made an angel in school.  She was made from a cardboard cone, the kind that held thread for a sewing machine.  She had blonde hair and a blue "gown" and I forget what her wings are made from.  She had pipe-cleaner arms and held a paper "songbook."  I still treasure Billy's angel and always have her on display at Christmastime.

All the kids brought dandelion bouquets, the most beautiful bouquet a Mommy can receive.  Once I left dandelions from Billy sit on the cupboard until they wilted.  It made me feel terrible, almost like I was neglecting him.

Bats and more bats--there are so many bat stories in our family!  Every home we've lived in had them.  Well, I should say every home we bought.  The 3 homes we rented did not have them. 
On Willow Street, we had several experiences with them.  When my friend Diane visited and we gabbed till 1 a.m., a bat suddenly flew through the room.  First, I held newspaper over my head and held the door open, hoping it would fly out, but it didn't.  Then I crouched down and went upstairs to wake Bill, who had gone to bed hours earlier.  He was not happy to be awakened in the wee hours of the morning to go bat-hunting.  He came downstairs, caught the bat and went back to bed without one word.

Once Susan came to our bedroom a couple times saying there was a bat at the window.  We shushed her and sent her back to bed, thinking she was imagining it.  We tried to go back to sleep until suddenly one of the other kids yelled for us, saying that the bat had flown into Susan in her bed!  What a terrible experience for poor Sue!

Well, this covers the first verse.  Now go back and sing it!