Montlake - 2021 and Way Beyond by William Goodrich Bellman Chapter 29 - Cookies, Candy and Opinions

As a very young child my territory was pretty much limited to the block that I lived on. There was an alley behind all the homes in our block, a narrow dirt road that remains today exactly as it was in the very beginning. It was a good place to play as traffic on it was limited to infrequent service people, like garbage collectors, ice deliveries, meter men, etc.

I pretty much knew what was going on in this block and was quite aware of what was cooking, particularly when the aroma of cakes or cookies floated up or down the alley. I was usually invited in to get samples, as I learned at an early age, that the women all liked gossip, and I was usually full of this, even if I had to invent something to gain entry. The Murray girls, made some kind of candy a couple of times a week. Usually fudge, but on occasion taffy, which was great fun to pull. My mother didn't really like me to go to Murrays, as she said I talked too much over there. Besides the Murrays were Catholics, a religion my mother frowned on. Mother had her opinions, and didn't care for Blacks, Jews or Catholics, in that order. I could never understand her objections to Jewish people as my father's income depended a great deal on the motion picture industry, and that industry was controlled largely by people of Jewish descent.

Memories of Montlake are so easy for me to come by and I'm sure this is because of all the good times I can associate with the area. Also the good friends, and the fact that in those long ago days, friends very seldom moved away. Their parents jobs were pretty well set, and those that I remember moving, did not go far, but usually to a larger home within the area.