As a youth, I didn't get many chances to ride a bicycle, never having one of my own. Luckily, having Re for a sister gave me a chance to ride a grownup's bike—a motorcycle. One of her early boyfriends had one, and they used to go riding on weekends or some evenings. Once Bob took me, a seven-year-old, for a ride. It was a thrill, but I never went any further with this sport.

It would be cars that became my passion after my brother Ed got his first one, a 1937 Chevy, and then went on to Buick convertibles. However, it was in Re's 1942 DeSoto, the first car with hidden headlights that I ever saw, that I got a chance to learn how to drive. The car had an automatic transmission, so I was basically learning how to steer and to make judgments of size, space and distance when parking or passing cars.

This was after the war, which had left Re a widow with a young child, Connie. Driving and travel seemed to help her get through the day. Re often took Mom and me on trips. Sometimes we went shopping to places like Myrtle Mills in Unionville—one of the first large discount stores to appear after the war, and extremely popular. Other times we went to the movies as far away as Waterbury's Palace. I remember we saw Larry Parks in the Al Jolson Story in Technicolor on a very rainy April afternoon. The weather meshed nicely with one of the show's hit tunes, "April Showers."

When Re took us to the State Theatre in Hartford, just down street from the G. Fox & Co. store, she provided me with an opportunity I never expected to have. The State brought many of the most popular entertainers of the time to its stage. Acts and personalities we knew only from the radio or the movies could be experienced in person. It was possible to rub shoulders and get autographs, especially if you were patient and lucky as you waited near the lobby or stage door.

Some of the stars we saw and enjoyed at the State ranged from comedians such as Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy, through vocalists such as Jo Stafford and Vaughn Monroe, to bands such as Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. There were others that are hard to put in a category, but whom I felt very lucky to have been able to see. One was the husband and wife team of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, he with his Latin American band and she as a comedian. Who could have predicted the fabulous success they would later have on television?

Another was Cab Calloway. He was already a star of movies as well as the nightclub scene, where his work at Harlem's Cotton Club was legendary. I was very surprised to see Cab in the late 1970s while working as an off-track parlor manager in Torrington. I'm glad that I had enough courage to talk with him. When I mentioned having enjoyed seeing him at the old State Theatre, he laughed, thanked me, and we talked a little.

Now, not only is the State Theatre gone, but so are Cab, Desi, Lucy, Jack, and most of the others I was fortunate to have seen there, thanks to Re. I am pleased that we were able to share each other's company along the way!