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I knew all these women very well, in fact, called them all "Cousin" whether related to them or not. In addition to these people, Mother saw Grandma Hutchinson quite often. Grandma H. was not my real grandmother since she was my mother's stepmother, my real grandmother Hutchinson having died 31 years before I was born. As I have related, Grandma Hutchinson lived in a flat on Kellogg Street with her brother, Jim, who traveled for Thomas Cook & Son and wasn't around Syracuse very much.  Grandma's flat contained many paintings of ships and the sea from my grandfather Hutchinson, and I just wish I had some of them now. The flat was pretty crowded with antique furniture and all sorts of miscellany but it was comfortable and we’d go there occasionally for dinner. Grandma looked and dressed like pictures of Queen Victoria and I thought she was pretty ancient although she was probably younger than I am right now. On Thanksgivings, the family would gather at the Knapp farm for dinner presided over by white-bearded Uncle Judson and Aunt Maggie with Cousin Kate the guiding genius behind the affair. This was FOOD such as I've never known before or since and there was grave danger of eating to the point of insensibility. Christmas we'd spend at home and they'd have a tree for me and I'd come down Christmas morning ahd see all the presents and be about as excited as I think I've ever been in my life. Once I could read, I used to get lots of books and I loved them. But also, there were all the latest games and toys and my impression is that I must have been a bit spoiled in this respect. July Fourth was another day we spent at home. At that time, fireworks were entirely legal in New York State and I'd collect my supply for weeks in advance of the Fourth so that when the day came, I was loaded with all sizes of firecrackers, spark1ers, torpedoes, flares, rockets, snakes, pinwheels, the whole gamut. It was a miracle that none of the gang got burned by the fireworks but I don't recall one instance of any kind of an accident among the kids I knew. In 1910, we were visited by Grandmother Craton who was 82 and had made the trip north from South Carolina alone and without trouble. She was a remarkable woman and lived to be 88. While she was visiting us, Halley's Comet paid one of its infrequent visits and Grandma Craton remembered its last visit, which had occurred in 1835 when she was a little girl. It is interesting to note, however, that from a diary of my mother's that she just happened to keep for a few months at that time, it was evident, although thinly disguised, that she and Grandma didn't hit it off 100% and she resented her mother—in-law to some extent. T'were ever thus, I guess.

I said we had no pets other than the rabbits and lovebirds. I completely forgot the pet owl we had for awhile who lived, in the woodpile in the basement.  We seldom saw him because he spent the days hidden in the woodpile, only coming out at night. He became obnoxious finally and in some strange manner, was captured and then released outdoors.