I was in college when I convinced my parents to let me spend a hunk of my Christmas vacation  with my girlfriend Susan and her family in Bucks County, PA. I assured my folks that we would do a lot of cultural and intellectual kinds of things.  We would go to the symphony, where I could see Eugene Ormandy conduct some Tchaikovsky.  We would do the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall — great because I loved the Founding fathers so.

I bought a little gold plated Liberty Bell, which I so loved that I wore it around my neck for many years when the gold plating had long worn off.

Her father, a design engineer, loved making toy soldier models which My-Father-Of-Blessed-Memory loved collecting.  Susan’s father had told her to tell me I would bring home a new soldier for my father — that clinched the deal for sure. Read more on Don’t Eat The Blue Stuff — Or Yellow Either!…