To Mary who SingsIrishSongs,

Another Upstate NY'er, I see. I'd never badmouth the good ol' Simmons School-they did the job on my dad earlier this year! The funeral guy I picked out because of his lower prices (and his black sense of humor!) subcontracted out to them!

I changed schools 6 times between Kindergarten and 8th grade, spending about half the time in Catholic schools. Then I went to a Catholic High School. The education was pretty good, but it took me till I was 25 to shake off the religious indoctrination. I think the main way religions get people to believe all that stuff is by brainwashing them while they're young.

There was no money available for me to go away to college, even SUNY, and I really did not want to continue to live at home with my dad. So once I found a job that I kept for 2 months, I got my own apartment-$80 a month in 1967! The next year I took a nanny job and went to Onondaga Community College-I don't know if anybody but you would have heard of it!

Much later, living in Philadelphia, I got a Bachelor's in Social Work from Temple University. I'm still in the Phila area-MUCH richer in folk music than Syracuse, and a MUCH more reasonable climate.

Happy snow season, and have patience-it'll all melt SOMEtime!

Marymac