That began a regular Sunday adventure for Barbara that she looked forward to all week. After Mass, she would take a two-hour streetcar ride to a stop near the farm and walk two miles from there to the stables where Jake let her ride Sam.
Over the next few months, as fall turned into winter, Barbara learned more about horses than she thought she ever would. Jake made her happy by saying she was becoming a regular horsewoman.
In Gail's room on another evening, they played "Firsts," sharing stories of their first experiences in various things. At the top of the list was their first experiences with boys.
"Mine was embarrassing," Gail said, "because I was so naive, even at thirteen. A bunch of us kids from school were playing games at a classmate's house one night, and they played something called 'What do you take off first?'
"We sat on the floor in a circle, and a boy put his arm around me and asked, 'If you're going to bed, what would you take off first?' Dumb me, I figured it was some kind of strip-poker game, and before I'd know what was happening, I'd be naked!
"So I tried thinking of the least embarrassing things to take off. I started by kicking off my loafers, and everyone laughed. Then I took off my socks and they laughed even more. I wasn't going to take off my blouse or skirt, but wondered how I was going to get out of stripping. I didn't want to seem a spoil-sport, so I started to unbutton my blouse.
"Everyone really laughed their heads off then, and I still didn't get it. Finally, to save me from really being embarrassed, a girl in the circle told me, 'You'd take off his arm from around you, wouldn't you?'"
Barbara laughed too, but wondered how many girls today would consider the first thing they would take off before going to bed would be a boy's arm from around them. Or, would she?
It came Barbara's turn to tell about her first experience with a boy. She said she had not found it to be funny.
Barbara said she did not pay much attention to boys until her sophomore year in high school when she got her first job, as a gift-wrapper in a neighborhood department store. His name was Charlie Nolan, and she thought he kind of looked like a teenage Charles Lindbergh; tall, lanky, and nice-looking. He worked in the shipping room, so they saw each other on their work days, every Monday and Thursday night after school and on Saturdays. He was always polite to her and others, and his shirt and pants were always clean and pressed and he would wear a tie.