Aunt Ruth and Her Nephews Herb And Nat

Aunt Ruth is my mother and her older sister Lillian had three sons and a daughter. We lived in New Bedford but Lil was married to Harry Shapiro, a cigar smoking attorney, and they lived in Brockton, about thirty miles north of New Bedford. It was an hour's drive through two lane winding country roads that ran down the main street and through the center of every little village along the way. The interstates were still in the planning stage at that point, but every few weeks either we'd drive to Brockton or they'd drive to New Bedford.

That's my mom on the left with her typical 1961 permed hair chatting with her two older nephews. Nat, the tall one, had graduated from Clark University in Worcester, while Herb had made the family proud. He was attending Dartmouth, one of the prestigous top "Ivy League" schools. On rare occasions my cousins visit Miami with their wives and we'll get together for lunch or dinner.