February 16, 2018. Paradise Village, Mexico. Home Number 6.

We moved to Bethesda, Maryland in 1970.  Ken had accepted a position with a research lab in DC because the man who was head was doing similar research, so Ken would be working at the VA hospital and also on staff at GW University.  In Spring of that year, Ken attended a meeting with Bill DeGroot,  in Washington.  They both stayed with Bill's parents, who lived on Morrison Street in DC. They were kindly, loving people and we became good friends.  While Ken was at the meeting, he searched for a rental home for us.  Mrs. DeGroot call Gene Kelly, a relative of his wife, who also owned a real estate company.  Just that day, a tenant had given notice to leave, so Ken saw it immediately, and rented it.   He did not know it at the time, but the neighborhood was a perfect place to be a newcomer.  And Gene Kelly was my first broker when I became an agent.

The home was a few blocks from the YMCA.  The boys were 11 months and 2, so we often visited the pool twice a day.  We knew no one in the area but the boys and I quickly made friends.  I met Ann Smith and Gill Wu at the pool.  In the neighborhood there was a book club, which I joined when invited.  And the neighborhood was full of young children.  The boys and I would walk around the block and meet lots of other families.  The most important aspect of living there was that many folks had just moved to the area so their social life was not full.   I quickly learned while living in that home that the long time residents had an already full dance card so were not very interested in the new people in town.  They were pleasant and nice and the children played together at the parks or on the yards  but they never invited us to anything.  Their social life was full with family and friends of long standing.

The home itself was ordinary.  One story, with all living on one floor and a full basement we used for playing.  And it had a big yard.  We enjoyed living in that home.  In retrospect, it was a perfect home to move into, when you have come from away.