Excerpt from Tar Heel Sissy:

One Saturday morning we were in Bi-Rite and I passed by the toys and noticed a pair of plastic high heels in a cellophane package hanging there. It was in a “play” section for little girls. There were such delights as a plastic tiara, play make-up kits, plastic earrings and necklaces and so forth.  I immediately entered a stage of sheer ecstasy and knew that, no matter what it took, I was going to have a pair of those high heels. I snatched the package off of the display and ran to where my father was selecting Campbell’s Soups.

          “Look Daddy. These are perfect for me. I want to get a pair of them. They are only 49 cents and one size fits all.”

          “Boy have you lost your mind? Boys don’t wear high heels. Everybody in the neighborhood will think you have lost your mind if you put those on a go parading around.”

          “I don’t care, Daddy. They are just what I want. I need to get them so I can wear them during The Patty Duke Show.”

Excerpt from Starview Acres:

No one on the street had air conditioning in those days and that presented us with endless opportunities to make trouble. We would take clothespins and clip on playing cards to our bike wheels, so they would click loudly while we road in a pack up and down the street and into neighbors’ driveways. After it got dark and before we had to come in we would sneak up to open windows on neighbors’ houses and stick the garden hose in the window and turn it on. Someone came up with the idea of sneaking up to an open living room window and blowing a police whistle to see everyone in the room nearly go through the ceiling including an ancient grandmother who was playing hymns on the piano.