Prologue

This is a story of things that occurred in the 1960's. During this time a whole different set of standards applied.

Marsha Irving and her two children lived in a neat suburb of a large mid-Atlantic city. For those of you who didn't study geography in grammar school in the '50's or 60's, that means somewhere in the New York/Maryland corridor, All the advertising that touted the benefits of purchasing "Your Dream Home" from this developer stressed that "Each home while similar to its neighbor was Customized to be unique to its new owner." If you have ever seen the advertising that introduced the several variations of the Levittowns you will know what I am talking about. I only mention this to set the mood and provide some rationale for the actions of the individuals in this story. Each family wanted to be different than their neighbor but no one wanted to differ from the norm too much. The "have to better than the Jones" was very much alive and well, thank you!.

Marsha's best friend, Harriet Marshal, and her husband Dennis lived on the next street one house.

Marsha was a college graduate and a widow. Her husband had died as a result of a simple work injury gone bad. The company had paid her a tidy sum just make it go away quietly. Her husband had also availed himself of an insurance policy that, paid off the mortgage and provided the equivalent of his wages each month. Thus Marsha found herself an independent woman at a time when this was definitely not typical. Hopefully that is enough background. Now on to what happened.