His first goal in life must have been to own a candy store because he loved to play storekeeper. After Joe began giving him and his brothers a weekly allowance, he would spend every cent of it on candy and gum. He’d come home with an armful of it, take a board and two bricks and place them in the doorway to the boys’ bedroom, place a cloth over the board, lay the candy on top of it, and sell it to his brothers and sisters and friends for the same price he’d paid for it.

Michael was also a serious candy-eater and gum-chewer. Before he opened his “store,” he’d save his pennies so that he could purchase bubble gum at the concession stand at the Little League ball park behind our house. One night, however, he couldn’t find his penny for gum and he was so upset he started crying. “Mother, do you know what happened to my penny?” he asked. I knew the answer when I saw Marlon  happily chewing away on a wad of bubble gum nearby.