Wedding Cake

"Grace came to the Peace Corps from Upper Arlington, Ohio, which, in my mind’s eye, IS America of the1950s : Grace raised with Protestant values, wore saddle shoes and bobby socks, and a cheer leader who rooted for the Golden Bears high school squad who played on Friday lights. She was looking for a way forward and she found Peace Corp.

The next two years Moe and Grace got to know each other in a village outside Lilongue, Malowi, where they taught maths and French and history. They climbed Mount Kilimanjarro and travelled the world. When it was time to return home only one city spoke to them : Berkeley, California. This was 1965 or, as Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate, noted: “Mrs. Robinson, if you don't mind my saying so, this conversation is getting a little strange.”

Moe grew a beard, passed the State Bar, and went to work at the NLRB. Grace founded a Montessori school in Oakland and Katie and I got to know public transportation from an early. My parents tried marijuana once, they told us, though had an elaborate Turkish bong hidden in the closet. Katie and I advanced in the Berkeley Unified School district. "