On 7/3/2015 Suzy wrote (in part):
"As kids in the late 40's and early 50's, Janey, Polly, and I were often at the Block Shop. Ruth, your dad, and Peter were very much a part of our lives and conversations. The three of us were occasionally pictured in the (Block Shop) catalog ... mostly Polly". (She describes how excruciating it was to pose but not be able to play with the toys).
"One of your uncles remembered 'the barn' in North Branford as being the plant ... I remember that barn well. For two weeks during the summer of 1956 my sisters and I (along with my best friend Cookie L.) were pressed into being the assembly line for Silly Putty in that barn. Janey (I think) pulled the lever that dropped the premeasured amount of Silly Putty into one half of an egg. Then when the filled egg rolled down the assembly line I put the wrapper (cardboard and clear plastic) on it and Cookie stapled it together on four corners. Sometimes we switched jobs and all of us decided that we would go to college and study hard because we couldn't imagine anything more boring than spending our lives on an assembly line. I was ... 14 or 15 ... Janey 11 or 12 ... and Polly 9 or 10".
"That "pink stuff" ruined more than just Mom's couch. It took out at least two tablecloths and several pairs of shorts and lots of shirts before we all became adept at playing with it. I remember the day we found out that you could copy the Sunday funnies with it. Wow!!! And play with it we did. That stuff bounced as high as anything I had ever seen before. And you could smash it into hundreds of pieces with one whack of a hammer. I remember the first day that Peter brought it to the house. It came in a huge plastic bag -- must have been ten pounds of it ... which when he was leaving was put on top of the refrigerator. Then we watched the stuff in the bag slowly "melt" into a huge puddle which then proceeded to melt down the side of the refrigerator. Fortunately, it was contained in the bag or I suspect Mom would have thrown Peter and his "pink stuff" out the door".
"Silly Putty brought all three families together often. Fun times. Enduring friendships for our parents. Great memories".
