When installing the alarm:

• Follow the manufacturer's instructions using a drill and screwdriver.
• Plug-in alarms must have restraining devises so they cannot be unplugged by mistake.
• Hard-wire alarms need to be installed by a qualified electrician.
• Never connect a smoke alarm to a circuit that can be turned off from a wall switch.

MAINTENANCE TIPS
Test smoke alarms once a month by pushing the "test button." Install new batteries when you change your clocks or at least once a year. Clean smoke alarms using a vacuum cleaner without removing the alarm's cover. Replace smoke alarms every 10 years. Smoke alarms for the hearing impaired have a built in strobe light. The alarm has both an audible and visible signal and can be mounted in ceilings and walls.

"I was almost four years old when we moved into our new home onNorth Park Drive in the winter of 1940/41. I can remember going there when the house wasn=t even finished and looking down into the basement through some hole where the living room floor was not yet completed. It was icy cold in the house. Bulldozers were still shaping the backyards on the day we moved in and it was a sea of mud. I had to stay inside and out of the way of all the moving activity, which must have been torture because it still sticks in my mind. Pretty exciting for a toddler and it must have been exciting for my folks too; it was their very first home after years of renting at the Colonial Village Apartments.

"Our house had the only curved front sidewalk on Park Drive and it was to get around a huge oak tree that I suspect was one of the reasons that Dad chose this particular house over all of the others. It was a magnificent tree that towered over the house and shaded the whole front lawn. Too bad it died a few years later leaving the curved sidewalk and offset steps that looked kind of nonsensical without the tree. The house cost $5,500, which included the optional screened porch and fireplace. The driveway was gravel and I think Dad had to plant the lawn. There must have been no insulation because I can remember Dad putting the insulation in the attic about a year later. The insulation came in big cardboard boxes that we cut up to make blackout curtains for the windows so we could leave the lights on during the wartime air raid drills.

"When the war started most of the dads were called away and the moms started working, so a lot of us became what were known as 'latch key kids.' We wore a string around our neck with the key to the house on it. We would be the last one out of the house in the morning for a day at school and the first one home in the afternoon with several hours to 'play' before adult supervision showed up. It was really kind of a wonderful situation for kids and all things considered it is a miracle that nobody ever got hurt or into any serious trouble.

"There was Lubber Run Park to play in with box turtles to catch and a creek that came up to your chin if you knew precisely where to stand, and we did, of course. If you stood in the creek long enough you would get leeches on you and you would bleed when you pulled them off. At the downstream end of the park was THE TUNNEL. There the creek went under Arlington Boulevard into a kind of southside never-never land into which we didn't venture until we were much older. The pool at the far end of the tunnel was reportedly bottomless and it certainly appeared to be to our young eyes. With patience and a worm you could actually catch fish in the creek back then but I don't recall ever eating any.

"Somewhere along about this time they began to build the shopping center and this was also a great place to play. After the workmen left for the day we would storm the battlements via the ramps that had been built for the hod carriers to use to carry the bricks up on the scaffolding. The cupola on the roof was a great mystery for us kids and we pestered the workmen about it until were told that it was a first aid station where the A&P butchers could go when they cut themselves while slicing the meat. They must have been very careful butchers because I never saw any of them up there and I watched for that. It turned out that there was an air raid warning siren in there also. I'm not sure what year the cupola disappeared from the shopping center roof.

"Most of us went to Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School and we walked the entire four blocks, rain or shine. After a couple of years they cut the school path through between 2nd Road and 3rd Street, which shortened the walk a bit. Barrett was ruled in those years by the iron hand of its principal, Miss Hattie Hanks. Nobody put anything over on Miss Hanks. She was more vigilant than any high tech metal detector ever made, and was able to discern a squirt gun, sling shot, or yoyo through the thickest winter wear with a mere glance. There was only one door in or out of the school and she was always standing there with a fist full of confiscated contraband. I think that we got them back on the way home, though, at least first-time offenders. There was a central staircase whose handrails could not be touched under pain of death and there were teacher monitors at the top and bottom to enforce the regulation with the crack of a ruler. I don't remember if the handrail was painted or brass but I do know that it was pristine the whole six years that I was there.

"We had some pretty good deep snows in the winter in those years and we would sleigh ride down all of the hilly streets like North Edison. In order not to shoot out into Arlington Boulevard at the bottom of Edison Street you had to turn over sideways with your sled at the last minute. Another favorite spot was down North 2nd Street where you could go though the entrance of lubber Run Park all of the way down to the creek itself. This was a pretty long run and you could get up some real speed but there was a log fence that marked the lower end of the parking lot and you had to lie down totally flat on your sled to get under it without knocking your head off. It seemed like some of us had to relearn that every year. Sometimes parents would take us over to the hills in Arlington Cemetery, which was always a great outing and lots of fun.

"Jack Cohen's Delicatessen was a neat store that was small and crammed to the ceiling with just about everything you could ever need. It smelled great in there too. Jack had a long squeezer pole to get the stuff off of the shelves that were up high but he was so good that he didn't need the squeezer. He just kind of bumped whatever he wanted with the pole and down it came. He never failed to catch it either. You could redeem soda bottles at Jack's for about two cents ready cash as I recall. You could also get the bottles to redeem out of the crates in the alley behind Jack's, which made for a nice closed loop system that we were careful not to abuse. When we were young we thought Jack was dumb not to realize what was going on. When we got older we came to realize that he was one of the most understanding and kindest men that we ever knew.

"By this time we had Agraduated from Barrett Elementary and were at Thomas Jefferson Junior High. T-J was academically and culturally a world apart from elementary school. We were practically grown up we thought. We rode the school bus and moved from class to class instead of staying in one room all day. We had some men teachers for a change, and we were away from the neighborhood. It had been a big step. There were some different kinds of classes too, like shop, gym, audiovisual and study hall.