This is the house I grew up in. Cumberland, Rhode Island. My parents still live here. They were the second owners of this “ranch” house which was built in 1956. The world I grew up in was middle-class suburban. In my neighborhood, surrounded by woods, swamps and former farmlands, almost every house and family was the same size. Everyone lived in a house of their own. Most mothers did not work outside the home. Many of the fathers’ jobs were blue-collar—like truck drivers, carpenters, and utility workers. Lots of union people. My father was a teacher, and then a school vice principal. My mother was a nurse. I lived in a completely white, largely Catholic town. Diversity for us was about whether someone was Irish American, Italian American, French Canadian, or Protestant. The newest immigrant group to town was the Portuguese, who lived near, and worked in, the mills that used to employ many of our grandparents, or great grandparents.
Visiting the Relatives 