When I was about 4 or 5 years old, my family lived in what seemed like a large 2nd story apartment on Hartley Street, and I believe the "back" entrance to Baxter Woods was located near to our back yard. In the summer my mom used to take my younger brother and me for walks in the woods. I know that it was my first experience with woods. She also refered to it as the forest, which scared me at the time, since I thought it would be just like the forest in Wizard of Oz. Once there, I found that it was much cooler than the hot apartment, and smelled fresh and green. It was also my first experience with poison ivy. Of course my bother tried to man-handle the shiny leaves. I also remember a pond with swans that just facinated me. One day when the 3 of us headed out for our welcome dose of nature, some older girls came running out of the woods, and told Mom not to go in there, because there was a man exposing himself. (Mom, what does that mean?) We never went back into the woods after that. Later, I'd ask her if we could walk in the woods, but she'd say, "No, not today". (Bummer) We soon moved to E. Commonwealth Drive, and when I started school (at Thomas B. Reed) I would look at the materials in the library and found old pictures of Baxter Woods sometime in the 1800's(?)when it had an elegant park complete with a carrousel and ladies with long white dresses. Boy, I thought, why couldn't they have had that when we'd go for a walk in the woods!