After five years in Canadian prisons adorned with a diabolical twenty-eight pound shackle called the Oregon Boot on one leg, Bert and Charley are sent back to the US to serve time for the breakout (3 years for Charley, 5 for Bert.) Bert is rearrested for more crime, finally disappears. Charley goes straight, gets married. Ten years later, after working as a baker, he lands a job with a Miller Rubber company in Chicago selling condoms door to door, and at the back door of pharmacies.

At the time, advertising and selling condoms (indeed all birth control) was illegal, but local law enforcement looked the other way unless the product was sent through the U.S. mail, making it a federal offense. Charley made a veritable fortune throughout the Great Depression, as much as $1500 per month. He was VERY careful, and was never in trouble with the law over his livlihood. His job ended with World War II, when--since more than 70% of the soldiers in World War I had contracted STDs--the government started issuing condoms in the soldiers' kit bags and the laws were changed.

Charley's story is not yet finished; not by a long shot. We still have Lola, his niece, about to re-enter his life.

We had a short (five-day) vacation in Nevada. I'm so ready for spring.