I grew up spending my summers in New Hampshire. My family began going there in 1963, the year before I was born, when my father became the music director for a summer music festival.

For six weeks every summer we lived with an orchestra – musicians and their families, most of whom would return year after year. In the early days of the festival the musicians all lived in an old five-story hotel in Center Harbor, a small town on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. The hotel had a wide front porch that looked out on the town's main intersection. The general store was next door, and across the street was the town library with its adjoining park.