Charlie and Kallie didn’t give us many issues growing up. As young children they were really fun to hang out with, and we just adored them and did as much with them as possible. Luckily our careers let us have the time to do this, although sometimes it could be tough depending on our scheduling. Still, we did what we could.

I started working at Helena’s youth center when it was completed, and it really cheered me up to be doing something directly related to tennis again. The kids were great and I had a lot of fun with it. Alice and I decided that Kallie might like it, so she attended a couple classes for the very young kids. She never really took to it, though. She could have been really good, but she was bored by it and we saw no reason to force her.

After Angelica was sent off to boarding school by Bette, which made for a lot of arguments between her and Tina, Kallie appeared to be fairly bored. We decided to enroll her at a public preschool at age 3 ½. From the very first day she fit right in and played well with the other kids, but Alice didn’t take it so well. She gave Charlie so much attention that the poor kid would come to me when he saw her, which only made things worse. I told her she had to let go a little, and she did try, but it was still really tough for her.

Still, it was fun to see Kallie get involved in the school. They had lots of programs for the kids, stage performances and plays and whatnot, and we became stereotypical parents bringing the video camera to everything. This would continue until the poor girl graduated college, although at the time we thought we were just capturing her youth. I’m slightly embarrassed now for all the pictures we took.

It was a little hard to go visit Bette and Tina after they’d sent Angelica to school. Tina was depressed a good majority of the time, and it was obvious which one of them had made the decision for her to go. Tina was still working, but I asked if she might like to come help out at Helena’s youth center to take her mind off it. I don’t think she ever got over it completely and would drive to Angie’s school on weekends, but working with Helena and me seemed to help her cope.