Around this time of year, I remember my Dad and I walking to the pharmacy in New Rochelle.
It was just he and I when I was in the third grade.
  As the trips continued, his levity transformed from talk about cotton buds falling from a snowful sky to just getting through...
  Dad eventually was hospitalized close by Columbia University, NYC, where he was doing a Masters Program in music while teaching at Isaac Young Jr. High across from our apartment.
  I think of that special time spawned of peril to Dad's health when the cotton buds fall from the sky.