Although this book covers memories of the first thirteen years of my life as I was growing up in Wheaton, Illinois, the life stories of family members included in various chapters cover a much longer period of time. My family has been in this country for nearly 400 years. My ancestor, William Nickerson, arrived in Salem, Massachusetts from England with his wife, children and in-laws in June of 1637. He and members of his immediate family would go on to purchase and settle what is present day Chatham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Every generation of my family has been involved in or witness to events that have shaped this country.

It has given me infinite pleasure to research my family's history, including taxing the memories of family members for information and personal recollections. I was fortunate that the genealogies of both the Nickerson and Wells' families are well documented and that previous generations had the interest and took the time to write biographies of their parents or siblings and in the case of my Grandmother Irene Nickerson, to dictate her autobiography to her daughter. These documents provided me with a wealth of material to include in this book.

The title of this book is taken from the fourth Chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians in the King James Version of the Bible. "Of good report" is translated in later versions of the New Testament as "commendable."