Part 15 (1/2)

Anyway, I resolved to ain as long as I lived, never to gaarden of Eden when he blamed a woman for his disobedience, I too can say, ”A woamble” I'll tell you about it later

This last year ere on the plains, it looked like ere sure toour patience I think the devil also had a hand in the turn of events I never did like that guy Sometimes I think he is still after hbors looked at our cotton crop and ca 100 bales And cotton sold that year at 200 a bale It looked as though the Lord had finally suess we hadn't suffered as much nor repented as well as Job had When the Lord favored us with a good rain one Sunday afternoon, our neighbors saw the rain and said, ”Man, that Johnson faht Look at the rain the Lord sent thehbors didn't knoas that the devil had put a boll worm in each and every drop of that rain None of us knew about the devil and his pesky worms until later

What happened? We h to pay the taxes, interest, and the annual note If the devil had left us alone, ould have had about 16,000 left over

So nohat? Sell out, of course-sell out and get out We sold the farood profit on the place except for the fact that the improvements we had made on the place cost about as much as we made on it So we just about broke even But the value of land had begun to rise and we didn't know it Before we ned the deed, the farot for it When Maht, she said, ”I don't think I'll sign the deed”

Papa told her, ”Oh yes you will”

Of course, Mama had not really ht and crop failures, we had gone broke Then we moved to Hamlin-all of us without money, and Maone froood life on the Exum farm to poverty in a rundown house in a one-horse town

This gives you some idea of the financial state of the faive you an idea of the patience of a couple who had coh in fairly good uide their children along the right path

OKAY! Okay, so we didn't stay on the right path all the way At least ere told which way to go We were not all angels, but at least we tried hard at first to hide our devilish ways

That last fall on the plains, Papa didn't have enoughcotton But he promised to pay us so- much a 100 pounds and told us to keep an account of how radually and eventually

We each kept an account in our little books When we boys wanted to buy or sell a ourselves, ould show the transaction in our little ledgers Evidently some of my brothers didn't put ot a little pay fro Anyway, after we moved to Hamlin, I still had my book which showed a balance of quite a few dollars that Papa owed otten all my money, but I hadn't needed as ht it er period of ti a thrill out of watching row I had sold quite a few items to my brothers without cash We had siures to my balance I actually had over 23 inand stealing They could have checked up on me I had every transaction written down But I threw the book away rather than have my family doubt my honesty

CHAPTER 11

ROAD WORK AT GORMAN, TEXAS

While we had been working on the far on Sunday, there wereon Sunday Then we moved to town and Sunday became a way of life for us also-but not all at once At first our working on Sunday caradually and very reluctantly Butup, no cotton to pick, no fields to plow, no weeds to hoe, nothing tothe week that they needed to rest on Sunday So, instead of sitting and resting, they played golf on Sunday Now, Earl becaolf caddie But he couldn't just caddie on week days and rest on Sundays Golfers liked him and wanted him to caddie for them on Sundays also

Well, the love of money may be the root of all evil, but in Earl's case it was not so much the love of it as it was the necessity of it Earl liked to eat, so he caddied on Sundays

At the sa and there were ti the week He just si the week It becaency when one of his custooods hauled on Sunday so that he could begin his work on Monday ht to help the scriptural ox out of the ditch on Sunday And when a trucker helps the ox out on Sunday, and receives good pay for doing it, he soon gets in the habit of wanting to help the ox out every Sunday It even coht push the ox into the ditch on Saturday in order to get to help him out on Sunday, for pay of course

If I wanted to try to justify our working on Sundays, I ht mention that it was hard to make ends ave up the old kerosene lahts Even then it took so The meter deposit was three dollars and we spent five dollars for a bunch of used insulated wire and light fixtures It wasn't easy to get eight dollars ahead in just three short years, but we did it We still didn't have screens on our s, nor did we have an icebox I took soh to hold a dime's worth of ice, a pound of butter, and a quart of milk The ice would last two days Most of the milk stayed in the milk cooler on the back porch, with damp clothes spread over the containers It would have cost too erate all thediscovery that a flashlight consisted of nothing more than two cells, a bulb, a container for the cells, and soht so I made me one I used a radiator hose to put the cells in, a copper wire for a bulb holder, and I pushed the bulb down against the center post of the cell to switch the light on I was beginning to learn a little about electricity This was the beginning of hts Yes, I did the wiring; we couldn't afford to hire it done

Shortly after we moved to Hamlin there was another new adventure in our lives It involved a little detour to Gorman, Texas, to do some road work You reo everywhere and haul whatever people would pay hietting tired of hauling everything for everybody So Papa inherited one good used truck fro boy named Frank Papa also had a friend na a paved road near Gorenerally understood that Marvin could use some of us if ould come on down to his camp We needed to work-for pay, that is-so we took the truck and an old Dodge car and went to see Marvin

Sure enough, Marvin could use us four boys, and Papa could haul supplies in his truck We lived in a canvas tent in a pasture about a half- rock for the road Albert beca Joel operated a road grader which was pulled by horses I fired a steam boiler and made steam for a steam drill to drill holes into the earth And into these holes Earl would put his dyna powder, which, when set off by a fuse and blasting cap, excavated the rocks which were crushed and then hauled and placed on the road which Joel had s so ot there

Marvin paid his hands three dollars a day and they paid him one dollar a day to eat at his cook shack We didn't eat there; we could eatfor the crew, but they got to drinking sosome of his workers He had a problem So Marvin came to Mama and asked her to cook for hiether they cooked for the men And Marvin let our family eat at the cook shack at half price

As usual Mama wouldn't throw out any food if it could be used in any way She took the left-over biscuits andout of them At first thea taste of it, most of them asked for more-and they called it ”make-'em-eat-it”

Sometimes Earl would find a can of powder that had been wet or had sweated in the can and was lumpy He was told to pile those cans out behind the mule barn and not try to use the lu powder, which no one wanted, seemed to me to be an excellent source of fun, as well as researchto all others, I toted a can of the stuff hoht frown on the idea of50 pounds (or maybe it was 25 pounds) of powder about our tent, especially if he found it hidden under his bed, so I thought I had better do a lot of experi in as short a time as possible, before anyone else came home I felt that any one ofa can of powder home to play with And I was sure he would not be able nor willing to keep such news to himself I'd better work fast and let it re a rifle was child's play as co powder So I'd better try to get by with this powder as I had gotten aith other secret adventures-all alone How I longed to share soood times with my brothers, but I didn't dare try Such secrets can only be kept by one person A partner would be sure to spoil things