Part 16 (2/2)

Oh well, air seemed to be much safer and faster anyhow So I borrowed Papa's tire pump and pumped air into the little toy boiler That worked just fine One stroke of the pu Only trouble was, I had borrowed the tire pu, and the next time Papa needed it, it was out of place and he couldn't find it Again I was in the doghouse

Electricity seee sixteen I owned my first electric train It was not the steaine I bought the train myself and it proved to be a lot of fun By that time I had known the truth about Santa for a couple of years and I figured he wouldn't be bringing ht ht ht un to believe a fellow could do about anything he set his asoline engine with its carburetorI knew I couldn't buy a carburetor for it, but I was confident enough, or foolish enough to believe I could ht; I could and I did That is, I made it run without a real factory-built carburetor The one I gave it was a sasoline The vapor froas that it ran on

Ithan it would have been just si the washer by hand But it was s that others couldn't do,-things soot hold of an extra di else, I would go see acausedthe old silentof the tio to aI worked the whole thing out and told my parents and some of my friends just hoould be done and how the mechanism would be set up Soing their heads as if to say, ”Poor Clarence, he finally flipped his flopper He has gone plum crazy”

Three years later they ca on the record correlated with the picture on the screen It was four years after I invented the talking picture that they finally put the sound on the movie film where I had put it in the first place

I was out front on autoenerators were dealing us plenty of trouble Their coest headaches By 1924 I had invented a direct-current generator without a cos instead I even applied for a patent on ive it up Then 39 years later, in 1963, enerator on theenerator was not exactly like the alternator We didn't have diodes in 1924 My generator didn't need diodes

Along with azines and in one of them I saw the International Correspondence School advertise course I learned a lot fros I needed to do the experiments which would have helped me learn and understand much more Furthermore, there was not another kid in toho about electricity with lah school days, my classhts in repair for all events And when an office light needed attention, they sent for me They never required hts working all over the building I carried a key to the building and ca with my other activities, I have studied and practiced a little bit of character reading Sincesoht-at least I liked to try When I was 18 I was visiting a kid in another town and he showed h school class, 32 kids I looked at the picture, then I pointed to one girl and told lish My friend was surprised but he admitted that I was correct He became even more surprised when I picked the best math student, the ood clean practical jokes, the one as the ned to really hurt others, the best football player, best all-round athlete, and several others After I had finished, the boy told ht, and two absolutely wrong Oh well, you can't win them all

I have been in business off and onlost a penny on a cold check or a bad debt I have a way of trusting people that I judge to be okay and it seeed thehtly has helpedthrough Hao to work on a ranch He was out of as and a quart of oil Three days later I received the er? I don't know He looked okay He acted okay He didn't ask for credit nor any other favor Instead, he asked if he ht camp out behind our service station for three or four days My boss told hiht Then when he asked to borrow a pencil and a piece of paper, I learned he was planning to write his eas and oil so he could finish his trip I bought hiet on the job Then he offered to leave his saddle as security I told hiet it” And he did

I've always been that way about my money I would rather see n nhandled nor what it does for people To be sure, this man repaid me, but if he had not, I would still prefer hoht attitude, but it's the way I feel

This new-fangled city living didn't take all the country out of us boys right away We often went hiking along the creek that runs through the south end of Ha in the Orient Lake when a group of woht ere in trouble for sure this time But Joel came to the rescue He alas a smooth talker, and this time it paid off for all of us He yelled out to the without our swio back around the bend, ould be out in about three minutes and then they could come on and fish They did and all ell

Soon after we e car, about a 1918 h we did oo other Dodges through the years Anyway, this old car had so ears and the differential and the axles that you could let up slowly on the clutch, and when all the slack finally wound out of all the gears, the car would leap forward And if the

Our car shed opened to the alley To get into the shed we had to drive up the alley, circle into the shed and stop the car just before it hit a solid board wall At least it was a board wall, and we had thought it was solid until Albert proved differently Anyhow, the wall separated the car from the back yard, which, in turn, connected with the back door of Mama's kitchen Now, this back yard had within its boundaries a nuehens reclined in shaded pools of dust and ashes while off duty fro breakfasts for a bunch of growing kids

Well, on this particular day, Albert had soe car It didn't have a starter; we had to crank it Albert, being just a sh to stand out in front of the bumper of the car while he applied the necessary heave and pull to roll thebetween the front buan to happen The old car was easy to crank Usually just once over and the engine would start

And so it was this tiotten to shi+ft it out of low gear The ears took up the slack and the hind wheels began to push forward It was a good thing Albert was too little to stand in front of the bus as it went about the business of pushi+ng the entire end out of the shed It's a fact The bottom of the wall held in place while all the nails pulled out along the top of the wall The car si solid wall flat in the back yard and then cliht for the storm cellar when Albert switched off the key

Now you think I'et there to switch off the ility and a lot of speed, and Albert proved he had plenty of both When the car began going forward Albert went down and under it Then in the split-second it took the car to dee, Albert seized the opportunity to shoot out from under one side of the car, behind the front wheel and before the back wheel got him Then he leaped up and juarage, a couple of clothes line poles, and one very dead old hen The hen, of course, was a welco table at our nextthere eating his share of the old hen, without a scratch on him

When we moved to Harade or two We didn't thrill to that idea, so Earl drove the Old Reo car and ent to Wise Chapel School a-year- and-a-half It was only five miles and our teacher rode with us and helped pay expenses

But this country schooling couldn't go on forever So e entered Hamlin school I was alrade And then at Christ She was replaced by a e of ht our class at times when the problems were too difficult for him He seemed to resent this and I am sure it was my fault I was not well- versed in the art of diploo beyond his ability without hurting his pride

As a result, at the end of that year I learned that I was third in irl would be first I thought I would be second But instead, a boy named Jack was salutatorian that year I didn't really think any more about the matter until the next year when I learned, quite by accident, that the teacher had given the honor to Jack which was rightfully rades than he did No, I didn't hate the teacher for having done that to me, nor did I like him for it I reasoned that he had just rades As I said, he was not outstanding in h school teacher I didn't especially like She taught Latin The rule of the school was that an excused absence was not to lower a student's grade Rather, his grade was to be averaged according to those days he was present, and the exam scores I constantly made ”A” when I was in class in spite of the fact that I missed a lot of classes while on business ventures for our class and for the school I thought, and soht that, if I couldclass only three-fourths of the tiot a ”C” Except for that one course, I h school years It wasn't all that bad though, having a ”C” in Latin I kneas an ”A” student and my teacher kneas an ”A” student; I was just a little disappointed not to have an ”A” on my report card so my family would knoas an ”A” student

Since we hadbecause of poverty and because of cotton harvest and because of having attended srade or te entered Hamlin school I wasn't the only one Joel says he was put back a grade so”As” every tie of many of the Juniors And because of a lack ofthan it ht have been

So, about the last of Noveh school and took a job with West Texas Utilities Co The job title was ”Night Engineer” and the salary was ardless of the title that ith ht Anyway, two years later, with s to back h School, about the last of Novehteen, finishi+ng my freshman year at nineteen However, I was not looked down upon, even by the so-called elite The most respected Seniors welcomed me into their school activities But I realized my social retardation and stood apart, by my own choice, in certain extracurricular activities