Part 21 (2/2)

Anyhow, in this case, if I hauled the s, I wouldn't be co with Rountree, it would be with the railroad I reasoned that Earl shouldn't be opposed to that But o by way of Hamlin, and Earl would have to take it fro

I made my decision, loaded the s, and took them to Hamlin But Earl was very unhappy with me He was never one to calmly ask, ”Why?”-and then listen to reason He had one unco attitude, ”I told you what to do You must do it”

Naturally, Earl was upset toward his little brother He even refused to haul the s, and went to Stamford without thenee to Wm Cameron Company and then to Papa, Earl delivered the s, reluctantly and under protest, and only at Papa's order And Papa told ht I could, and he told Earl to deliver whatever I brought to hih Papa ner of the truck lines and was supposed to be in full co life miserable for both Papa and me And as time went by, our relationshi+p didn't improve

Re this, I'm sure it would read differently And actually, it wasn't all that bad Earl was a good boy, and he still is He's my brother I loved hio I don't hold any of this against hi I could for hiainstabout it like this But then, we are big boys now and we probably don't haveWhy not enjoy it while we can?

I was a Jonah to Earl and perhaps to Papa also At any rate, Papa found a way to throw me overboard In 1931 he asked me if I would like to farm He said he would invest money in a farm for me like he had invested in a truck for each of the other boys and I could pay hireed and he made a down payment on a farm nine miles southwest of Roscoe, Texas That is where I the year of 1932, and that is where we lived when Dennis, our first born, came to live with us

But the national econoe holders By the end of 1932 the Federal Land Bank had repossessed more farms than they knehat to do with I was told that they were begging far their annual payments-pay only the interest and let the principal wait until they were able to pay By this time Papa could buy better farms for less o back to theof 1933 we moved onto Uncle Jim Johnson's farm at Royston, 14 miles west of Hamlin He offered to selldown and nothing per year except the interest until I was able to pay so the depression of the 1930s there were a good h to feed our family and pay the interest

Then soon after we moved to Royston, Papa came to me and told me that he would have to sell the plow-tools and horses toas I try to help you as I a the others” He didn't tell me who ”they” were and I didn't ask him; I didn't even care who they were

The 1930s hitthose ere still in the trucking business I knew es of less than two dollars a day When I was building a tractor, I hired a ood welder and er for lunch The burger cost ood old days It was a wonderful depression but I'ht months old e lected for years and things were quite run- down-fences, barn, the house, everything

My youngest brother lived with us three months after we o out after thefor each of us to kill from three to ten rabbits each day Our pasture had the smell of dead rabbits for three months

Rattlesnakes were also plentiful on our far eather We even killed one in our back room-that is, Ima did, with a 22 rifle And when Anita o years old, I cows and when Anita woke up she came out to join us Ima picked her up and carried her back to the house, and there under the icebox, right by the door through which Anita had passed, was a rattlesnake

Big rats and mice had their heyday the first few nawing holes up through the floor in our house We ed to catch those in the house in traps, but those under the house soht and poured carbolic acid around a hole where one had been gnawing up through the floor Later that sah for a rat to co very sick-fro

We often saw mice run fro places Many ti table with me and also placed it by my side when I sat down to read If a mouse hesitated just a moment he was apt to find himself to be a dead duck Oneholes in the floor didn'tthere we made some improvements and it became quite comfortable

When Dennis o years old, just about a month before Anita was born, Ima, Dennis, my brother, htseeing We were driving ear, leastwise it wouldn't voluntarily We had to prop the gearshi+ft lever in high with a forked

There in the Rockies one afternoon we had left Cripple Creek and were driving down Phantoht had coood view of the canyon On one side of our car we could see straight down hundreds of feet, and on the other side the ht up just about as far And every few e over dilapidated bridges with big holes in their floors Most of the bridges had been patched with boards running lenghthways And some of the patch-boards had holes in them also, and some of them were broken and split up Others had come un-nailed and were loose and out of place

Once we cae when a front wheel pushed one end of a board down through a big hole and kicked the other end up against our differential We had to back up and detour around loose boards and big holes in the floor of the bridge,-all this at night, high above the floor of the gorge below They condees and closed the road soon after we made that trip As a matter of fact, ours may have been the last car over it before they closed it

We didn't haveand raising cattle The pasture on our Royston far, and when Dennis was three years old he often ith me to drive the milk cows home in the afternoons He usually walked all the way there and half way back Then he would ride my back the rest of the way hoether when I was a sether

While we lived on the Royston far me about the death of a kinsman at Gordon Ima didn't attend the funeral but athered from far and near to pay their respects and to attend the funeral the next day The house where visiting was taking place that night had no electric lights but was lighted instead by kerosene lamps Ima's sister, Mary Beth, was five years old at the tiht his pipe, she said, ”Oooooh! Don't it get light when you strike a ot dark that night, one woman, perhaps an Aunt Minnie or an Aunt Hattie,-she was blessed with an oversupply of aunts by both names-anyhow, one of the wo toward the outhouse, said, ”I want to get a good view of that outhouse before dark I have an idea I'll have toto be dark”

Well by ht all were bedded down, on beds, on cots, on pallets, in hallways and in corners Then for the next three or four hours all was relatively quiet except for snoring and other occasional noises made unintentionally