Some of My Earliest Memories

I was born at home in a small town in Kansas, the 4th of 6 children of James and Mildred. I started out as their healthiest (read heaviest) at 10 lbs. although my younger brother came just 13 1/2 months later weighing in at 9 lbs. 15 oz.  The doctor told my mother that I was a pugilist, a fighter. I probably demonstrated that until mom figured out that the only thing that agreed with me was goat’s milk. Until then it was baaaaaaaaaad. Of course I was told these things later.

My earliest memories come from Covert, KS. I think we moved there before I was a year old. My father worked 2 jobs most of my growing up years in order to provide housing and food for the family. We moved to Covert where Dad taught school and pastored the Nazarene church. We lived next door in a house belonging to the church. My dad remodeled or added on to just about every house we lived in, this one being no exception when he added an indoor toilet. Of course at this stage of my life, I wasn’t using it anyway. Along the other side of the house from the church was a creek. There was a bridge over the creek on the road in front of our house and a fence separating our yard from the road.

My only memories here:

  • the creek flooded one time with water over the roadway and bridge.
  • mom wanted to fix a chicken for dinner. In those days it was a bit more involved than today. It started with catching the chicken running around the back yard. Then she had to ring it’s neck i.e. take it’s head off and let it bleed out. Have you ever heard the expression, “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off”? When she took the chicken’s head off, it just started flopping around uncontrollably. This time it flopped down the bank and right into the creek. I guess that made a lasting impression on me. (To continue the preparations required for dinner, the chicken is than soaked in boiling water and all the feathers plucked off. Then it’s cut up into the usual pieces …legs, thighs, wings, breast, wishbone, etc. Then the pieces are rolled in flour and seasoning and fried. Yum!)
  • my dad made some stilts and I remember that he was able to step over the fence with them.
  • The church was struggling and finally closed so we moved to another house in town just down from the grocery store. It was a 1 bedroom house with no indoor plumbing so my parents slept in the bedroom, my two older sisters slept in the living room, and my older brother, I and my younger brother slept on the porch.
  • I think I remember my dad pulling my first baby tooth and giving me a nickel. I got to walk to the store nearby and buy myself a sucker. Impressive!
  • While we lived in this town my younger sister was born. My mother just about didn’t survive the birthing process and had an extended recovery time. During this time my younger brother and I went to stay with Mom and Pop Wineland on their farm. We had a challenging start but liked it so much that we kept going back to visit and stay a few days each year after that…. possibly more memories on that later.

We moved to a farmhouse just outside of Geneseo, KS when I was 3.

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