I had several weeks of infantry combat engineer training at Camp Walters. Lots of 10 mile hikes with blisters and sore feet with always the command to “keep your feet dry”. Every morning that bugle would blow revelry at 6 a.m., had to get up, eat and start training. Same thing every day for 6 weeks of training. I was on KP once in a while with 100 pound sack of potatoes to peel. I also took guard duty every so often and finally got some real bullets. The days were the same every day but they kept us busy.

We dated several months and the war had begun. His draft number was coming up soon so we were married September 15, 1942 at the Nashville Christian Church by the minister but I can’t remember his name as our marriage license burnt when the house burnt. A good friend of Glenn’s (a Mr. Gillaspy) – he was such a nice guy – was with us. He was older than we were. He hated to see him leave for the army also. I never knew of any weddings nor receptions in our time as no one had any money. Mom & Dad liked Glenn very well so he fit right in. I was only 17 years old and Glenn left for Fort Harrison September 23, 1942. He came home for a few hours one day before he was shipped out to Camp Walters, Texas.

We can’t remember ever going to a doctor until we were around 14. I had a headache for days and Glenn had a stone bruise which was lanced. The doctor lived at Trafalgar, his name was Dr. Ragsdale. He seemed very old to me then, but he was about the only doctor we had. If you were very bad sick most people just died from who knows what.

I went to Bridge School for four years then on to Buckner School, then to Trafalgar. My dad had a 1924 Studebaker touring car with side curtains used in winter and he drove it as the bus to Bridge school for six years. He put a bench behind the front seat and picked up about 8 kids. It was a big car and I always sat on the bench because I was in the 1st grade, otherwise with no buses I’d never have got to go to school. My teacher was Mr. Condon; we had a one room school to the 6th grade. Glenn had a one room school for all grades also. We had 2 subjects a day, one in morning and one in evening.

Our clothes were mostly, “hand-me-down” or made over. We both worked picking beans or tomatoes for farmers. We started out at 1 cent per pound and finally got two cents a pound for picking beans and five cents a hamper for tomatoes, I was small but I learned to work. We bought our school shoes and used books with the money. Life was hard but it does seem like it was a happy time. We got to go to the fair one night to spend a small amount of our money and that made all that hard work worth it all.

At night we sat out in the yard and neighbors would come and it was so special when my aunt and uncle came in their horse and buggy. We could always hear that horse and buggy coming down the road. They usually came early for supper then visited and got home before dark. It was Uncle Johnny and Aunt Bessie – I’ll always remember them as they were special.

Usually went to Fair on a Thursday night as all the neighbors went so it was really a big gathering event for all the neighbors. Just turned kids loose and they all visited and checked out all the barns and livestock. I know my Mom and Dad enjoyed going.

We both grew up with the “outhouse” which was our outside bathroom. Dad made our “outside outhouse” a two seater. They were usually a distance from the house but at night we used a lantern. We honestly never knew what toilet paper was back then. It was the Sears catalog. Kids today don’t even know about J.C. Penney or Sears-Roebuck catalogs as they aren’t around anymore.

We both also know what an outside freezer is, just a big hole dug in the garden, put straw in the bottom and put our potatoes, apples, turnips, cabbage or whatever you could save in there, put straw on top of that an covered with dirt. That kept our winter supply of food. We both grew up with no electricity, only had kerosene lamps to see at night and carried it from room to room. The rooms were cold and our water bucket would freeze at night.

Our moms did washing on wash boards in a kettle outside with a fire that would boil the clothes until they were white and a bluing was put in the rinse water and they would hang up clothes outside and they would freeze stiff which was hard work. God forbid we’d ever have to through all this hardship again. With canning or growing our own foods, we survived. Dad would work for enough wheat or corn from farmers to take to the mill out on State Road 252 (still there today) to have flour and corn meal ground to last the winter. It was stored in 5 gallon lard cans and mom baked bread every day. We never saw store bought bread until I grew up. It was either corn bread, biscuits or home baked bread; cows were used for milk, butter and cottage cheese. We had to color our own margarine as it looked like lard, but you mixed in the yellowing coloring. We neither one ate a hamburger until we grew up as teenagers, never knew what coke was.

We had chicken (we raised our own) or pork and that wasn’t too often. We had a cow for milk, butter (which we churned our own) and made our own cottage cheese (out of clabbered milk).

Hominy was made from corn, bleaching it with ashes. We made lye soap out of ashes too.

We had homeless people in our time also only we called them Hobos or tramps. They would come walking in through the woods or up the lane. They just wanted a meal and a place to bed down. Mom and Dad always fed them and they slept in the barn. They would work cutting firewood or anything. Usually hang around 2 to 3 days then move on to another neighbor. Times have changed as we sure wouldn’t do that today but they were never turned away. They were always decent men and respectable but down on their luck I guess.

I could go on and on about our life but it was the depression time and times were hard but can’t say we were ever hungry. We just never ate all you wanted and what you might want if you knew any different. We ate whatever was put in front of us and liked it because at times it was very good no matter what it was. We didn’t know that chickens had anything but wings as that was what we as kids ate.

Anyhow we eventually had a little better times as we grew up. Dad worked on the Trafalgar gymnasium back in 1936. That sure helped so many people as it was a job. It was called W.P.A. and it’s the same thing that is being created today, a “Roosevelt New Deal”.

It was depression time for me too so life was hard for everybody. No one had any money since the banks failed. (Seems like what goes around comes around as we’re almost in the same problem with banks again). It sure would be worse now as people are used to having so much. Glenn and I could survive now if depression ever hits because we know how. You learn to make do with what you have.

We always had something to eat. Not what we always like or as much but still life was good. Mostly because we were young and thought this was the way it was supposed to be.

Can’t remember anything back in younger life only first grade in school. I do remember one time I decided to climb up the dresser on the drawers and it turned over. My Mom said she was going to blister my butt and I told her she couldn’t catch me. I didn’t know an old woman could runs so fast. I didn’t get very far and I got my butt blistered. Seems like all I ever did was work and in them days you had to hunt for work and it was sure cheap labor. Worked all week for 75 cents clearing sassafras bushes off a field.

Dad died at the age of 42 from cancer. He had worked at the Beech Grove Railroad Shop. I was attending Wray school so I graduated from the 8th grade and quit school to go to work. I had to walk everywhere, cutting wood, cross ties and in the summer time worked for farmers, shocking wheat, and putting up hay. In fall I worked for a Threshing ring and anything else for money. I made $2.00 a week. That went a long way in helping the family.

When I was 16 years old, I bought my first car. It was a Model A Ford coupe and I paid $30 for it. I paid $20 down and owed $10. It took 6 months to pay off that $10. Joe Woods held the title until it was paid up.