I was born on Jan. 29, 1932, the day before F.D.R. was inaugurated to his first term as President of the United States of America. To translate for history students today, F. D.R. stands for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
I feel as being equal to every baby born on that day.
Because of the Great Depression, nobody had any money, and not many possessions of value.
My 2 brothers and sisters worked out on neighboring farms at 12-13 years of age, mostly being paid in room and board. I was born 9 years after my next brother, they said the depression must have been almost over.
My mother had a huge garden and Dad had a huge potato patch. Because my older siblings were either helping dad on the farm or working for neighbors, I was baby sat in the garden by my mother.
At about 4 or 5 years of age, I was able to pick seeds with my fingers out of a bowl and plant them in a row my mother had made with her hoe and space them with a little stick she made for me. When complete, she would sometimes say, ‘good job son’.
From that time in my life, I was never without a job.
At 7, I got my first cow to milk, morning and night, before and after school and my neighboring girls were not exempt from the same chores.
At the age of 9, the bombing of Pearl Harbor was an unbelievable event. My brother was drafted and joined the Navy, also both of my brother in laws joined the Navy. A few years, later I was drafted and joined the Navy and spent 23 months in Japan during the Korean War.
With a wonderful wife we had the pleasure of being able to camp in every state in the lower 48 and 6 Canadian provinces.
Most of my life was spent working in chemical fertilizer plants and I had to quit because of health but never drew I single penny of unemployment insurance in my lifetime.
Very few people have had the wonderful lifetime I`ve been able to enjoy, but I won`t be here when the next Depression hits, which will be very soon.
God Bless, it has been a wonderful life;