My career goal was to be an attorney... Mom was going to be my paralegal. I even went to Auburn and earned my BA in Political Science and Philosophy with minors in English, History and Business. (Yes over achiever I know). I even became a certified Paralegal with Mom. Then I...
1279 Views
5 Comments
1279 Views
Well without a doubt we make choices when we are young, and most of the time we are unaware that we are choosing one way or another. Despite our parents best efforts we often choose foolishly! Thinking back, the one thing I would change would have been to be more serious...
627 Views
My Darling Jill Today, when “The F word” has been enshrined by the United States Supreme Court and hard core pornography is but a mouse click away, Erskine Caldwell’s book, “God’s Little Acre” could be read with impunity by any school kid. But in the `40’s, the mere mention of that...
2152 Views
I wouldn't change anything I did in my adolescence.
Tags:
1552 Views
When “the war” ended and after the wild celebrations ended, Americans released the breath they had been holding for four long years with an almost audible sigh. Peace, prosperity, and an end to rationing came almost immediately. No more denial. Consumers were like sharks circling a chumming boat waiting for factories...
918 Views
One of the better jobs was delivering the Tulsa Daily Tribune to its subscribers in Caney. Being a paperboy meant “being your own boss” and “making however much money you wanted to make” – or so the “recruiter” said when he was looking for a new paperboy. Like many good build...
1665 Views
There was a lot of coming and going of employees in Caney’s cafes, but the line between “boy jobs" and "girl jobs" was clear and bright. Boys washed dishes or cooked. I was too young to be a cook, so I became a dishwasher in “Chet’s Café” on Fourth Street. If...
927 Views
Caney was located at the crossroads of two railroads. The Santa Fe ran trains north and south while the Missouri and Pacific, the "MOP", brought trains from the East and West. The Santa Fe had all the glamour. It had "The Streamliner." In the `40's most trains were pulled by steam...
1089 Views
Caney had a bowling alley unlike any bowling alley ever seen before or since. It was in a storefront building on Fourth Street, our “Main Street” just east of Winkler’s Drug store. It did a boomingly noisy business until television came along. It also was a business where the owner didn’t...
886 Views
The hike to the dam was a leisurely walk. There were plenty of things along the way worth doing. Those cone-shaped glass insulators found today in flea markets were sat on the crossbars of the telephone poles that alongside the railroad tracks. They shattered with a glorious display of shrapnel when...
996 Views
In early times someone built a dam across the Caney River out west of town, just at the bottom of Standpipe Hill. It was a rudimentary dam, not much different in construction from those which small boys to dam up rainwater that runs in street gutters. That dam had only one...
1050 Views
Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE Dear Diary, Since Dad died in 1962, my life has changed in many ways. I don’t know how much alimony he paid, but just about everything is different now. I guess we were lucky as we have lived on Mum’s salary and have...
870 Views
This is a tough one. When this question came out it made me really have to stop and think. I was EXTREMELY shy as a child but I loved school. My first grade teacher - Mrs. Howell - I was terrified of her. At that time corproal punishment was allowed in...
1543 Views
The War was Everywhere Affecting Everything Don Carriker - 1944 12 years old At first "The War" seemed to be a fine thing. There was an excitement and sense of purpose in the air. Even a kid could feel prosperity blooming. We moved from our primitive bungalow, with...
716 Views
Shrinks say that war heightens a man’s desire to be near a girl: As near as “possible”. They say it comes from a primitive desire to preserve the species, to live beyond one’s own life, and from a war induced sense of our mortality. Maybe that is what caused me to...
998 Views
I am a product of my era.
2635 Views
Late fifties and early sixties were "changing times." ....In lower school, the teachers that inspired me the most were the ones that encouraged that spark of sheer desire to solve difficult problems....It wasn't but a few days into the (Computer Science) class before I realized this was the subject for me. It was so fun, I forgot the time of day. I spent hours and hours hanging around the computer labs working on those first programs.
1356 Views
What a grouse weekend! I went to stay at Coralie's house for the weekend, after school on Friday. Mrs Bevan calls me her 4th daughter now as I spend more weekend time at her house than at mine! We all went down to West Beach Surf Lifesaving Club for the Surfie...
535 Views
Love Lifted Me In the late 1930's , when I was somewhere around seven or eight years old I had a friend named Jimmy Cargill who had an older sister about the same age as my sister Frances. Her name was Neva and, like Frances, she played the piano. But unlike...
1017 Views
The “Cat” climbed the steep West Virginia mountainside as effortlessly as if it were cruising across the plains of Kansas. Its builders called it a Model D-8 but to the pipeline construction crews it was just a “Cat”. Whatever it was called it was the most powerful crawler tractor made by...
883 Views