As I was growing up during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s things were radically different then. There was no T.V., no air conditioning, and for a long time no electricity. For several years I did my homework by the light of a kerosene lamp. We thought it was a marvelous improvement when there became special wicks for these kerosene lamps that improved the amount of light it produced.

Later an even greater benefit arrived when Landslide Lyndon Johnson convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign the Rural Electrification Association bill which financed the extension of electricity into the far reaches of the back woods. At least then we were able to have electric lights, an electric radio, and later a refrigerator, deep freeze, and even later a window air conditioner.

Before the marvelous benefit of electricity, Mom would read a lot to us. Then when I could read, I read to my little sister. Also, before electricity in the winter we went to bed much earlier than in the summer. In the summers it was too hot to sleep until around 10:00, or so. We would sit out on the front porch and allow the house to cool off.

One interesting thing I noticed my father did during this period was when he got the bank statement for the family’s bank account from the First National Bank. He would not open it immediately, but much like Johnny Carson in his skit of Carnac the Magnificent, would hold the envelop up to his forehead and predict whether we had spent too much that month, or not. Since the postage then was three cents for the first ounce, and almost all the checks written were under $10.00, it was not difficult to guess whether the postage would be over the once postage of three cents.

World War II came to us primarily though a small electric FM radio that was about a foot square. We got our new from U.S. war correspondents reporting as bombs fell on London, to Winston Churchill’s speeches, most of it I did not understand. Also, think there were times that my parents would not listen until they had put my sister and me to bed. One of the reasons was early in the war, things were not going well on either front. The Japanese were continuing to advance and capturing entire countries. U.S. was losing battles on land and ships at sea, although I do not think a lot of the bad news ever was reported.

At the community church building, there was a large glass framed form that listed all the young men who were in the service from that community. Beside their name would be a series of stars to indicate where they were serving, state side, or overseas, then whether they were wounded, missing in action, or killed. It was a sobering indication of the seriousness of what was happening. There were also the stars in the front windows of homes. Different colors again to represent serving, wounded, missing, captured, or killed in action.

I also observed that in any community gathering, men would stand around a speak to each other in muted tones, as if they were attending a funeral. It was a fearful time and people were scared because all the news was bad.

Almost immediately, the U.S. Army moved in and built an army training camp that took a lot of land, stretching all the way from Gainesville all the way up to almost our community of Bulcher. This was where two separate Army divisions were trained that later participated in the invasion of Europe. I never leaned why our community was spared but believe it was because of the oil production was more critical to the war effort than the extra land.

The troops used our community anyway, since there was an emergency landing strip close to our school for the small Piper Cub aircraft used for artillery observation. Also, many nights, the artillery duels would light up the sky and sounded like a thunderstorm in the distance. Sometimes the convoys of either the Red or Blue army would fill up miles on the road.

Because many people had to move and the jobs of others disappeared, causing others to move, our school was reduced to only first through fifth grades, and the number of students was reduced to where there was only one teacher for all grades. Because of this, another family that had been the one that had a branch of the Cooke Country library in their home were moving and came and ask my Mother if she would take the branch in our home.

She was not going to take it because she did not think we would go into Gainesville to exchange books often enough. I begged her to reconsider. Not only were we all big readers, there were ten free subscriptions to magazines, like Life, Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, Time, Argosy, Outdoor Life, and others that all together were treasure trove for us.

I did not think we could not afford to take it. She changed her mind and it was an invaluable treasure. In retrospect, I do not think either my sister or I would have graduated from college without that reading boost. Later, when I learned how to drive, we would go to Gainesville about every two weeks and exchange books. Usually, we would take two cartons of books and exchange them for two more cartons. One for our community readers and the other for me! People who do not read do not know all they are missing. Without our making that decision, you would not be reading my stories now!

I have become such a believer in reading and in libraries, my wife and I have begun to downsize our townhouse and we donated 21 cartons of books from our personal library to the Saint Jo, Texas, library where I attended high school. Upon my death, the balance will also be sent there, if not before. Just Sayin…RJS