BY THE WAY

Ch. I  AN AUSPICIOUS START

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”  Plato

The America I discovered on August 24, 1921 was thoroughly rural, full of opportunity, and optimistic.  Later we were told America was in a farm depression, that the plains should have been left to the bison and Indians, and that the entire future of the country was wrapped up in its cities.  My parentage and the story of their arrival in central Kansas was told in The Snowbarger Family in Kansas.  Of course, I was not conscious of that during my first several years but I was the beneficiary of the genes that had stirred my forbearers to leave Europe, start from scratch in a new country, and dream better things for their children.  While this chapter covers the time frame of “pre-memoirs,” I hope the following observations and commentary on these beginnings may be interesting and not extraneous.

The family, school, country church, the way of life, and the rural economy were all conducive to the upbringing of a boy like me.  I was extremely fortunate.  As the oldest son of an oldest son, my position in the family was ideal.  None of my cousins enjoyed the doting I received from grandparents, uncles, and aunts.  Only the first four or five grandchildren lived in this complete family unit before it began to break up, moving to other parts of the state.  My blind aunt, Elsie, had nothing to do but to make over me.  She lived one-half mile away and could walk over to our house unassisted.  I was unaware of how thoroughly they all spoiled me, but I quickly learned how to make it work to my advantage.  The reader may think this is imagination (and to a certain extent it is), but read a letter my Grandpa Sam Snowbarger wrote to me on February 7, 1930:

Dear Grand Son,

Your good letter at hand, and contents noted.  Was so glad to get your fine letter.  You are sure a mighty fine boy, and have a wonderful future, if you stay true to Jesus and I believe you will.  Harraugh for your side!   Of course, whatever side you are on is bound to win. That is the way that we always win, when we play the game fair.  Never try to win in any other way for it is wrong and will not pay.

There may come a time when the other side will win.  That will be your chance to show yourself (to be) a real little man.  Take those who did win by the hand and congratulate them over their victory, and rejoice with them if they did it on the square.  If they did not play fair, let them know that you are sorry for them.  If you will do this you will always have friends.

Well, I am feeling fine, hoping to get home soon.  Again let me say, I am proud of you, you are the oldest grandson I have, and you have one of the greatest mothers in the world, and a better father no boy could wish for.  So you see there will be no excuse for you not making good.  I am expecting you to set the pace for all the rest of my grandchildren since you are the first and the oldest.  I assure you that I have great faith in you, and will not be disappointed . . . .

Your Grandpa Snowbarger

That is quite a load to throw on an eight year old!  But I grew up with that, they believed in me and I believed I could do anything.  Ray Sauer, an older friend at church, would often say, “My how tall you are; you remind me of Abraham Lincoln.”

My parents were very capable people who chose to invest themselves in their children, their community, and other people.  By staying with the family farm (although not having enough acres to make it economically viable), they were usually strapped for cash.  After I became their trustee and sold the farm, collecting 9% interest, I owed federal income tax.  My mother protested that I must have made a mistake.  “We don’t make enough to owe income tax!”  No, they usually did not because, while they worked the land, they could not make the equivalent of 9% interest on the value of the land.  But they were leaders in the community because of character, dependability, and identification with the needs of their neighbors.  My father, Edward, was a veteran of World War I, graduate of Bresee College, a Bible school.  When the Arm