The Life Of The Son Of A Sharecropper To The Boiler Room Of The USS Toledo CA. 133

My parents raised about 70% of their meat and vegetables every year. We could not have made it without growing our own food. My mother made us meals, I do not see how people eat so much, and she could make us a meal out of nothing. After I got large enough to think about it .she was very good at fixing meals, I can say we always ate plenty, they were not always balanced but it was a meal. As I mentioned earlier its very tuff working on the farm, you start preparing the land in January, my parents farmed with mules and it is a very slow process. Planting in march and gathering in July, plenty of work and at the end of the season you do not earn much. It depended on what kinds of crops you have, but my parents were lucky they always earned a little money. The bad part about it was we lived in a house with no electricity, no bathrooms, and no running water. We did not get an electric stove until 1971 that should tell every body we were poor, but like I said before we had good parents and that is everything to a child. I mentioned earlier about walking to school, when I became school age I had to take the same rout as my brothers and sisters, at 8 years old. I remember it was rough, leaving so early in the morning to get there on time. Just a two room building, from the first. Grade to the eleventh grade, so u you can imagine learning was a big problem, and on top of that we had some old hand me down books, couldn’t carry a lunch at that age an keep up with it, if you lay it down some ware it probably won’t be there when you look for it. Walking to school for me was terrible, cold and ice, dusty roads plus had to travel 6 and a have miles twice a day, it was terrible. We could see the other children on the way to school, riding the school bus. We could see them before they got close to us, we would see them notice us and then would start rolling their bus windows down, and you know the rest. I made it through by the help of my good parents and the good lord. That was a long time ago, but now I always look forward and think positive and that is what got me through. I mentioned earlier about the land owner left town and left every thing for my parents to run, they finally moved back home. After a while, my parents had some kind of dispute with them. We all moved to another land owner about six or 7 miles away. We still had to walk 6 miles to school, and I was getting up in age to start helping on the farm. I plowed a mule in one field while my father plowed another until gathering time. I picked cotton, stacked peanuts, helped pull corn, picked watermelons and cucumbers.