War Emblems

Chapter 1
The Orphanage

At seventeen years of age I joined the United States Marine Corp. Walking off the red clay hills of the Presbyterian Orphanage Home in Lynchburg. Virginia, I had a quarter in my pocket, bus ticket to Richmond Virginia, and a meal ticket to breakfast the next morning.

My brother Billy, sister Janie and I were sent to the orphanage in the year of 1939. The war in Europe had already started. I would spend the next ten years of my life in that orphanage.

Our mother had died of an ear infection when I was six years old. They had no antibiotics in in those days and there was nothing anybody could do. She was buried on a cold day in December or January. It was too cold for me to go to the gravesite. My last memory of my mother is of people holding me up so I could see her in the coffin. She is buried somewhere in Roanoke, but to this day we have not found where.

We stayed awhile in Ohio with one of our uncles, and then ended up in Norfolk in early 1939. My father was in steel construction and was living in a boarding home when we arrived there. My sister went to stay with one of our aunts, so until we left Norfolk, we didn’t see her. We were happy, but the welfare didn’t like the way we were living so they took us away from our dad. This the way we ended up in the orphanage home.

When we left Norfolk, Virginia, it was one of the saddest days of my life. My older brother, Jessie, had just got married to our neighbor’s daughter, Ruth Capps. We had become good friends with the Capps family. The youngest boy, Louis, and I were to become lifelong friends.

The orphanage was almost like anything else; it had its good and bad parts. There was a large farm, which the boys were responsible for. The girls took care of the kitchen and the laundry. The farm had both crops and livestock. In short, the orphanage could almost survive on it’s own. The Jersey milk cows were one of the best herds in the state of Virginia.

The girls, sometimes during the strawberry season, would help the boys pick the crop. They would also help during the canning. These were the fun times at the home. The homemade it’s own cheese and butter in the early days. Also raised, killed and cured hogs, had it’s own school and wrote it’s own bulletin.

I had the job of taking care of the hogs. Every time a sow had a litter there was almost always a runt, which would die. I’d beg to take care of the runt, so when the home gave me one I named it Oinkey. This was the best pet I have ever had. Oinkey grew to be the biggest pig on the farm. He would follow me everywhere and I made sure he got first choice of the slop.

The cart that held the slop was parked outside the mess area. It was made of steel with two wheels and a handle to push with. On top was a large wooden barrel that had to be emptied once a day.

The orphanage set on top of a hill and the pigpen was about a half a mile away. Sometimes, if you went too fast, you would dump the barrel over on the sharp left turn at the bottom of the hill. Oinkey loved me to have a spill because he got it all.