The school at Liddieville was Ogden school. It contained elementary and high school. I was in the second grade when i started there. What seems odd now is basketball was played on a dirt court outside. There was no gym but a couple of years later they built a gym. My lunch from home would usually consist of a biscuit with a fried egg. We would normally eat lunch outside unless it was raining. Our outside play activities were very minimal. I liked to play marbles and would play for keeps. That meant if you knocked another player's marble outside the ring you kept it. My mom would really get upset with this because i kept the knees of my overalls dirt or worn out. It reached the point where she would search my pockets before i went to school. I had some overalls that had a side pocket down on the leg and she never got wise to where i hid them each day. I got to be really good at keeps.

During this time was our first time to hear a radio. We had a neighbor who owned the farm and had bought a radio. Sometimes we would go there and listen to fights. This was in the days of Schmelling, Braddock,Farr, Louis and others. Also this was the first time we saw what was called an alladin lamp. One neighbor had one of these and boy was it brighter than our regular coal oil lamp. I recall someone explaining how radio worked. He said if you had a dog that reached from New York to Chicago, if you stepped on its tail in New York, it would bark in Chicago. It was here also that i had my first experience with firecrackers. Our neighbor(farm owner) got some for his son.We were there when he started firing them. One did not go off so i picked it up and put it in my pocket, it did go off and i had a pocket that was bottomless.

My sister Audrey got married while we were living on this farm. She married Oliver Womack who worked at the school. They lived across from the school in a home owned by the local doctor. Some days in the winter i would go over there and she would feed me lunch. Also at christmas time we would get an apple and an orange from the school. We never celebrated Christmas or give gifts because of having no money for this. I don't recall ever being hungry because we always had something to eat. My favorite time was when i could get a Big Little book to read. I liked Dick Tracy and Gene Autry. Looking back on those years of my youth and the experiences, i believe it taught me how to be humble more so than in later years.