Category Archives: Childhood
Red Cloud 2009
Near the end of June 2009, our son Steve and I explored the site of the farm I grew up on near Red Cloud, Nebraska, in the years 1930 to 1936. I say “the site” because all the buildings on the farm … Continue reading
Pleasant Hill School
I began formal schooling, having just turned six, in the fall of 1932 at Pleasant Hill School in Webster County, Nebraska. The teacher determined that I should start in third grade because I had already learned at home the elements of the three … Continue reading
Depression Economics
In 1936 my dad drove us to Houston from my grandfather’s farm near Red Cloud, Nebraska. The Great Depression was on the wane but still painfully alive, and usually it was of no use to ask one’s parents for anything … Continue reading
Baseball in the Depression
When I was 10 years old, my dad drove my mother and me from my grandfather’s farm near Red Cloud, Nebraska, to Houston, Texas, in his old Hupmobile coupe. We had come together as a family after six years apart. … Continue reading
Getting the Cows
When I was a boy in Nebraska, I was never happier than when school let out in May and I could wander free on the farm, and climb trees, during the warm mornings. Or play in the woods. I worked … Continue reading
Christmas on the Farm
From 1930 through 1936 I lived on my grandfather’s farm between Red Cloud and Cowles, Nebraska, on Elm Creek. My mother and I had retreated to the farm from Houston, Texas, after the stock market crash in 1929. During that … Continue reading
Thanksgiving in Nebraska
From 1930 through 1936, which for me was ages 4 through 10, my mother and I lived on my Grandfather and Grandmother Boner’s farm near Red Cloud, Nebraska. Whether we ate chicken or turkey for Thanksgiving dinner depended on whether … Continue reading