chapter one

   i was born in 1940,in the open farm country,in the northern neck in virginia, in my grandmoms house,my dads mother's place, an old farmhouse, and what we call a truckers farm now, about 5-10 acres, my grand dad died while my dad was a baby, she raised the two boys on her own, raised her own veggies ,chickens pigs, milk n butter, if she needed some one to kill her pigs for she would give him part of the meat for doing it, a lot of bartering in those days, mom said one time their cow went dry,so she traded an acre of land for a cow.

 when i was 5--6 years old i remember we would walk 2-3 miles to visit some one, and if mom needed something from the store,she sent me by my self, n there were three stores,first one about a mile n half from where we lived, then another half mile to the next one, then a mile to the next, they were small stores , two were about the size of my living room, n one about half the size of my house, and mom would say, if you can't find it at the first store, keep going to all three til you find it. i had to do that one time.i remember she sent me for cigarettes one time, you bought them loose, i got 2 for a penny, he did not put them in a bag, by the time i had walked home they were soaking wet from my hands. sweating 

 i remember when the war broke out and mom n dad went to work at dalgreen a naval base, and everything rationed,but what was good about those days, even though poor n sometimes no food, it was we came n went (us children)with no fear,

 we did not have puters, television, toys, heck i don't remember having but one doll baby, got when i was 6, we made what we played with, and if company came with other childres, we had a ball with our tin cans, rain barrels,broken pieces of china for our dishes, mud cakes, n catching lightening bug,putting in fruit jars for our lanterns, that was fun, and children were not lonely, we never said, "but i ain't got nothing to do", cause our parents would sure put us to work.