Читать книгу LIVING THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS - Donald E. Wilson - Страница 11

In the three years following marriage, Dad continued to teach and coach in the Greenup County High School. But by 1933 Greenup, like so many other school systems in Kentucky, was hit hard by the severe economic crisis, and the school had to reduce the already low salaries, Dad had no choice but to seek employment elsewhere. He left the teaching he loved so much, and moved back to Corbin while searching for new employment. By that time his family had increased by two, I came along first in 1931 and Doris followed in 1932.

The years 1934 through 1936 were the first years in my memory bank. My family had settled in Fullerton Kentucky on the banks of the Ohio River. With the depression at its peak and no teaching jobs available, Dad found a job across the river in Portsmouth Ohio in the Shelby Shoe Factory, not exactly the type of work he had expected as a college graduate. But with a wife and two children in a nation facing the most serious economic crises in its history he was thankful for any job he could get. As an interesting side note, Jesse Stuart left Greenup at about the same time as Dad and became Principal of Portsmouth High School across the river.

For a four year old boy, the sight of constant Ohio river traffic in front of our home created a certain kind of interest and mystery. The sight of long barges loaded with all kinds of cargo, and legendary “river boats” with passengers waving to me as they went by, raised a great deal of interest and wonder. Who were they, where did they come from, and where were they going; special memories to lodge in the mind of a four old.

My most vivid memory of river traffic was the weekly appearance of the “show boat” that docked not far from our home. Occasionally, it would pass in the evening, lit up with its calliope playing and passengers waving to curious onlookers like me. It docked about half mile from our home to produce a show to entertain the local populace. Observing such sights put my imagination in high gear, and I knew that beyond the mountains a world existed that I would hopefully visit-someday. I had no idea that there would come a time in some distant future that my child-hood curiosity would be surpassed many times over.