Читать книгу LIVING THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS - Donald E. Wilson - Страница 13

In November of that last year of peace, my dad left the insurance business and obtained a new job in Louisville, Kentucky, selling retread tires, a big business in 1940. He had no idea that in December of 1941, that business would collapse along with any other businesses producing rubber products for the civilian population. While he was locating a place in Louisville for us to move, we said good-by to my idyllic world and while my parents were getting settled in our new home, Doris and I moved to my grand-parents farm in Corbin Kentucky.

For the next three months, Doris and I, along with my aunt Loretta, attended a truly country school, very primitive without running water or other conveniences of city life. And yet I probably gained more education in my brief time in that country school as in any comparable time of my life. It was a real character building experience. I also experienced what life must have been like in the previous century. For the only time in my life I rubbed shoulders with real Appalachia children, most of whom were very poor, but truly represented the “salt of the earth.”

We had one room in the little school house, with a pot belly stove in the middle. Doris who was in the fourth grade was on one side of the room, and I and my fifth grade class were on the other. A young teacher not long out of college taught all subjects between the two classes. I really don’t know how she did it. I might add that in those days the school curriculum was designed to teach students the three R’S of reading, writing, and arithmetic, plus geography, and history; just a basic core program, but one that did give us an education in the essentials. Discipline was part of every child’s experience, and self-esteem was only a word in the dictionary. In other words, we learned what we needed to succeed.

We had no lunch room, and everyone brought a home-made lunch. I still remember the excitement of discovering what was in my bag. My grandmother usually gave me a biscuit with country ham and or cold chicken and fruit. In those days we had no dietary guide lines passed down from Washington. Following the brief time in the country school we moved back to Shelbyville, where we remained for about six weeks, until November 1, 1941, at which time we moved to Louisville, and settled on Sutcliffe Avenue, located a mile from the Ohio River, called the West End. Then a month and seven days later, on December 7^th, our world changed, as did that of every American. Some seven thousand miles away Japan launched a surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor.

We had just finished Sunday dinner and sat down to listen to Dr. Charles Fuller and the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, one of dad’s favorites. The program was suddenly interrupted with the terrible news. Dad quickly educated me on the geography of the Pacific, especially the location of Hawaii, and the significance of the events there. Pearl Harbor and the long war that followed, not only ushered in a different America, but for me personally planted seeds of a future life that would be dedicated to the service of my country.