MY STORY

Page four

From Jasper, Dad was called to a church in Carterville, Jasper Co. It was his finest church of his many years as a preacher. It had a large pipe organ.

At this time I was the only one at home, Ward and Hal were in [Kansas City]. I worked In a cigar factory in Joplin for a short time. Then I worked as a news butch on the Missouri Pacific running from Joplin to Newport, Arkansas, about three hundred miles. It was at this time that I saw so much of the Ozarks and which I learned to love. This was many years before ERA came into being and the Ozarks were very back woodsy but beautiful. Anyone touring these hills now would probably never realize what a difference they are at this time. Log cabins were the vogue then and many of them didn't have anything except burlap for doors and windows to keep out the cold.

As I had quit my schooling before leaving Jasper, I only stayed about six months in Carterville and then I took off for [Kansas City] with brother Ira.

My stint at the first job with the wholesale firm only lasted about six months. It paid the huge sum of fifty dollars a month. Later on I worked twice for Montgomery Wards, it paid a little better. It was while working at The Farm and Home Savings and Loan Company that I went to business college. I did learn to pick and peck there. After going to school about six months, I went to work for the Robert Keith Furniture Co. It was while there that Alice and I were married. It wasn't so much longer that I was fired from that job. And then I went back to Montgomery Wards at nineteen dollars a week. And then I got my call to come to work for the Post Office and I went to work there in November of 1923 and there I stayed until I retired in November of 1975 at which time I retired , that made forty two years and two weeks, for which I am very proud.

As I recall, I worked for seven Presidents and probably that many Postmasters. I had known Mr. Truman before he ran for the Senate and then had the pleasure of seeing him on a cruise he made with us on the Great Lakes. This was while he was making the race for the Senate. I was in charge of the Officers Mess at the time. One day while everybody was on shore leave, the officers returned from a visit to a paper mill in Michigan. That night at supper there was around each of the officers plates one of those security papers which are used on stools in rest rooms. I never was sure who put them there but I always supposed it was Harry Truman, the officers were too straight lace to have that much humor. As he always had plenty of it. The Commander who was acting as Captain was madder than then proverbial Red--------Dog. So much for that.