I was born believe it or not. Well any way here I am. Born at home so they did not have to take me home. In a house heated by a wood heater and where meals were cooked on a wood burning cook stove and old black pipes to take the smoke out side.
I remember as a child going outside to the toilet at night and being scared of the dark. Remember breaking ice in the water bucket so I could wet, not wash my hands and face. One little dingy light bulb in the center of a room was sign of influence in my eyes you were rich. I remember the days of the telegraph because there were no phones in Waukegan. I loved to listen to the tick, tick, tick, and tick of the telegraph in the Santa Fe depot. What a thrill! Remember visiting in some ones homes and they turned a crank on the side of the telephone to " central " and the operator connected you with your party. I remember when automobiles had no windows and a cloth top. A few had curtains that could put on when it rained. In 1927 when daddy got his first car he worked some how to get curtains but they blocked his vision so bad until we did not use them very much. Uncle Dallas cut a hole by the driver seat so he could see out. Daddy did not like that. When a person car broke down they were told get a horse. Daddy said " No one but a doctor needed a car ". That was before he got his car. Then he said, " Women should not drive ". I was in my mid thirty's when he finally consented for me to drive. My two brothers were taught to drive in their teen.
I can remember our icebox with a pan underneath to collect water from the melting ice and we only got ice occasionally. Many times we put milk in a gallon syrup bucket and let it down into the well by a fishing cord so it would be cool and not spoil so soon.
Remember hand cranking a Victoria for music when my brother was a baby to keep quite. One record had dogs barking on it and he always laughed when the dogs barked. Wonder of wonders Johnny M. took some old wires and other junk and twisted them together. He was lying on the porch with something up to his ear. He let me listen and I could hear folks talking. It was a real radio. He called it a crystal set.
Remember when people dressed up to go to town and all men wore hats. Schoolboys were made to button their collar and put their shirttails inside their pants. Mr. Anderson saw to it that they did. I remember Pledging allegiance to our flag once or twice a week. The whole school stood in the schoolyard as some lucky boy got to raise the flag. We were told how lucky we were to be in America.
I was born before the days of plastic cups, nylon hose, rock and roll music, air condition, frozen foods, credit cards, or ballpoint pens. It took two days and two nights to go from Waukegan to Bisby Arizona by train. Now I could eat breakfast in Cleveland and eat lunch in Arizona.
It was an important day to be for sure when daddy and all the men on the railroad came home early so they could all get in the car and go vote. Daddy set mother down at his desk and went over the ballot with her. He gave her a list to go by so she could vote the way he wanted her to vote. Her reading was not very good. Yet she wore out several Bibles reading and spelling the words out load.
I'm seventy-two years old today and I have seen all of these changes and many, many more. In spite of all the changing I know there is one thing that will never change, God Love For Us Will Never Change.

Kat. September 12, 1991