I discovered an email from Dad from 2014. It's pretty cool:
"One more thing...As I ponder the above photo, it's difficult to dredge up a lot of memories of that particular time in my life. The date of the photo must have been before I got ran over by the car. I do remember that it happened in the latter part of 1942...because I was on crutches during Christmas time. Possibly we lived at this address longer than I surmised. Mother never really talked much about those years. I do remember that Billy dropped a huge "sewer lid" on one of his fingers and the doctors had to sew it up. To my knowledge, it didn't give him any problems when he got older. It is also interesting to me that we always went to regular doctors and hospitals, not military facilities. About that time, Betty suffered from Rheumatic Fever and darn near shot threw to the great beyond. Rheumatic fever affects children ages 5 -15, and occurs approximately 14-28 days after strep throat or scarlet fever. I also remember having "pinkeye" and being confined to a dark room for several days...and regular doses of eye ointment, no fun for a kid. Infectious pink eye can easily spread from one person to another, but I don't remember my siblings getting it.
One Christmas, I recall discovering a windup toy machine gun that would shoot sparks out the barrel. It was secreted on a shelf in my parents bedroom. Just about every day, I would sneak it out and play with it. I tried to be very careful, but one afternoon my mother caught me playing with the toy and told me it was going to disappear, it did. That Christmas I tore through my packages looking for the neat little machine gun, but nothing. Evidently, mom had given it away to someone with kids. You'd think I would have learned a lesson from that, but through the years I would search the house for gifts and check them out. I had very few surprises come Christmas time. Like the time they bought me a neat mandolin. I played with it until I had the basics down and then on Christmas morning I acted totally surprised when I unwrapped it. A habitual "present peeper" does things like that.
As you can see from the photo, we didn't imbibe a lot of sweets and candies. I recall some of the ROTC students would drop by to visit with my dad. Once a young man visited dad in full military dress, including his sword. While they talked, Billy and myself fought with the sword. One armed with the actual sword, the other with the metal scabbard that held it; we tried to be careful and not scar the equipment. Looking back, I'm surprised my dad allowed us to do that. I also remember a sergeant from the military academy at Paschal High dropped by to visit with Daddy. While they were talking, Billy and myself showed little interest...until one told a joke...then we were all ears. I know you've heard this one, but it has always stuck in my mind. This general who had three boys, would really make them step in time. One of the boys evidently broke a window...so their dad, the general, called for an assembly and at full attention. When their dad asked the guilty party to step forward and confess to breaking the window. When none of the boys confessed to breaking the window, the general told them they would all suffer group punishment. He then asked if they had any questions. The youngest of the three stepped forward and said, "Sir, how do you transfer out of this chicken shit outfit!" That's all folks, Love, Pop"
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