Home Up David's Stuff Links Thoughts Stuff Stuff Read 


                                           My dad...January 25,1950




    My dad wrote this January 25,1950:

           "The other night in visiting one of my classmates, I was amazed at the untidiness
    of his room. I suppose I should not have been surprised, for hadn’t I seen him nearly
    everyday at school and often wondered inwardly, “doesn’t this fellow ever get a
    haircut, or shine his shoes, or press his trousers”? This same unkempt figure stood
    before me in the person of my host.
          However, my attention was quickly averted from his appearance as I stepped
    through the doorway, for the next thing I realized a frayed hemp clothesline was
    tugging at my esophagus, While my eye and forehead were being mercilessly
    slapped by a low-looped drop cord dangerously strung from the center light over to
    his desk at the left side of the room.
          While freeing myself from this captivity, I could not help noticing the tangly
    cobwebs cling around the light fixture and in the wall corners.
          Beside my friends desk-I suppose it was a desk- stood this book case; with books
    stuffed at most anywhere in and around it, I did not wonder at the broken glass in the
    bookcase door, which itself stood carelessly open.
           Feeling awkward staring at all this, I turned my eyes sharply toward the opposite
    side of the room, but they found no relief in a pair of windows “graced” with grimy,
    yellow curtains and uneven shades.
           I began to wonder what “I” looked like. Seeking alleviation from my mounting
    fears, I stumbled across a floor cluttered with shoes, boxes, and books and made my
    way to a bureau that looked like an antique shop or a second hand store. Taking one
    look in the greasy mirror and feeling relieved that I still looked like I thought I did, I
    slumped peacefully down into what little space there was left on a chair that was
    being used as a depository for dirty, odiferous clothing. Perhaps I would have fallen
    on the bed instead of the chair, But I didn’t want to be blamed for the mess IT was in
    after I departed. I departed all right!"

           I was 12 years old when we lived in Meadow Grove, Nebraska and dad drove 17
    miles each way to go to Norfolk Jr. College. With 9 people living in the house I doubt
    he got to share a lot of this that he wrote and accomplished…………He shares it
    now………… David