In April, not long before school was out for the summer, President Roosevelt suffered a heart attack and died at his place in White Spring, Georgia. He was there with his aide or mistress, as we would later learn. His body was sent back to Washington by train. Everyone was upset because our president had died. His vice president, Harry Truman took his place.

In the summer after second grade, Mom and Dad allowed me to go and spend a week in the country with Aunt Christine and Uncle Harry. They lived about six miles further away from town than we did. After they had returned from Detroit, they had started a Grade A Dairy farm. In addition to the new concrete dairy barn, they had a huge older barn with a loft which was a wonderful place to play.

The main objective for the week was so I could attend Vacation Bible School at the country church where Aunt Chris was a member, but there were many other things to do as well. None of the other kids who attended that church were in my class at school, but they all seemed to like me and would often go back after the half day Bible school ended to spend time with me at the farm. My favorite part of the Bible school was working on the daily craft projects, which we would take home at the end of the week.

My aunt and uncle got up before daylight to deal with the dairy. The cows were milked twice a day. Dairy cattle can produce 6 or 7 gallons of milk each day. I wasn’t used to getting out of bed so early at home. The change in routine seemed to give me more energy, so I decided I must be a morning person.

Early in the morning, while it was still cool, Uncle Harry made trips to the gravel pit to scoop up gravel for paving his driveway. I loved going with him and standing up in the back of his pickup with the wind blowing in my face while watching the sun rise. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone that standing up in a fast-moving vehicle might not be safe. It would be years before seat belts were standard equipment or until laws designed to promote safety came into being.

This area felt more like country than where we lived. I found the gravel pit fascinating. Because we went early, Uncle Harry and I were the only ones around. There were banks of reddish sand and gravel in every direction. It felt like I was exploring the surface of the moon or another planet.

I’d had so much fun during that week, I was reluctant to return home. I spent the rest of my summer finding hide-aways to read one of my many library books. If Mom didn’t have me picking or shelling beans or mowing grass I was usually reading.

WWII was winding down. We got word that Hitler had committed suicide. The US had built and successfully tested the atomic bomb. It was apparent that Japan was losing the war, but was refusing to surrender. Harry Truman was president, and he made the decision to force a surrender by using our atomic bombs in early August. It was horrifying listening to the reports as they came in about the death toll in those two Japanese cities. 

Near the end of August, school started back up. I was excited about being in third grade. It was always fun to meet the new teacher and to see what new students might have joined our class. Often there would be several, who had been in the grade before us, who would have to repeat the grade again. I liked my new teacher Mrs. Jones. She was young and had a three-year-old daughter, but unfortunately, she wouldn’t be there long due to a severe illness.

One of the new girls who joined our class, was Jo Ann Whatley. I recognized her name from the library books, I’d checked out. At last, I would meet the person who read as many books as I did. When she came that first day, I wasn’t impressed. She walked to school with her younger sister and some other kids. Her hair was in pigtails that were coming apart. Her shirt was out of her skirt, and she looked as though she’d been in a fight. It turned out she was a tomboy who preferred playing ball with boys than playing with girls.

Even though she was scruffy looking, I was anxious to find out more about her since she was such a prolific reader. It already felt like we were competing to see who could read the most books. No one else in class seemed very interested in the town library.

Jo Ann was outgoing and seemed anxious to make friends. She hadn’t been in our class long before she came in bringing invitations addressed to each class member for her birthday party. She said we could all walk together after school, and she would show us where she lived.

The day of her party we all left class with her leading the way. She took us into a part of town I’d never been in before. We had to cross the railroad tracks, so I didn’t know what to expect. When we arrived, I was shocked because I had never seen such a large house or one that looked like this one. The house was by itself with land around it. The huge concrete monstrosity was shaped like a cruise ship. I wondered if it had been a hotel at one time.

The building was a flat topped two story with a concrete deck covering most of the top. Inside, it was beautifully decorated with very expensive looking mahogany furniture. Jo Ann had twin siblings, a boy and a girl, who were around four or five. Each child in the family had their own room. I immediately assumed she was rich. When we told her we liked her house, she said she hated it. She said they had just moved in, but she preferred living down in the country where her grandparents lived. I think her dad had been in the military service, and she and her mother and siblings had lived with the grandparents until he returned. She’d been in another school district. Now, her dad had bought an automobile dealership.

After Jo Ann opened her gifts and we'd had cake and ice cream, Jo Ann joined the boys who had started a baseball game in a pasture. We didn’t stay around long after that. I think we’d made arrangements to have our parents pick us up.

On September 2nd, the war was officially declared over. The town exploded in celebration. The fire and police sirens and the oil mill whistle and everything else whichs could make a noise went off. People were blowing their car horns all over town. My classmates, whose fathers had served in the war, were thrilled to know their dads would soon be returning home.

One of the men who returned from service was Billy Brantley. He had some money saved and was anxious to buy a business. The grocery my father ran was owned by a business man who lived in another county. He had allowed Dad to manage the store without any interference from him. Now, he wanted to sell the store, and Billy wanted to buy it and manage it himself, although he'd had no experience in running a grocery business.

The owner offered Dad the first choice to buy the store, but Dad didn’t have any money saved, and he was not the kind of person who would borrow money for any reason. Debts scared him. Since Billy planned to be the owner and operator of the store this meant my dad had to find another job.

Dad did get another job working at a feed and seed store. This was not my dad’s dream job, and it wouldn’t end well.

Most of the time, I only learned bits and pieces from what I overheard. I was not privy to the ups and downs that went on with the adults in the family. It was probably best they kept their problems to themselves. I found enough to worry about without adding to my already over-stressed imagination.