As I look back in my 82nd. year I am thankful for the gift of memory. Some of the events are a bit hazy but many of them are still vivid and can be recalled, at least the events that were shaping my life. In the month of August 1914 World War I began. I can remember very vividly the day that it ended, the first armistice ay Nov 11, 1917. Our farm home was close enough to Shepherdstown to hear the bells tolling. The Great War was over. My father gave me a cow bell and I went up on the hill behind the barn and rang the bell. During the war my aunts scared the hell out of me. This is perhaps one of the reasons I never loved them as I should. In the few times that I had meals with them they kept telling me that the Kaiser would get me if I didn't eat all the food on my plate. They kept telling me that Uncle Sam wanted me to grow up and be a good soldier. Then I would see those posters with Uncle Sam pointing his finger at me and saying "I want you."
The war years were good years on the farm. Wheat and corn prices were high and we felt no scarcities of food. In that year I learned that we were Democrats and 82 years after I still am. I remember going to school one morning and hearing the teacher say the the flag was at half mast. President Wilson was dead. From then on until 1933 there were three Republican presidents and I didn't hear much good about anyone of them. In the times that for one reason or another I had to spend the night with the aunts I recall the morning prayers at breakfast time. The aunts would be drinking warm water while grandfather read passage from the Bible and then the long prayer for which he was noted.
I must have entered the first grade in 1920. I can never forget my first grade teacher Miss Ruth Taylor. Our book was Baby Ray. Under her teaching I learned to read rapidly and developed a love of books, a love which has persisted to this day. Jack London died in 1916 but I began early to love his books, especially the Call of the Wild and Sea Wolf. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan the Ape Man in 1914 and I loved it. My elementary education was in two schools, Shepherdstown Elementary and a one room school at the little v illage of Scrabble. *1 There must have been a period when upheavals in our took place. It must have affected my concentration. I am sure one of these was fear from the early 1920's until a decade later we were living in poverty, with some times not getting enough to eat. Some change must have been evident, because when I was in the 8th grade I received an award for the student making the most improvement.
There were many changes taking place in these years from 1914-1921. It is difficult for us today to believe that in 1921 Margaret Sanger was jailed for writing a book on family limitations on birth control. Looking back today to this period who could fail to mention Henry Ford and the Model T. In 1915 he produced the first farm tractor which had a tendency to rear up on its rear wheels and kill many drivers. But the Model T was not this dangerous. In 1915 Ford produced his one millionth car. I learned to drive it by observing my dad drive. In fact I got my driver licenses when I was fourteen by simply sending 50 cents (I believe this was the fee) to Charleston, W.Va. for a licenses. Compared to the cars of today the Model T was a complicated machine. On the steering column there were two levers on the right to gas lever and on the left the spark. There was no battery but a magneto which produced the ignition. Usually you advanced the gas about 1/4 and the spark about on half and since there was not a starter you cranked. Occasionally it would back fire and produce a powerful kick back on the crank . This injured my father permenently. There was also a wire with a ring on the end sticking out in front near the crank handle. This was the choke which was pulled out as you cranked. the car had a tendency to move forward when it started if the emergency brake was worn so you usually put a chunk in front of a rear wheel. When the car started and you were in the seat you noticed three pedals on the floor. The one on the left was the low gear. The middle pedal was the reverse and the right pedal the brake you pushed in on the left pedal and the auto started forward. Increase the gas lever and when the car was moving fast enough you released the foot pedal as you were in high gear. There were three ways to stop. Push the brake pedal. Pull back on the emergency brake. If this failed you pushed in the reverse pedal. Most of the accidents were by horses very frightened enough by a noisy vehicle passing a them on the road. If the driver lost control of his horses a severe accident could occur. Many drivers got out of a buggy and held the horses when a car was approaching.
These early years it seemed that the only permanent thing was change. Another development was the motion picture. Our town had what was called the opera house. Here silent motion pictures were shown. I remember that the building had a gallery high in the rear. Here Negroes were seated. *2 In front was a pit with a pipe organ under the screen. The organist I remember also was the Lutheran Church organist. Saturday night was always for western movies. The organist watched the film and played the appropriate music. This is when I first heard the William Tell rendition of the storm, usually played during a thrilling chase by cowboys and Indians or some other tense momvent in the movie. Then there were scenes very sad and the music brought tears to your eyes. Since the movie was silent you had to read the script on the screen. During my teaching days I know we graduated student who wouldn't be able to read the script and the movie would mean nothing. Several years later the Vitaphone appeared. This was a recording the operator played synchronized with the picture. However, If the film had broken which often happened some of the film would be lost in splicing and for instance, some body would be knocking on a door and you would hear the knock before or after it occurred. The stars every kid of this period remembered were Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Wm. S. Herd, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, and Many others as the 20s approached our happiness was soon to feel the impact of a gathering storm. Not only would we soon see all morality, old philosophies and old habits severely cut, but also the security we had known as children also were swept away and there would be years of insecurity and poverty that would shake our foundation. By this time the 18th amendment had gone into effect, making the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, as well as the 19th amendment gave women the right to vote. This was about to become the age when children growing up would find according to Scott Fitzgerald, all gods dear, all wars fought, and all faith in men shaken. It was indeed about to become a revolution that would shape the foundation of society. The roaring twenties, 1921 to 1930, were upon us.
*1 Scrabble is a small village of ten or so houses on Rocky Marsh Run,
a few miles west of Dam 4 on the Potomac River. (DWM)
*2 The editor would go to this same movie house in the years from
1946-1950, when I would stay with my grandparents on the farm at Wild Goose. It
was of course, still segregated at this time. (DWM)
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