I don't remember any of my very early childhood. After I was born in Los Angeles, we moved to Colton where Arthur was born and died. Then we moved to Arizona where Betty was born. I can remember nothing of Arizona. Sometime, perhaps in Arizona, I acquired a stuffed toy, a Peter Rabbit. It was grey in color, made of velvet and it wore a little blue velvet coat. I don't know who gave it to me, but it might have been my Aunt Daisy, Mother's sister. It became my security blanket—much the same as with Linus in the Charlie Brown cartoon of today. Mother kept it for me for years, even after I had discarded it, until it was completely worn out. I am not sure what finally happened to it.
We moved from Globe, Arizona to Colton, California when Betty was 14 months old. That would put it at about Feb/Mar 1921. I can remember when we lived on East "I" Street in Colton, California. I was about 4 or 5 years of age, and I can remember there was a "wash" a block or so east of us. This was before the Army Engineers put in any flood controls. The wash was about 40 to 50 feet wide and in heavy rains ran about three feet deep. Dad had to put on his rubber hip boots and walk through the water in the wash to go to work and then home again. I also remember he had an Indian motorcycle then, that he used to ride to work.
Our house was robbed on several occasions while we lived on East "I" Street. Mother's Nursing & Hospital pins and our baby rings were stolen, plus a few other things. Dad would sometimes pile us all in the car and drive off like we were going somewhere and then he would sneak back to the house to try to catch the burglars, but he never did. According to Betty, Mother always thought the culprits were Gypsies who camped near a streambed not too far east of our house.
One time Dad got so frustrated about it that he, being an electrician, wired the doors and windows with 440 volts of electricity. On coming home one time we found evidence that someone had attempted to enter by the kitchen window and had been knocked down to the ground on the outside. Mother was afraid Dad would forget and leave it on when we were still home and finally convinced him to disconnect the system.
When we were little children, Mother used to come to our rooms at night and help us say our prayers. Our prayers were always the same:
"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."
When we went to church, it was to the Episcopalian Mission Church, and I was baptized (sprinkled) in the Church in Colton. After we were old enough, our parents sent us kids to church. When we got old enough to decide for ourselves, we quit going, probably because the Folks seldom went. When I was in Junior High School and High School, I used to find out which church would be having their annual summer picnic and I went to church there for a couple of weeks so I could go on the picnic.
During the summer of 1923, when I was five years old, Mother took the three of us children by train and we traveled back to Cardington, Ohio, to visit her Mother and some of the rest of her family. Dad stayed in Colton and worked. Grandmother lived in a big house on a farm owned by Auntie Doctor, Florence, Mother's sister, and just down the road and across the street was the farm of another of Mother's sisters, Aunt Daisy.
One night, we went into Cardington and watched a picture show in the street. They had a big screen stretched across one side of the street and the audience stood on the other side and watched it. The title of the show was "Around the World in 80 Days." Of course, it wasn't in color or a moving picture show.
Uncle James took some of us to a nearby lake one day and we rode in a rowboat out to the middle of the lake. Uncle James suggested that I get in the water and hang onto the back of the boat, which I did. He shortly after proceeded to slap the oar down on my hands making me let go and told me to swim. It was either sink or swim, so I swam. That was my first swimming experience.