I was born on February 21, 1941, in a rural area of Houston, Texas. I was the last of 8 kids. I never went hungry in my childhood, because we raised everything we ate. We had ducks, sheep, chicken, cows, horses, goats, a little bit of everything. Even had a peacock! A peacock is a great alarm animal; he'll let you know before a dog does. The animals always came first, and even ate before we did! Back then, everybody ate meals at one time. We had a garden, and grew all our vegetables and produce. We even did our own canning.

Backtalk to anybody older than us was not tolerated. Of course, going to school was mandatory. After 1957, we got our first television. We were allowed two hours of television maybe two or three days a week, but only after we completed our homework and our chores. Sometimes we didn't even get to watch it that much, because we had chores to do. In those times, we read newspapers for our information.
We played baseball, and shot marbles with the neighbors. In the summertime, when we had some time off, we did a lot of swimming and fishing, because there was so much water around. After about 12 or 13 years old, everybody played football, because in Texas, it's a national pastime. Friday night was football. Saturday, if we were lucky, we got to go to a moving picture and see the newsreels. Then on Sunday we went to church. According to how my parents felt, Church could be an all-day event, from Sunday school to evening service. It all came back to the animals; we had to take care of them before we left for church. You had a good year if you had a good year of cash crop, being your crops and your animals.