As it got closer, we could hear the hum of its engine. It was moving slowly across the sky and seeming to grow larger as it got nearer. We kids were in awe of it; we had never seen the likes of it before. It was a dirigible and it was BIG! Mom told us that it was probably the Graf Zeppelin and said that we should watch and remember it because we might never see it again.

It passed by our house on the railroad side and seemed to be using the railroad tracks as a guide. I kept my eyes on it until it was just a dot in the sky. Mom was right; I never did see anything like that again. Sure, throughout the years, I have seen other dirigibles -- many of us have seen the Goodyear Blimp -- but they all have been smaller. I'll never forget that one at Rylie!

Current Day Note: As I sit here writing this, I have the television in the next room tuned to CBS and the Dave Letterman Show just came home. Dave said that Neiman Marcus had announced their big special Christmas item - you can buy a dirigible for a multiple million dollar price.

Occasionally, a couple of buzzards would circle high above the chicken yard and Mom would send me to shoo all the chickens inside the garage/shed so the buzzards wouldn't be able to get them. I would then keep watch until they left and tell Mom. After a while, she would send me to let the chickens back out.

I remember one time that we heard a lot of noise coming from the chicken yard and, quick as you please, Mom was out of the house running to chase the two buzzards that were creating the upset. With a broom held high and calling for me to help her, she charged into the chicken yard at one buzzard that was trying to fly off with a chicken. She swatted at it and it flew away without the chicken, which it had released. The other buzzard was spared Mom's wrath because it got away while she was going after its partner.

The poor hen that the buzzard was trying to take was obviously shaken and not in too great a condition. After Mom checked it over, she said that we would lose an egg producer but that we would have chicken for supper. A chicken meal was always in our immediate future.

One thing I really liked to do on a clear night was to lie on my back on the ground and look at the night sky and the stars in it. This is the first place I had been able to do so. There were no buildings or trees to block my view. Mom or Dad pointed out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and there were always shooting stars to follow. It was so quiet and, sometimes, I would fall asleep and Mom or Dad would come out to wake me or pick me up and carry me inside to sleep on my pallet.

As anyone who has spent very much time living in a home with an outhouse knows, eventually, a new pit must be dug, the outhouse must be moved to the new pit and the old one must be filled in. Someone, probably Uncle Dorsey, came to help Dad. I'm not certain, but there might have been a third man. It took quite a while to get the job done, starting during the day and working into the night. My job was general go-fer, making myself available to help in any way needed. This was the one and only time I was involved in such a task, thank goodness. Well....there were a few occasional slit trenches during my early days in the U.S. Army, but that was different.

Many times, we children would be running around outside, barefoot, playing and getting into whatever. I still feel a shiver run up and down my spine whenever I recall the time I was walking, barefoot, over a small pile of old boards when my heel found a rusty nail. It was sticking straight up and my heel came down squarely on it. I don't remember how far it went in; I just remember it was significant enough to panic Mom.

Somehow she got someone to look after my brothers and sisters and someone to drive us to a doctor. He told me about lockjaw, gave me a lockjaw shot (of course, now-a-days, we call it tetanus), bandaged my heel and told me to be careful not to put any weight on that heel until it was better. If I had to, I'd say that it was my right heel, but I'm not positive.

I woke one morning with my cheeks puffed out - I had the mumps. I felt bad and had to stay home from school. Mom wrote a note to my teacher explaining my condition and telling her I wouldn't be at school for a few days. She gave the note to Rosalie to give to my teacher.

Mom put me in the bed and said that she and Dad would sleep on a pallet while I was sick as I needed to be comfortable. Being used to sleeping on a pallet myself, I felt quite small in the expanse of a double bed. Although I was hurting, I enjoyed the attention and comfort.

After a couple of days, my teacher and a couple of my classmates came to visit me and brought a bunch of letters that members of the class had written to cheer me. Most were the, "Sorry you're sick. I hope you get well soon so you can come back to school." One stood apart from the lot was from one of the girls who had drawn a picture of my head with really big puffy cheeks. One thing she wrote, "I bet you look funny." really struck me funny and gave me a great laugh. I've forgotten who it was that wrote that letter and I wish I still had those letters, but they went the way of many other items of my past. I always get a chuckle whenever I remember that one letter and how it made me laugh. It did a good job of bringing me cheer.

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