Home was a very warm and secure place.  I was happy as a small child.  Gloria and I slept in the back bedroom with mom and Dad.  Allen had the front bedroom. 

 

Wheen we were small, our house was heated by 3 gas stoves.  All were lighted by match as was our hot water heater.  No thermostat control.  We always turned them off at night because Dad was afraid of the fire hazard of the open flame gas stoves.  House was uninsulated.  At night it got quite cold in winter.  During the day on cold days, the walls would sweat because of all the water vapor released by the gas flames.

 

During the coldest weather, we went to bed with glass bottle filled with hot water.  The bed was a steel frame bed with small steel upright posts up to a larger arched shaped support.  Gloria and I slept in separate beds but with our heads toward each other.  The beds were at right angles to each other.  Sometimes we played what we called "Little Finger" where each would try to catch other ones little finger.  

 

Allen was always carving something.  Would make us rubber guns and toy soldiers.  One gun was a machine gun.  It had multiple places on a semi circular board where you could put about 12 rubber bands.  You fired the rubber bands by pulling on a string which was under the bands.  Had Fox Terrier named Sparks.  Dad had a rule that he couldn't come in the living room.  He was quite agile and could climb our ladder to roof of the house.

 

Gloria and I would play in the breakfast room with Mom’s Maytag washer.  We would play like it was a machine which would take us places.  We also played frequently with electric trains.  We set them up to run on fairly straight track.  Would run trains back and forth to deliver material and messages to each other.  Dad and Allen fixed up an old dump truck for me for Xmas when I was about 5.  They fixed a canopy held up by wire bows made from coat hangers.  Put on headlights using old flash light reflectors.  A giant dry cell was supported under engine compartment.  Turned on lights with knife switch on the running board.  That was really big time.  Also remember a couple of Xmas's later Dad made me a carpenter bench out of wood.  It was really nice.