The Great Depression was raging and my Dad had the job of firing men and closing offices for the Regina vacuum cleaner company. He often said of those times. "Well, we stayed off Relief, but just barely." Sometimes if the fired man and his family had no money for food, my father would bring them all to our rented house and my mother would somehow manage to feed us all with a big pot of chili or something equally delicious.

I had started first grade that fall. The only problem was that my father stayed in one town for only a month. Then his job there would be over and we would move on to another furnished house in a different Ohio town with a a new school for Rhoda. My mother worried about me being moved around to so many different schools, so she wrote to Grandma Nettie to ask if I could live with her and Grandpa Charlie on the farm in Indiana and finish the first grade there.

Nettie, Charlie and I were all delighted. I was the eldest grandchild and it was a great chance for them to "spoil" me and of course I loved the added attention. I walked down the lane every school morning with my lunch in tow to meet the big yellow school bus. Tommy was our bus driver and if we were good all week, on Friday after school, he would be waiting beside the bus with a big box of Tootsy Rolls. He would never smile, but just stand there stoically handing out candy to each of us. This was a special treat because we rarely had money for extras like candy.

We knew he loved us and we all adored him.