My mother was Pa. Dutch-Irish Catholic – My father was Irish Prostatant –
My mother had ten brothers and sisters – my father had two brothers and a sister.
My mother’s mother married an Irishman – named Aiken – last name – David’s first name.
On my father’s side – the story went that five brothers came over from Ireland – County Tyrone –
it seems once here they split up and never saw one another again.
That was in the 1800’s.
I had an older sister by 15 years and an older brother by 10 years.
Then a sister who died at birth was 5 years older than me.
My younger brother came a little over 4 years after me.
My sister – lived next door to our house and had three children – the oldest was a couple year younger than my little brother.
I am on the left – my niece in the middle( Terri) and my brother Mike.
All three of us grew up together-
By the time I was ten years old – both my sister and older brother had moved on –
Eldred was a small town – 800 to 1000 people –
It seemed I knew just about everyone.
The main street was prone to flooding in the Springs –
It was cool at night – just a fan sometimes or open windows with screens.
It was lush and green but there could be the dog days of August!
My early life was filled with riding my bike – skating on the sidewalks – playing with neighborhood kids.
Smoking corn silk!
Spending hours at the ballpark – throwing apples – sliding down the hill on cardboard –
Going to work with my father – he was a supervisor for South-Penn – Pennsoil.
Playing baseball or football at the park.
Trust came in be home before the street lights came on.
My grandma lived with us – I remember sitting on her lap on the front porch –
Seeing a neighborhood boy walking on the sidewalk across the street on his way to school.
He was two years older than me – and I asked her when it would be my turn to walk to school!
My early years were spent in that small town – not knowing much about the world beyond those
town limits – except when we would go for the Friday night fish fry at the Moose Club in Olean, N.Y.
Sometimes even a movie at the theater down the street from that Club.
“OLD YELLOWER” comes to mind.
Playing “JACKS” on our front porch with neighbor children and discussing –
“Grandpa on Lassie died” – real life.
Those were my early years and so much more I remember – another time and another place.
I worked for 48 1/2 years – all except one of those years for the same company.
Today I am far removed from that area and town –
although my two sons still live in that area.
I have a couple of great nieces and their children still there and a niece still there.
Everyone in my immediate family is now gone.
But I have memories of those early years and it seems I can still see those streets I roamed in my mind.
Now in my senior years – my memories are still bright and I write them down in case they dim.
That little town of Eldred, Pa. still holds a special place in my heart –
someday I shall return – instead of walking the streets, I shall drive.
Visit the graves and see the ballpark – gaze at the house I grew up in – my great nieces live there now which means that house has been in my family now for over 80 years.
Thanks for reading my little memory of my early years – with my wife – who also grew up some 40 miles from there in a little town of Swedish descent called Mount Jewett, PA.
Visit my blog on my ongoing memoir of our family lives.
PAPA’S WORLD – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Main Street – just above the white truck to the left – is a brick-red building – with a huge Army Tank coming out the side – this is the ELDRED WWII MUSEUM!
When I was growing up – this was Fisbees Insurance and the Electric Company in the Cellar –
and right next to it was Slavin’s Furniture store and gas station.
I would roller skate down to the bays and Jack would sometimes buy me a glass coke out of the machine that stood there between the bays.
I do not remember his last name – but he was a really nice man and lived in Bullis Mills.
We also would come down here and ask for old cardboard boxes –
they all had a heavy layer of wax on them and were perfect for grass riding down the hill opposite of our front porch.
WWII MUSEUM
Today – both buildings are joined and form this fantastic museum – dedicated to WWII
and the munitions plant that made explosives for the war.
It has a full-size ARMY TANK that looks like it is busting right out the wall of the side of the building!
My stepfather – John Soules – who was decorated FIVE times with Purple Hearts and Bronze Stars
Once gave me a revolver he was given permission to bring back to the states
He had all the signed documents from the government –
Before he passed away – he asked for it back so he could donate it here!
A few years ago – I walked down and asked to see it once again.
They had it in a safe – and was told it was worth 30 to 40 thousand dollars!
He took that handheld automatic machine pistol off a NAZI OFFICER he had captured who was dressed as a civilian trying to escape.
I was told this pistol was not from WWII but from WWI and was very rare –
one of the first automatic machine guns ever manufactured by the Germans for WWI!
I got to once again hold it!
A reenactment of women working at the munitions plant outside Eldred during WWII is part of the museum.
As you walk through you come upon room after room of scenes such as this.
This MUSEUM is like something you would find in Washinton DC. yet it is here in the very small town
of ELDRED PA. in the mountains of the ALLEGHANY FOREST in WPA!
I do not know the full story of why it is here – but I do know before the PANDEMIC
regular busloads of people would stop every day.
It sits on North Main Street right across from the old fire hall.
A must-see!
Thanks for reading PAPA’SWORLD
Memories of my life growing up in a small town in NWPA called ELDRED!
WHERE EVERYONE KNEW YOUR NAME – the ’50’s ’60’s and ’70’s.
This is the view from the front lawn and sidewalk of where I grew up in Eldred, PA. – North Main Street!
Both of my sons still live near here – my great-niece lives in the home I was raised in and my sister’s house next door is where my sister lived – now my niece lives there.
I have one niece who lives in Portville, N.Y. and most of the remaining family I grew up with are now gone.
My oldest son Troy is on the left – and my youngest son Shawn is on the right.
They both came down last summer but was a 16 to 18-hour drive!
With work and other commitments – it is hard for them to get away.
Troy builds houses from the ground up and Shawn has his own Energy Auditing and insulation business with the state government for housing for the elderly.
Shawn is a ranked nine-ball player and finished 33rd in the World competition.
The team he plays on finished first in the World competition in Las Vegas.
Troy has competed in the Easy Rider motorcycle competition.
This is my vision of Troy when he gets old! LOL
My sons family’s when they visited last summer.
Very proud of these two – if it was not so far away they would be here more often –
both still reside in NWPA in the Alleghany Mtns.
We combined two sets of children back in 1982 – her two daughters and my two sons.
FAMILY – MY SONS – TROY AND SHAWN – PAPA’S WORLD – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Main street – Eldred, Pa. 12 feet of flood water !
This is the school I attended until fourth grade in a little town just South of the New York State border
in Eldred, PA. In the midst of the Alleghany Mountains and the Alleghany River.
It was a small town – perhaps 1000 people – most I knew and most knew me.
This at that time was grade 1 thru 12 – made of wood constructed sometime in the 1800’s I believe.
The windows in the front first floor where I attended first grade – and those trees were huge when I was there.
It was then that three towns and the township combined to form the Otto-Eldred school district –
a new elementary school was built and I attended fifth and sixth grade there.
The new elementary school – right across from the ballpark – tennis courts and playgrounds,
I rode my bike to every day during the summer.
The school is still there to this day – 60-plus years later and looks much as it does here.
Here is the town as it looked during the Hurricane of 1972 which became known in our area as the FLOOD OF ’72!
Twelve feet of water on the main street – we were trapped in the area for almost two weeks as no way in or out.
The little town is also known for its WWII museum – and has bus tours – put it on your bucket list as something to see out of the way in a little town where everyone knows your name.
Otto-Eldred High School – located in Duke Center some 7 or 8 miles away.
Today – the population is way down – we had over 100 kids when I graduated in our senior class of 1967.
Today I believe there is far less than that in the senior class.
But my four years here are full of memories – childhood friends some of whom I still see and are in contact with.
Thank you for reading PAPA’S WORLD – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
IN THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS in the valley sits a little town called Eldred, Pa.
MY SCHOOLS GROWING UP IN ELDRED, PA. PAOA’S WORLD livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
My very early years were growing up in a little town in NWPA known as Eldred.
Not big – about 800 to 1000 in a good year!
My youth was spent roller skating – playing Kick the Can with neighborhood kids.
Throwing apples at the train cars as they sped past.
Smoking corn silk in a corncob pipe.
Playing in the sawdust hill up the street and sleeping out on the front porch in an old army bag of my brothers-in-law.
I had to walk from our home on North Main Street all the way across town to South Main Street and the High School – grades 1 through 12!
Often I would walk the tracks until the creek and then along the sidewalk.
One day – I was wearing my Davy Crockett Coon Skin hat – I stopped and put it on the bridge railing and then stuck my head through to look down at the water.
And there I was stuck!
My ears popped out and I could not pull my head back through.
Needless to say, the fire department came to the rescue – embarrassing my older brother by ten years who was in H.S. then.
Pictured here is the OLD HIGH SCHOOL where I attended until the end of grade four!
They built a brand new Elementary school for grades K thru 6 –
And combined three communities – Eldred – Duke Center and Rixford and Eldred Township.
The front windows were first grade – taught by Mrs. Shields.
It was a grand old building – I think built in the late 1800s.
In the winter we would sled ride down the hill to the right which also was a large cemetery.
Eldred, Pa. was before the movie “STAND BY ME”!
What you saw in that movie was exactly as it was in our little town where everyone knew your name –
and if you did anything wrong – your parents knew all about it before you got home!
Today – we live in the South – near the border of N.C. and S.C. – by the beaches!
My childhood memories have followed me here along with contact with friends I grew up with.
I do not get back there often – staying in touch with the few relatives I have left.
My family I grew up with are all gone and are in the cemetery up in Barden Brook.
We are 12 to 15 hours away – a long drive and no close airport other than Buffalo which still requires over a two-hour drive and a rental car.
Sherry – Papa – Pam – wife of my childhood buddy – grade school until graduation – Bobby!
We had many adventures that I can not put on here and today see each other about once a year.
We played sports together all those years – and now we have memories we talk about!
We are seniors in our sunset years yet living life to the plus – they RVing and us living our dream of the Salt Life.
My other best buddy along with Bobby – Jimmy – played years and years of softball and now golf!
Staying in touch – sharing good times in the NOW of my life!
Jimmy is also from that same little town!
Thanks for reading PAPA’S WORLD – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
The “THEN” of the start of our life together – 6-25-1982!
The “NOW” of our life together – on the ICW off OIB in N.C. living life to the plus one day at a time!
Funny how that remains in my mind after all these years – that home has been in our family since around 1944!
I grew up there and my mother was almost 98 years old when she passed away.
My mother Mary – everyone knew her – everyone honked their horn to her as she sat on the front porch.
Many – many people would stop just to sit down and talk to her,
That old front porch with the family I grew up with – sister Donna and her husband Bill – my mother and my brother Roger to the right.
When he left to go to college – I moved into his front bedroom when I was eight years old.
There were railroad tracks behind the house and the trains at night with their clack-clack sound would make me sleepy.
Out front was the main street and I could hear the traffic at night.
And to this day I still know the phone number and the post office box number.
Somewhere in the deep recess of my mind is the combination of that P.O. Box!
I left that house in 1967 and in 1982 married Sherry – now here we are 41 years later.
My memories of NWPA and WNY where we spent the first 50 years of our lives – remains in my memories to this day – just like that house and phone number!
Thanks for reading PAPA’S WORLD – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
An early picture of me holding my niece and my little brother – both have passed away – in fact – all my close family except two nieces and two great nieces are gone that I grew up with.
A early picture in the ’50’s of my older brother Roger on the basketball team. He also has passed on.
My early childhood was spent in a little town in NWPA called Eldred.
Near the NYS border and just across the mountain from Bradford-
home of Kendall – Penns oil – Quaker State and the South Penn oil fields.
My older brother Roger and myself in The Villages shortly before he passed away.
Growing up here was like the movie “STAND BY ME”
I had friends like that – and road my bike everywhere!
Curfew for me was BE HOME BEFORE THE STREET LIGHTS COME ON”!
My brother in law Bill and my sister Donna – both gone but not forgotten. Bill was once interviewed by Larry King – he was a truck driver but also the Chief of Police and later Mayor – Mr. King found that to be a interesting story!
Thank you for reading Papa’s World
WHERE FRIENDS MEET THE FAMILY
FAMILY MEETS FRIENDS!
SHERRY AND PAPA!
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“JIMMY and PAPA” friends since 1977 – best buddies – friends – the same little town in NWPA!!!
Jimmy and I have played softball together – volleyball – golf – corporate cup competitions – family vacations – for years and years.
Friendships usually do not last that long – but this one is still ongoing – and he retired from the same company I did yesterday!
Dottie – Sherry – Cindy – Buck – Jimmy and Papa – friends all these years – neighbors – three of us worked for the same company – now all retired except Dottie who has a little over a year to go.
These friends go all the way back to 1980 – through thick and thin – NWPA and WNY – still going strong!
New years eve together for years and years – Cindy – Sherry, and Jim – starting off the end one year and the new one coming in.
Jimmy has been there since Sherry and I were married in 1982 – many vacations together with families – many times visiting each other – and soon – golfing together more often when Dottie retires.
A day on the ICW with all our friends and neighbors from back in WNY! Mike and Carol John joined us for a few days!
Thanks for reading PAPA’S WORLD – A tribute to one of my best friends – JIMMY BROWN – the best is yet to come!
My very first memory of school – sitting on my grandma’s lap on the front porch –
“Grandma – when can I go to school”? I asked.
We had just watched a neighborhood boy walk past on the other side of the road –
His name was Denny and I later found out he was two years older than me!
So – I am thinking I was about four years old and I can still see him in my mind and me asking her.
The old Eldred school
I attended this old school until the fourth grade!
It was at that time – we merged with Duke Center – Rixford and Eldred to form OTTO-ELDRED.
At this time a brand new elementary school had been built right across the street from the ballpark!
I would not have to walk a mile to school in the mornings!
But – I remember that old school and my teachers and the classrooms.
The very first class was in the front and face the main street and I had Mrs. Shields.
We started off spelling the normal way – sounding out the words –
but soon after – we switched to the new way – MEMORY!
That went on for a couple years but it left me and others I know – very poor spellers.
The Alleghany River
The floodwaters of 1972
Across the main street and the railroad tracks – lays what we called THE FLATS!
And just beyond that the Alleghany River!
It seemed growing up part of life in the Spring were floods!
In 1954 or 1955 or thereabouts –
I was told not to go near the water flooded on the main street – I was maybe 6 years old.
But – I had made a raft and was sailing it on the main street – standing up and poling my way around
in about two feet of floodwater.
Unbeknown to me – a photographer from the local Bradford Era Newspaper – took my picture!
I was caught – standing on my homemade raft – poling my way around the main street –
ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE BRADFORD ERA!
But – I also shared that front page later in life with my dad!
He made a bet on the heavyweight champion of the world fight and picked
FLOYD PATTERSON – the bet – the loser would wheelbarrow the winner down Mainstreet
To Slavin’s Bar – my dad won and made that same newspaper front page being pushed by HERKY!
A WWII bomber pilot who had been shot down and made it to the allies’ lines!
The brand new Eldred Elementary School
This sits right across from the ballpark and tennis courts –
I was the first class in there in the fifth grade – Miss Cawley!
Mr. Harrington was my sixth-grade teacher and Principle!
Many games of RED ROVER RED ROVER please send ???? over!
Was played right there on that circle drive in front of the doors.
Later in life – I walked my youngest son down to those front doors and inside to enroll him in Kindergarten – and standing in the lobby with all those parents he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a bunch of dirt and worms!
He had stopped on our walk and without me knowing – stuffed his pocket with dirt and worms!
THAT I shall always remember!
OTTO – ELDRED H.S.
We were bussed every day from the seventh grade on seven miles to school in Duke Center, Pa.
Three communities combined to have one single H.S. but each community had its own
grade schools and one township grade school.
We had to find our own way home after sports practices if we did not ride the bus.
My good buddy and I – later in H.S. road with his dad to school.
We had a science teacher called CB SAWYER – who had his own music system in his lab.
He would play up to date 45 records of music between classes all day long.
His favorite back then was PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS – “GLAD ALL OVER”
and it was everywhere in the hallways – piped through the loudspeaker system!
OTTO-ELDRED H.S.
I have always said someday I would like to go back and rewalk those halls to that blast of music!
It was across from here I watched a fight between two seniors – and I was one of a hundred people!
I still see it in my mind and they were about three years older than us.
Their names were Ron and Jim!
My senior picture
Thanks for reading PAPA’S WORLD – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog fitztdf@aol.com
In the midst of the Alleghany hills – amongst the green and lush valleys – sits a little community-
Population – around 800 souls – and back then – I knew almost every one of them!
Eldred Pa.
The town sits on the Alleghany river which eventually flowed into Pittsburg – but – it flowed North first!
Yes – it left Pa. and flowed into NYS before flowing once again South through Pa.
It ends up in Pittsburg some three-plus hours away.
We would be considered the snow belt – some 80 miles south of Lake Erie and Buffalo N.Y.
I helped a friend of mine growing up with his paper route – his name was Brent – and we hung out.
He bought a go-cart with his money and he would let me ride on it.
He was two years older than I and eventually married my cousin.
Funny how that worked out – he graduated and I lost track of him.
The town nestled in the hills.
I would ride my bike everywhere – I had to be home each night for dinner and before the street
lights came on. Every night at 10 o’clock sharp – the siren from the firehouse would blow-
You could hear it all over the town – that was “CURFEW” for the streets –
I think no one under 18 could be out and about!
My first friend I can remember is the girl next door – her name was Sharon – and she had a big brother whom everyone called Sonny “KING” – and he dressed in a black leather motorcycle jacket and slicked his hair back like Elvis!
Sharon and I were like brother and sister – we would watch Lassie together – play on the front porch –
sneak a corncob pipe and gather silk from the corn and smoke –
puff it – in the big red barn behind the house.
We would walk to school together – and our route always was behind the main street along the tracks.
Behind the Eldred Garage and then on the tracks themselves.
Just before the creek – Lynches lived and behind their house was a tree –
like a little island raised up on a piece of land.
We would sit there and play our Kazoo’s together –
“THREE BLIND MICE”
That was all I knew how to play! LOL
She moved away and my sister and her husband moved in right next door!
Bill Luce – on the left – my brother-in-law.
Over his shoulder is the greenhouse I grew up in – my bedroom was the two windows on the second floor –
after my older brother Roger left for college.
Every morning I would wake up to the birds singing in the tree outside that window –
the Sunlight would come streaming in –
There was the main street – highway right out front –
and I would sleep and hear the sound of cars – trucks rolling by –
and then – the accidents that happen right there –
crashes would hit the cars parked there.
Some – I sept right through – others – would jolt me right out of bed.
That curb was where my best friend and I were sitting one early morning after midnight –
he was sleeping over and my parents had gone somewhere –
we got into the hootch under the sink.
My sister came out and grilled us –
“ARE YOU GUYS DRUNK”?
No I said and right at that time a car came
and the lights showed right on my friend – and he got sick –
and threw up all over the place!
” HE IS,” I said! LOL,
my sister always laughed at that and would tell the story many times over and over!
My friend and drinking buddy – lower right-hand corner!
We have reconnected about fifteen years ago at a class reunion –
he spent about a week here last October –
and we played golf once again – after some 55 years have gone by since we last played together!
My brother Roger and Sherry – a few years before he passed away – gone but not forgotten.
He was my hero growing up – ten years older than I –
named WHOS WHO in American colleges
OFFICERS TRAINING SCHOOL and a Lt. in the navy.
His bedroom became mine – when he came back I would sleep on the floor.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – to be continued in livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Our volleyball team after I quit playing softball – Back row – next to me – Steve and in front of him next to Sherry – Elaine. This couple are some of our oldest friends – and we still stay in touch today.
We are blessed in that we have so many dear friends.
Some – for me – go back to childhood.
Sherry – Papa – PJ – and Bob!
We have been friends since first grade – Bob and I.
We played sports together – stayed at one anothers homes.
Ran the streets after dark – drank a few beers together
and still – to this day – meet up and share old memories.
They will stop in on their way back home to N.H. in May.
HUGS TO P.J. and Bob.
Fred and Lynda – Sherry!
Freddie and I go back to 7th. grade
Playing sports together – card games – there were four of us that paled around
Freddie – Bobby and Jon ( deceased)
Lynda and Fred are the oldest couple still together as our friends.
Sherry – Buck – Cindy and Papa.
We have traveled the World together –
Spain – Gibraltar – Morocco – Canada – and numerous states on the East coast and the West coast
and in between.
Always planning new adventures.
Friends as neighbors since 1987!
Papa Jim Sherry Dottie – they have been married 40 years – and I knew them both before that – Jimmy and I played softball together for two teams in the late ’70’s!
Jim – Dottie and I all grew up in the same town in Pa. called Eldred.
Jim -Sherry and I all worked together in Olean N.Y.
It has been a long and rewarding friendship all these years.
When all the kids were young – we would vacation together at the beach.
Carol and Mike John, neighbors for 12 1/2 years in WNY!
We were neighbors and they were Buck and Cindy’s friends.
We lived beside them for 12 1/2 years
We would race our ride mowers up and down the street! LOL
We would play jokes on each other.
It was a great time in our lives and the McBrides and us left the hood
shortly after they left and moved South.
The John’s own a painting corp that travels the USA
painting various structures and energy companies pipe lines.
We will spend a long weekend with them at the lake house in WNY!
The Browns and McBrides also.
Jo Paul Peterson and Sherry
Jo graduated one year behind me
Paul graduated with Sherry from Smethport.
We got to know one another through reunions
and have traveled to their home in Phoenix and them to ours before the pandemic.
We have maintained that friendship for the last ten years or so.
Here we are at the WALL in DC.
Reflections of the soul I call this.
Gerhard and Jennie – our son in laws parents
For the last 14 years or more – we have bonded with his parents.
Always visiting them when we lived in NVA.
They have come down to visit us in North Myrtle Beach.
In laws and friends – FAMILY!
Our little group get together to golf.
There are times we try to bring us all together to golf.
Wish it would happen more often.
But when it does – it is fun and guys vs. gals!
If we are not on our game – they will beat us! LOL
Thank you for reading Papa’s World
WHERE FRIENDS MEET THE FAMILY
FAMILY MEETS FRIENDS!
Sherry’s FAMILY & FRIENDS of Juice Plus. Her network marketing business – http://www.sf.juiceplus.com SSC QMND
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There is a small community in North Western Pa. Just a few short miles from the New York State Border Situated in what are called THE ENCHANTED MOUNTAINS of The Alleghany Mountain Chain
Rolling green hills now -once as large as the Rockies
millions and millions of yearsago
now considered as just “Foothills”
Back in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s
The small community is well
a place where every one knew your name
you parents and exactly where you lived!
Coming into town on North Main Street from the border of NYS sits a junction known locally as The Kendall Bridge The Alleghany river runs beneath it as does the Rail road tracks and trains A span comes off it and a road runs under it.The Kendall Bridge looking Northward to the foothills of the mountains and New York State
The age to drink was 21 in Pa.
But 18 in NYS!
Traveled this road many times
to legally have a beer! LOL
And believe me – the adults knew!
Main Street Eldred Pa. and one of the reasons we moved South SNOW !!!!!
The post office to the left – the old red fire hall
to the right as I grew up.
And the building up farther in brick
The doctors office & the dental office
and also the Masonic Lodge!
I spent a lot of time there
Dental and Doctor!
Today the leading business of incoming funds The Historic World War ll Museum
A full size tank bursting through the wall
a Museum that also encompasses the next large building
Tour buses stop every day!
It is a quality sight to behold!
This little town had many WWll heros
Purple hearts -medal of honors
And I knew everyone of them!
King Street my stomping ground when we slept outside after curfew at 10 PM. Running and hiding raiding gardens Just growing up!The park where I played baseball tackle football and flag football Softball And everyday rode my bike to!The park below the tracks where in my 20’s we all chipped in and helped to get it started and mowed and tuned into a softball field! Playing our home games here and holding many tournamentsThe Catholic church I attended as a small child confirmed inAnother small church on King street
My older sister Donna on the right and my cousin Patty
Donna helped raise me
as she was 15 years older
and lived right down the street
and later on next door!
My best friend Bobby Goodman’s house spent many a night there on the porch sleeping out and he at mine we did not want to sleep inside!
My sister Donna -caught us one night
we had gotten into my parents whiskey!
And she came outside and there we sat on the curb in front
of her house and mine.
After so many questions
I had her almost convinced we were not drinking
Bobby not saying a word!
A car came down the street and we were in its headlights
And that is when Bobby got sick
and threw up in front of her!
Later she laughed and laughed
and always reminded me we did not fool her!
My brother in law Bill – was the police chief
and always took care of me and my friends
as long as we did not get into trouble or do anything bad.
Back after the war Eldred had a top notch soft ball team made up of many who came back from the war. My best friend Bobby’s father is at the bottom right I knew almost all these men later in life! They almost were all my fathers friends!Most of us joined The Explorer’s when we were 16 and took many a trip to Pro games here we took a three day canoe trip down the river which when I was in my mid 30’s I – along with our pastor took a youth group down the same river Bobby – far left and then meOak hill cemeteryWhere in winter we would ride our sleds down the hill between and around the tombstones!The high school where I graduated in 1967 Known then as it is today OTTO – ELDRED H.S. Home of the TERROR’SOur team on the varsity Bobby is number 83 and I sit to his left number 65 Those were the best of years.
