Abilene

The house we rented in Abilene had been constructed by family that owned the local brick company.  Needless to say it was an all-brick house, including the interior walls.  The bedroom walls painted cinder block.  The floors were all concrete.  There were even some decorative walls made of glass blocks.  The obvious durability of that house gave me the idea that it would be nice for all houses with children to be constructed that way.  Cinder block wall, concrete floors, with a drain in the middle.  Just hose the bedroom down every now and then.

Dad cut a couple of trees out of the back yard.  Then there were these big stumps to remove.  Every day after school, I would go out there and dig around them.  When it got where I couldn't get a shovel into the hole anymore, I started digging with my hands.  I would dig out enough dirt to make a ball and toss it over my shoulder.  I learned then what persistence could do.  Just one handful at I time, I mad an enormous hole around each stump.  Dad was able to easily cut the stumps out below the ground level and fill in the holes.

Read, read, read,  Reader's Digest
Buffalo Gap scouts
Up all night, not-so-magic bus