A FEW QUESTIONS

While we lived in that two roomed house west of Shumaker's, there were happenings that I can't place with a date from my own memory. I don't know when Daddy stopped work for Gene Cotton and the J. I. Case Impliment Co. in Eldorado. He was working there and they were living in Eldorado when I was born -- December 1937. Some-time 1938 we moved to the Two Roomer. I don't know which winter he crossed the 40 acre field. I don't know which winter he shepherded the sheep range. He must have stopped working in town by the time of the sheep range. Winters came December to February / March. So those could have been early 1938 or over 1938-1939. The blizzards I remember or know about were generally February or March.

During the time frame of those two autumns or winters: Grand Daddy Shumaker, who was a butcher, had an accident. A knife blade slid through his right hand. It cut the tendens of his fingers so he was never able to grip a knife handle again. After he lost that employment, he became a fultime farmer on a very rocky land. Mother Shumaker had typhoid fever and was very very sick for several weeks. Some time later she had bells plasy.

Shumaker's had moved from Texas to a rent farm where they lived east of Eldorado during all our lives. But they moved back to Texas for a while. Mother, Ernesteen, was born in Roby, Texas. I don't know if she was born before the first move, or before the second move. They rented that farm from the same family for at least 40 years. At times they offered to buy but the landlord didn't want to sell. After both the owners and renters had died, their son finally sold the place to Uncle Elbert.

I mention these hazardous and troubled times because they are part of who we are. They kept going. They never gave up. Tough times probably slowed them down, almost to a stop, but they kept pushing until the wheels began to turn again. It wasn't the wealth they gained, it was the character and faith they developed and grew.