In general, I was always very healthy.  I did seem to be susceptible to catching a Strep germ now and then.  I had one confirmed bout with Rheumatic Fever and 2 non-confirmed bouts.  They occurred in the summer between grades1/2, 2/3 and 3/4.  We would nearly always got up to stay with our mom's parents, Ma and Papa.  The summer between the 3rd and 4th grades, I only got to stay two weeks, when everyone was there, then I had to go back to Texas with mom and dad and Ken and Stan.  Butch and Roger got to stay the whole summer. 

     The two weeks I was there I stayed with Granny (my dad's mom, Hallie Myrtle Large Pierson).  I wasn't allowed to run and play, just sit around, with an occasional walk around....to the toilet.  The two holer that was 50 to 60 feet behind the house.  The Dr. thought that too much activity would affect my heart and joints too much.  After the initial high fever and sore joints and such for a week or two, mostly I just felt bored.  They would not let me have any fun for another 6 weeks.  This may have been the start of my getting involved with some of the family stories.  I just had to sit around with old timers and chew the fat.  This wasn't too bad, because the stories were pretty interesting.

   Hallie Myrtle Large Pierson about 1963

    One time Granny told me about her dad being a teamster.  He was a farmer, but between the planting season and the harvest, he would hire out himself, his team of horses and his big wagon to move people to make extra money.  When he finish moving one family, sometimes someone else in that town wanted to move, so he would strike a deal with them, and move them.  Sometimes after the second move he would have quite a distance to come home, sometimes the distance wouldn't be too far.  Granny used to say that they lived about 10 miles outside of town and they would take all day Saturday to go to town for shopping and to return.  They would eat breakfast, start the journey, usually picnic just short of town or in the park the town had, do their shopping in a couple of hours and then head home.  She said that the only walked the horses, 2 to 3 miles an hour.  They would get home in the evening just in time to fix dinner, do a couple of chores, eat and go to bed.  She used to laugh at the cowboy shows, when they would gallop after each other for 15 or 20 minutes.  She said those horses wouldn't last 10 minutes at a gallop.  They would have collapsed and been laying in the dust.  She was born in 1889 and lived long enough to see from the horse and buggy days to men walking on the moon.  Quite a leap in technology in one lifetime.

      I was watching granny tear strips of denim from discarded blue jeans and stitch them together and wrap them up in a ball.  After that, she would start crocheting them into a long string.....about 6 feet long.  She then folded it in half and sewed the two halves together.  Then she continued crocheted around the long, doubled over piece.  It kept growing in the oval shape.  When it was about 3 feet wide and 5 feet long she would stop and sew the last "tail" of fabric down.  The completed unit was then placed down on the floor and weighted down with books and other heavy objects to flatten it out.  The next day it was un-weighted and turned over and re-weighted for another day.  After the second day, all the weights were removed and it was a nice looking 3 x 5 run.  She would then either replace one of the worn out ones in her house or give it to a relative to use at the front or back door or in front of a couch or chair or in the kitchen in front of the stove.....or to use wherever needed or wanted. 

   That summer I asked Granny to teach me how to do it.  She did and I made my first rug that year.  That was pretty good for a 9 or 10 year old.  I still remember how to do it, although I think that it has mostly fallen out of fashion, and it's not as easy to go "pea pickin'" at the city dump to recover the old denim jeans that were discarded.  The only real out of pocket expenses Granny had in her quilts, rugs and other projects was the thread she had to buy to stitch the strips or squares together.  I'm not sure, but I think my mom still has a couple of denim quilts that either she or Granny made for us.  They were terrific to use outside, if they got dirty, they went into the washer just like our jeans and hung out on the line as well.

    "Pea Pickin'" was a term that Granny used to describe our weekly trips to the city dump to recover (recycle in today's terms) items for reuse.  We would find old school books, pots and pans, dishes, silverware, clothing and other items that could be re used after cleaning or used in other applications.   She would always take home pots and pans that were 2 quarts or larger, not to cook with but to plant flowers in.  I personally was on the scout for nails and small pieces of wood to build something with or crayons and pencils for drawing with.

    Granny lived about 200 yards north of a fence line that went directly east to the city dump.  Made it very easy to follow in both directions.   It even made it easy for Butch and I, but more frequently Roger and I to go pea pickin by ourselves.  We would bring back wheels off wagons and tricycles and 2 x 4's and attempt to make push cars -- or pull cars with a piece of rope to haul each other around in.  We obviously didn't make Indy 500 vehicles with our extremely limited knowledge and skills but it kept us busy for hours and days on end.

     I haven't mentioned I-pods, video games, television, board games, or many toys.  We mostly got into our environment to find things to keep us busy and entertained.  I think we did it pretty successfully as a whole.  We would even play school with the old school books we found, practicing the math problems and taking chapter test in other subjects.  One day I would be the teacher, the next Roger....His assignments would tend to run toward the bizzare....like read the rest of the book today and do a 500 page report for class tomorrow.   Oh well, I drift away again........................