The Life of Me: An AutobiographyJohnson, Clarence Edgar
History
The Life of Me: An Autobiography
Johnson, Clarence Edgar
Fisher County (Tex.) -- Biography; Fisher County (Tex.) -- History; Johnson family; Johnson, Clarence Edgar, 1906-1994
As you know, Frank was the oldest in our family, and when I was
growing up, he was away from home a lot. I had long since become
accustomed to his being away from home. He even went to college
awhile, I believe it was Denton State. But he didn't go very
long. I didn't know whether he quit because of a lack of
finances or because of a lack of interest and drive. I was the
only other one of us who ever left home to work or run around--
except Joel. He went as far as Stamford and worked there for
years in a drygoods store. And later, of course, he had his
portable skating rink and he took it from here to there. Then he
settled down with it in Brownwood.
My working away from home never amounted to much. However, I
wouldn't take a pretty penny for the educational benefits I
gained from my traveling around. It increased my desire for more
learning, and it gave me confidence in my ability to do more
things. It made me more mobile and took away my fear of strange
places.
In fact, I thought so much of my education gained through travel
that I wanted us to travel a lot with our children. But we were
poor and couldn't travel first class, which would have pleased
some members of my family. As for me, I would have been glad to
travel second class or third class rather than not travel at all.
As is evident, I have roughed it much of my life. Later, when I
wanted to travel with our kids, I would have gotten a lot of
pleasure from roughing it again, going places and seeing things,
camping out, and visiting the wild. Some of our traveling proved
to be a big failure because some of the family didn't especially
care to put up with some of the roughing they had to go through
with at times.
For instance, we drove up Pike's Peak once in our Dodge Command
car. There was nothing wrong with the car. It was built capable
of traveling across the Sahara Desert trouble-free. It was Army
surplus, four-wheel drive and as solid as they come. Many cars
get too hot climbing the Peak, but this one didn't, although it
was in the heat of summer. It had an army canvas top and
curtains to match. But since it was beautiful weather, we had
the curtains packed away under the back seat. And although it
was summertime at the foot of the mountain, it was not summer on
top.
The weather on Pike's Peak can change from sunshine to snow and
from snow to sleet quicker than perhaps anywhere else in these
United States. And the sky can pour out the abundance of her
elements faster than is sometimes enjoyable to those upon whom
she so recently spread her sunshine. And that is just what she
did to us that day. Her elements were in the form of rain, snow,
and large sleet. The sleet was sort of a cross between pure
white sleet and large, soft hail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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