...in the early morning hours before dawn in the kitchen of a farmhouse not far from New Concord. My father had taken a horse and wagon to fetch our doctor. Our neighbor's wife, Clara Thompson had come in haste over the hill separating our houses to attend my mother at my birth. Mrs Thompson apparently was up to the task, because I am told I arrived before the doctor did. The date was 24 Feb, 1923. My parents were farmers and it was a time when it was extremely difficult to make a living at farming. I never remember going hungry, but we grew most of what we ate.