<TITLE>13. Par 42-44</TITLE>L-42 We were riding down the hill in this old dish pan. And after while, the bottom come out of it. I went and got me a log then, and we got on a log. And I remember coming down just above the hill. We had a little old log I'd chopped with a axe, the front of it. And we'd get down through there.
And there was a boy... That was the time of the World War I. Everybody wore a uniform that was able to put on one. And a boy friend of mine named Lloyd Ford, he used to sell these a pathfinders, and so he--he got him a--a boy scout suit. And oh, how I longed for a boy scout suit. My. And I'd look at him in that boy scout suit. He'd wear it to school, and how I liked that. I made an agreement with him; I said, "Lloyd, when you wear that thing out, would you give it to me?"
He said, "Sure, I will give it to you, Billy."
I said, "All right."
Well, on and on it went. And after while he quit wearing it. And I asked him about it. He said, "I will see what happened to it."
Well, the thing had been destroyed. The only thing he could find was one legging. So I asked him to bring me that. So he brought it to me.

L-43 And I remember riding down the hill one day. I wanted to wear that legging so bad, I didn't know what to do. Coming down the hill one day, I had that legging stuffed in my coat. And I hit the bottom of the hill, and I raised up. And I said, "Oh, I hurt my leg." I hadn't. I said, "Oh, my leg." I said, "It just reminds me, you know, I've got one of my leggings to my boy scout suit." I put that legging on. That was an excuse, you know. Here I was walking along with one legging on, you know.
And I went to the blackboard. You remember how you used to stand up at the old country schools, the blackboard, you know? Well, I got up that day, I put this leg, the one that didn't have the legging, I already had it figured out, next to the board. And I put this other legging like that, so they couldn't tell I just had on one. I stood sideways like this, working the problems, see if everybody was watching that one legging.
All the kiddies got to laughing at me, and making fun of me and everything like that. And I started crying; teacher made me go home. There was my legging, you know.
And I always wanted to be a soldier. When I got old enough to go in the army... Of course, there was no war then. I remember when I was seventeen I signed up for the navy. My mother taken that out of me when I got home. Then when the next war come, why, they wouldn't have me.

L-44 But you know what? I finally did join the Army. You may not see my uniform; it's on the inside. I joined the Christian ranks of Jesus Christ to be a soldier of the cross. How thankful I am to wear that uniform this afternoon that represents heaven, to join with the rest of you.
I was standing there looking at that, and thinking about those things as I was leaning across the fence. And I begin to think of brother, how I took that handful of popcorn from him. When we used to put our hands on one another's shoulders, stand there, and the flag would go up; the teacher, with that great big pointer, point, making us get in line. We'd stand tramping like that, go into the school.
And I thought, "Well, look, you know, I used to remember Ralph Field. What happened to him?" Yep, he's gone. And I said, "There was Howard Higgins." Yep, he used to stand by me. What's happened to him? He got blowed up down at Colgate. I said, "Yes, that's--that's right."


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