<TITLE>06. Par 21-23</TITLE>L-21 I remember the shirt that I got. One of my cousins that come to stay with us, a girl about my age, and when she left, she left one of her skirts. I got to thinking one day, seeing it had short sleeves, why couldn't I cut the... this bottom part off of it, and so far down, and make me a shirt out of it, her dress? So I went and cut it off. And it had that little... What did you call that stuff around the sides, you know? Rick-rack all over the side of it like this, you know. And that's the wrong name. It ain't rip-rat is it? or--or something on... Anyhow, it that stuff all over the sides of it, you know.
So I went to school with this on, you know, and I felt just as fine and cool. The kiddies got to laughing at me, and I said, "Don't laugh. That's my Indian suit." It was my cousins skirt. They laugh at me, and I got to crying, went home.

L-22 Many of you here can remember in the 1917 when they had the big snow. Oh, my. It was banked up here, one of the coldest winters we ever had. My mother was sewing for the government at the time. And I remember all the boys at school had sleds. They could slide down the hill. I didn't have no sled, brother and I. So we got down at the old country dump and got a dish pan. It got a big sleet on top of the ground, we'd set down and put our legs around one another and our arms around one another, and here we'd go down the hill. We wasn't as much class as the rest of them, but we were sliding just the same. So we--we went right on down the hill with this old dish pan turning around, and around, and around. When we got to the bottom of the hill... That went all right until the bottom come out of it. The bottom come out, well, we got us a log, rode down on this log.
I remember, there was a boy named Lloyd Ford. And it was during the time of the First World War. We was little lads, and he was selling this "Pathfinder Magazine." How many remembers the old "Pathfinder Magazine"? Well, he was selling this magazine, and he got to wear a boy scout suit. And he belonged to some kind of a scouts, or something like that... Scout suit for selling it, lone scouts, or something. Oh, everything that was... had to have a uniform on, and I always wanted to be a soldier. And I asked Lloyd; I said, "Lloyd, when you wear that out, will you give it to me?"
He said, "Yes," he'd give it to me.

L-23 Looked like the thing never would wear out, it just kept on going. One day I said to him, "Lloyd, what happened to that suit?"
He said, "Oh, I forgot it, Billy." He said, "I'll see if I can find it."
The only thing he could find was one legging, one a little draw-string on the side of the little legging about like that, and I said, "Well, bring that to me."
I wore it around home, that one legging, and I thought it looked fine. I wanted to wear it to school, so I just stuffed it back in my coat. I was riding down on my log that day, and I act like I hurt my leg. I wanted to wear that legging before the kids (You see?), at school. I put this one legging on, so I said, "You know, I hurt my leg. I happened to think, I got one of my leggings here from my boy scout suit." Put that one legging on, and here I went into school. I got up to work at the blackboard.
You remember the old country school, and the blackboard? I got up to work the problems; I put both legs together like that, and this legging on the outside so they couldn't see the other one. Stood sideways and worked like this, so they'd see that one legging. Kids got to laughing at me, and teacher... I got to crying. The teacher made me go home.


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