<TITLE>07. Par 24-27</TITLE>L-24 I always wanted to be a soldier. When the second war come along, that war, I was too young, the next war they wouldn't take me, but I finally got to join the army, the army of the soldiers of the cross. My uniform is not on the outside this afternoon; it's on the inside. God gave me a uniform that I wouldn't trade for everything in world, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, dressed me up as a soldier from the inside, to give me grace to stand in the hours of trials.
How well I remember that old country school, and us kids who'd go down there on the Utica Pike to the old school. I remember the teacher had a great big pointer up in the end of the room, and that was the business end of the school. We certainly got what we needed when that good old country teacher would come up, and we'd do anything wrong, she'd really give it to us. I got my share.

L-25 So I remember one day, it was around Christmas time... How many remembers going and getting the old cedar tree, and pop popcorn and string up around the old Christmas tree? Do you remember that? Well, my, my. I'm not the only country boy here, am I? So they'd string this old popcorn around the Christmas tree, and mom had some left over, so she give it to my brother and I, the one next to me, in a little half-a-gallon syrup bucket. And we'd took it to school, and I'd... We'd set it out in the cloak room, and that was something rare.
We couldn't eat dinner with the rest of the kids. The rest of the kids, they get... Their mothers baked light bread and made sandwiches. But we'd have a little half-a-gallon syrup bucket, and we'd have a little jar of greens, and a little jar of beans, and two spoons, and two pieces of corn bread. That's what we had, maybe. And we was ashamed to eat before the other children, 'cause they had cookies and things, and we just had a rough time. Hair hanging down our neck, great big old any kind of shoes we could wear, anything. Well, it was terrible, but I'd like to live it over. I'd just love to go back one more day. That's true.

L-26 I remember, one day when the mama had baked, and got us this corn, and we set it in there. I--I got to thinking about that corn. I thought, "You know, I believe I'll get a handful before school." That was dishonest with my brother. I held up my hand, and asked the teacher if I could be excused, and when I went out through the cloak room, I just got a great big handful of that popcorn, went out, stood behind the school house and eat it.
Well, dinner time come, kids like, when we--we... The rest of them all begin to go out in their rooms to eat, and we got our little bucket and went over on the hillside down towards the river, right on the banks of the river here, and we ope... 'Course, we had to eat the popcorn first. We never had anything like that around home, maybe once a year. So we opened up this bucket; it was pretty near half gone. My brother said, "Say, something's happened to that, hasn't it?"
I said, "Sure has." I knowed what had happened to it.

L-27 You know, here not long ago I was coming from Texas, and I was... Been real tired in the meeting, and I was standing over on the side there, and wife went over and got the babies, they was picking some violets. And I was trying to rest my mind, and oh, my, those visions... You just don't realize, people, what it does to you. And I--I was standing there leaning across the fence like this, looking, and I remember how we used to line up there, little old boys, and holes in our socks. And look up across the hill, and remember when pop used to come across the field with a little old wagon and mule.
Every Saturday night we'd go to town, get the groceries for the week. And I thought about that handful of popcorn. You know, it's best not to do nothing wrong, isn't it? It'll come home to you sometime.


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