Tour of Dad's Childhood, part 4

The next town we visited was Elida, NM. Dad hates Elida! He was so happy to see that it is totally dying, rotting into the ground. We didn't take any photos there, because he didn't want any.

In this town, his family had lived in a decent house (still standing!) while Ernie's teenage niece was staying with them. She had been getting into trouble at home, so the family sent her to live in the middle of nowhere, to keep her safe. But, she ended up meeting every man in town and finally got sent back home!

Without the niece's parents' contribution to the rent, Ernie, Helen, Dad, and his little sister had to live in the restaurant they were running. The kids slept on the counters, and in the winter it was very cold at night. They'd start out with blankets as padding underneath them, but as the cold really set in, they'd shift the blankets to cover them and sleep on the cold countertops.

Dad's older sisters had left home at age 14, to live and work in farm houses. Apparently, they were able to finish high school under this arrangement. After school and on weekends, they did chores and babysat to help out the farm wives. They were envied for escaping.

This was a town Dad was glad to leave. Unfortunately, after living in Tatum for a year, they moved back to Elida again! This was finally the town where Dad stood up to Ernie, shoving him through the drywall when Ernie grabbed him and insisted he was suddenly "hired" as the restaurant's dishwasher (for no pay). Within days, Dad was shipped off to Indiana to live with his father.

He finished high school there. He worked a few odd jobs. He kept seeing recruiting signs for the Air Force, advertising a free college education under the G.I Bill. He signed up and fixed airplanes in Vietnam during the war.

Dad's free college education resulted in him being a social worker at the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Des Moines.

He got out, made some great decisions, and was able to make good.

Thank goodness I didn't have to grow up in Elida!