Test  Dan

When I was 46 years old.

(page 51) ” in 1979, upon my return from yet another ministry trip to South Africa, Hugh Statum calmly announced, ‘Brother Carl, while you were in Africa, your friends in Vision Foundation bought you a byuilding and will sponsor the constuction of new production studios.'”

 “In 1980, our team built and dedicated new state-of-the art recording facility on land purchased by  Vision Foundation and donated for that express purpose. This grop of successful businessmen and women blest man ministries over the years — including ours.” (page 51)

In early 1990s the Life and Times of Jesus was filmed  in the Russian-language. I  purchased 3 copies of this Jesus Film and  purchased a new vehicle and equipped it with a generator and electronic to travel and show the film.

I  hired full-time Russian Russian evangelist and pastors to travel nightly showing the Jesus Film and winning souls to Jesus. The greatest havest field was the area where the prisioners had been sent to work in the salt mines. At every showing of the film many people accepted Jesus. For many months the workers sent me a report of the numbers.  (Carl Richardson’s book page 164  reports more than 40,000 people  accepted Christ).

I thank the Lord for allowing me to work in this harvest field.

Working as a child and teen ager, before my first business.

Before I was 19 years of age my work for money at several endeavors:

Age 7 or 8 I sold Ferry Garden seed to friends and neighbors. My first job away from the house was selling garden/flower seeds from door to door.  Of course, some of the houses were ½ mile apart so it took some walking. The seeds were from Morris Seed Company or Ferry Seed Company, and they would send us a prize if we sold the required amount. One year we choose the football as our prize. I remember my parents were gone to town and my brother Donald told me he knew where there was a football. I assume my mother had hid it for safe keeping until Christmas. Donald and I passed the ball back and forth only about three times when it hit into one of the thorny Locus trees and lost all its air. We placed the deflated football back into its hiding place inside a crock churn in mother’s closet and did not disclose the situation to our parents.

Delivered Logan Banner to about 10 customers in Pecks Mill

Age 12 and attending the 8^th grade in school I was the paper boy on Crooked Creek to about 70 homes.

At age of 14, I would plow gardens for neighbors and earn money. I purchase and paid for my own new bicycle from Montgomery Ward. After school I had chores or areas of responsibility also such as hoeing in the garden etc. At age 14, I would plow gardens for neighbors and earn money.

Age 15 -16 Worked in grocery store and plant store, cleaning, stocking shelves, customer services.

Purchased my own motor bicycle. Drove truck to pick us scrap food and feed for farm animals.

Opened my own business providing mine timers to coal mines. Cut the trees and  cut to length per order. Only made one sell.

Worked for dry cleaner picking up and delivering dry cleaning. Delivered groceries.

Door to sales of Electrolux vacuum cleaner for a few months before

January 14, 1952, age 18 moved to Florida.

Race and Race beginning on Feb 15, 1952, at the age of 19, working in the office. After 5 months I was promoted as “timekeeper” and “shipping clerk” in the plant. I volunteered to work on Saturday carrying heavy irrigation pipe 20, 30, 40 feet unloading railroad freight cars.

May 25, 1953, at the age of 20 I joined the U.S. Army for 24 months.

1955 – 1960 Tip Top TV and Appliances as bookkeeper and sales person.

1960 – Age 27, Began building house part time as a second job. My first real business.

1962 – Worked from home building homes for Dan Winters Corp. Selling land in Hillside Acres.

Another job I had was selling and delivering the Logan Banner newspaper.  My dad delivered the bundles of newspapers to the carrier at the various communities between Logan and Big Creek. He arranged for me to be the carrier for Pecks Mill area. The route began at the Pecks Grocery store, up the hill to the house by the cemetery, down across the highway and cross the railroad to Peck home, north up the railroad and cross the train trestle where Mill Creek flows into the Guyandotte river. Up the hill to the three houses then around the side of the mountain to the Mill Creek school house and the back to the grocery store. I recall, how I had a crush on the girl whose home was located on the ground next to the schoolhouse. As I walked by there, I would loudly sing a love song “Wahneta, my love for you will never, never die”.

I had between 8 and 15 customers.  The scary part was walking the railroad when the big coal train would come by. They would pull as many as 50 to 100 cars of coal, and it would take them several minutes to clear the tracts so I could cross to the other side. I had to cross twice plus I had to walk the trestle. On a few occasions, I got tired of waiting and would walk the trestle next to the moving cars. The trestle was shaking, and I could look between the cross ties and see the flowing creek about 75 feet below. Yes, I was scared but I needed to be back to the store by the time my dad returned from Big Creek to carry me back home.

At the grocery store many coal miners stopped as customers on their way to or from work. If I could sell them a paper, I could keep the 5 cents. I would always ask; “Hey mister, want to buy a Banner today?” They liked for me to hold the paper up for them to read the headlines. Sometimes my little hands would tire from holding the paper up for them to make up their mind. Most times they would say “No, not today.”  Sometimes I would make a sell and the nickel was my profit to keep. One day a road grader was parked out front and the tires had lots of road tar on them. The guys said they would give me a dime if I would clean the tire.  I got me a stick ready to begin when they stopped me and laughed.  Boy, am I glad they didn’t allow me to proceed.

Before I entered the fourth grade the school bus began to come and carry us to and from the grade school in Justice Addition.  It was a much larger school, and each grade had a separate classroom.  I remember my cousin, Zetta Winters, attending class with me there.  She was six months older than me, and I always felt she was much more intelligent.  At that time, she was the only child in her family, so she had much nicer clothes to wear.

In the fourth grade one day the teacher asked me a question and I did not know the answer.  The teacher wanted to know why I did not know the answer.  I was embarrassed and placed my head on my desk and began to cry.  I could not talk plain, and it was difficult to express myself.  I did not want to cry, but I could not control the tears.

During recess one day, we were playing “crack the whip”.  I was on the end of the line of children.  When the leader swung the line, the further down the line you were the more distance the swing moved you.  As the line swung me, they jerked me down and my collarbone was now broken for the second time.

At this school we had indoor toilets, and swing sets on the playground.  While in class one day the students began to go to the window and watch as some dogs chased a deer out of the woods, thru the schoolyard and across the river.

After school, we would wait quite a while for our school bus to come to take us home.  The bus would first go to high school, then Jr high, then West Logan grade school and then our school at Justice Addition, picking up children to carry to Mitchell Heights and Pecks Mill.  During this time, we would play on the school ground or go to the grocery store where the bus picked us up.  Sometimes we would pour all the remaining cola out of the empty bottles into one bottle, and then someone drink it.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Betty were in high school and rode the bus with us. The bus stopped at their house, so we had to walk over there to catch the bus.  Many times, we would be ready for school and go by their house only to find grandma trying to hurry Bill out of bed before he missed the bus.  If we were running late, my mother would put some jelly, or bacon, or egg on a fresh baked biscuit and rush us off with it in our hand to catch the bus.  I was embarrassed to eat things like this in front of the other school children riding our bus.

My father and grandfather worked for the C&O railroad at Peach Creek.  The railroad hauled coal out of the mountains of southern West Virginia into New York and other industrialized cities.  Dad made about $3.50 a day.  But the day came that he had a back injury and was unable to work months at a time.

He always had some kind of an old car to drive to work.  Many times, these old cars wouldn’t start until you pushed them.  He would park his car at the top of a hill, beside the road below our house.  Most times some of us children would assist him and mom in pushing the car out of the dirt parking space, onto the paved road and down the hill.  Once the car began to go down the paved hill, it would gain enough speed, so he could force the engine to start.

These were happy days.  Going to school, working in the garden, cutting grass, carrying coal or water and helping however we could.  Mom always loved her children.  Dad and mom worked together with us children to try to improve the living conditions.  My little sister, Nancy was now four years old.  She and I fussed from time to time and I would get into trouble.

I could not talk plain, and people would tease me about my speech.  Mom would encourage me and tell me that her brother Jr. could not talk plain until he was about 14 years old.  One day I left my schoolbooks on the schoolyard when I caught the bus to come home.  Mom told me to go to grandma’s house and use the telephone to ask the teacher to take them in the schoolhouse for me.  Uncle Woodrow & Aunt Hildred lived at grandma’s house, and they could not understand me as to why I needed to use the telephone.  Woodrow made me repeat it several times, and laughed at me, because I could not speak plain.  He finally gave me permission to use my grandmother’s telephone.  For the next 40 years, he would tell other people, in front of me of how I had said ” I left my goould books on the goould yard.”  He never knew how bad it would make me feel each time he laughed and told this.

My mother’s parents moved to a farm on Merritt’s creek, near Salt Rock, W.Va., which was about 40 miles N.W. of Logan on route 10.  We loved to go visit them, to see the farm animals.  Other relatives were usually there.  We would usually help hoe corn or assist in the farm chores.  There was always plenty of milk, butter, eggs, jelly etc. to eat at Grandma Hale’s home.  The lights were natural gas as they did not have electricity.  She heated her irons on the coal stove to heat them, so she could iron clothes.  The wash machine had a gasoline engine, and we carried water from the creek for her to wash. I don’t remember ever being concerned about more people than bed. No indoor plumbing so we didn’t worry about being a little dirty; just wash off in the wash pan.

Near the kitchen door Grandma had a cellar house which was dug into the side of the hill. It was much cooler than inside the house. She would keep the milk, butter and other perishables in this cellar house.

We younger children would help feed the chicken and pick up the eggs out of the chicken nests.  We liked to visit the pen behind the house where the mother hogs and her little pigs were.

Grandpa Hale was good to us and would sometimes let us ride the sled the horses pulled.  Occasionally we even rode on the horses back.  He was protective of the horses because he knew they worked very hard plowing the ground and pulling the sled most every day.

Dad built a place under our chicken house for some pigs. He fenced in an area for them to live in.  One weekend we visited the farm and returned home with many vegetables plus three little pigs.  The car must have been full of all of that plus my parents and five children.   After arriving home, we put the three pigs in their new home on the hillside behind our house.  The next day the little pigs routed out underneath the fence and were running loose on the hillside.  We boys had a wonderful time chasing the pigs and catching them.  We quickly found out how fast pigs can run.

Another time, my dad brought home a pair of goats, so we began to have goat milk to drink.  Each day we would stake the goats out in the front yard.  The collars around their necks were tied to a chain that was fasted to the tree in the front yard.  They had plenty of grass to eat and we had milk to drink.

Dad and Mom made a hotbed to grow plants from seeds.  They mixed cow manure, cut grass, chicken manure, fertilizer and other things with the soil.  They then put a large piece of glass over the bed to cause the sunrays to heat the rich soil.  In a few days the seeds sprouted and began to grow into small green plants.  In a few weeks the tomato, cabbage and pepper plants were large enough to transplant into our gardens.  If the weather were expected to be cold, we would cover each plant with a glass jar for the night. The next morning, we would remove the jar.  We would water these young plants with water from the rain barrels that caught water from the roof of the house.

Water was scarce on the hillside.  It had to be carried in or caught from the rooftop during rains.  During long dry spells, little larva mosquitoes would hatch in the stagnant water inside the rain barrels.  When it would begin to rain, we would go outside and dump all the stagnant water with the “wiggle tails” so the empty barrels would fill with the fresh rainwater from the rooftop.

My dad injured his back while working for the railroad.  He was helping move some freight and pinched a nerve in his back. The C&O doctors in Huntington operated and placed 2 silver screws in his spine.  It helped make the pain more bearable, but he lived with pain the rest of his life.  Before death 40 years later he wrote that he had not been without pain for a single day.  In spite of the pains, he worked for the C&O plus raised a garden and farm animals.  He was very industrious and taught his children to work and do their best to earn a good living.  He would lift and carry things any time something needed to be done.  He assisted and directed his children in whatever needed to be done.

We attended church at the Aracoma Church of God.  This was the red brick church on the side of the hill on the west side of highway 10 about 2 miles North of the town of Logan.  The first pastor I can remember was C. R. Cook.  The state overseer was Rev. Hicks followed by Paul H. Walker.  Fennis J. Dake held a revival and taught from a large chart he placed across the front of the church.  The chart covered every book in the bible, from Genesis to Revelations.  Grandpa John Winters led the singing and Aunt Lois played the piano.  I was very young when my parents went to the altar.  I could not understand when people told me my mother was happy, when she cried tears while praying at the altar.

In Aracoma the black people were not allowed to live on the front street.  They lived on back street next to the hillside.  This is where our church was located.  The black people would often come and stand outside the front door, looking in and listening to the singing and shouting.  There was one black lady who did attend our church; she would sit on the right-hand side, the third row from the front.  I did not know any Jews although I now realize that some of the uptown merchants were Jewish.

Perhaps we were prejudice toward the black and the foreigner who spoke with an accent.  We were taught to respect all people and all races and color. The white people had our own schools and the black people had segregation schools. They were mostly referred to as colored people or Niggers. Negro or “black people”. We were not taught that the names were offensive. I have been referred to as a hillbilly but never consider it offensive. Our people living down south accepted being called a cracker or Georgia cracker.

Our church had a program on radio station WLOG on Sunday afternoon. On December 7, 1941, I was 8 years old.  Pearl Harbor was bombed and the news reports on the radio kept interrupting the afternoon church broadcast with the latest reports on the American crisis.  I remember thinking that the radio station would not interrupt the church broadcast if it was any church other than the Church of God.

They preached; Church of God was the only church that was teaching what was right.  Its members were the only ones for sure going to heaven.  Most of the other denominations were hardly Christians and were leading many people to hell.  Baptist, Catholic and all the other uptown churches were not really of God and did not believe in the Holy Spirit and Holiness was necessary to enter heaven.  I would not even consider attending one of these churches until 8 or 9 years later, when I attended the Church of Christ occasionally with other teen-age friends.  If any of my relatives did not attend Church of God, I was very concerned they might not go to heaven in the rapture.

Much of the preaching was on the rapture, heaven and hell.  Christians did not smoke, drink, chew, gamble, lie etc.  Women wore long hair, long sleeves, and did not wear clothing pertaining to a man. They were forbidden to wear any lipstick, fingernail polish, or jewelry.

At the age of 9 my family moved to 622 Marcum Terrace in Huntington, which was about 60 miles down the Guyandotte River from where we lived at Pecks Mill.  Marcum Terrace was a rather new brick apartment complex build by the Federal government.

My dad had arranged for my Uncle Sam Kazee to move the furniture in his pickup truck.  After most of the furniture was loaded my dad took my mother, my sister Nancy, my brother Jack and I in dad’s car and we drove ahead so dad could go to work at 4 p.m. at his new job in Huntington.  We had left my two older brothers Donald and Tom to assist my uncle with the furniture.  We expected them to arrive a couple of hours after we arrived.  They did not arrive before Dad’s work time, so Dad went on to work.  Dad called back every hour or so to see if they had arrived.  Dad and Mom began to really worry when it began to get dark, and they had not arrived.  I remember my mother sitting in the only chair we had brought in the car with us.   It was a piece of a board across the arms of a child rocker.  When dad got off work at midnight the truck still had not arrived, so he began to drive back toward Logan to find them.   About one-hour latter the truck arrived but now Dad was gone.  Dad called back about five a.m. saying he had made it to Harts Creek and had ran out of gas.

My brothers were so late because the tires were badly worn on the pick-up.  They had about one dozen flat tires during the 60-mile journey with the heavy load of furniture.  In those days you glued a cold patch over the hole in the inner tube to fix a flat and then pumped it up with a hand pump.  It would take about one hour to fix each flat tire and that it why they were so late. In Marcum Terrace we lived in an apartment with three bedrooms and a bath upstairs also a kitchen, dining, living room downstairs.  Living conditions here were greatly improved as we had running water and an indoor bathroom with a bathtub.   Now we would no longer need to use the galvanized washtub to bath in. Having indoor plumbing was much better than using the path to the outdoor toilet.

Over 100 families lived in Marcum Terrace, so we had many playmates.  We learned to skate on the sidewalks and to ride bicycles.  My brother and I participated a limited amount with the Boy Scout troop.  The 10th Avenue Church of God was the center of most of our worship and religious training.

I entered the fifth grade in the Payton Elementary School and latter entered the 7th grade at Lincoln Junior High. My brother Tom began working in a supermarket, as he was a student at East Senior High School.

My Grandmother Hale would bring in a pickup truckload of vegetables and chicken from her farm which was located about 15 miles away on Merritt’s Creek.  I would help sell these items by going from door to door within Marcum Terrace.   My mother and her good friend, Mrs. Woods would bake donuts, breads, and pastries and I would also go door-to-door selling these.

These were the years of World War II (1941-1945).  Many things were rationed, such as gasoline, tires, meats, sugar etc.   Small plots of ground were made available for each family to raise a victory garden.  Savings or War stamps were sold for ten cents each to help raise money for the defense of the USA.  We sang patriotic songs at school for each branch of service.  We would contribute to the March of Dimes.  The Japanese and the Germans were very much an enemy in our minds.  President Roosevelt had been in office since 1932 so he was the only president I had ever lived under.  I felt very loyal and Patriotic to our president and the military efforts.  I do not recall any local or state politics.

Big-little books and comic books were very popular, so we would swap these with playmates, so we would have something different to read.  This was before the days of television.  We had one or two friends who we would sometimes go visit an hour or two to play some games, but Mom expected us to be nearby most of the time.

One Friday my two older brothers and I decided we would go to the farm for a weekend.  We walked the 15 miles after school and got there about dark.  My brother Donald “thumbed” at many a car but they all just passed up these 3 young boys on the highway.   Another time we spent a couple of weeks on the farm in June 1944.   When we arrived home, we found we had a new baby sister named Mary Sue.  I do not remember knowing of the word pregnant or talk of the family expecting a baby.

Etna Robinson, the brother of my Grandmother Addie lived on Oakland Avenue 3 houses from Sycamore Street, near Norway Avenue about one mile from us.  My Great Grandmother Mary Winters lived out on 16th Street Road.  We would visit these families from time to time.

When visiting Grandma Mary Winters, Dad would usually take her a bag of groceries and we would sit and listen to her talk for what seemed like an hour or two.  Many times, she repeated the same stories that she had told us about some of her neighbors on previous visits.  She was feeble and liked for us to come and visit.

We collected used newspaper for the cause of defense.  Our picture appeared in one local paper recognizing the large amount we had collected. I volunteered to cut the grass in the small yards for the tenants of Marcum Terrace. I would charge a dime or 20 cents. I was learning business and free enterprise. The push style lawn mower without any motor was furnished by the landlord. My only investment was my child labor which didn’t have much value as a 12 or 13-year-old. To me a dime was valuable because I didn’t have any. We managed to get a pair or used roller skates and eventually a very much used bicycle. There were plenty of paved sidewalks to play on as well as two public playgrounds with the usual gym set. Living in Marcum Terrace was very different from the living on the hillside at Pecks Mill.

One day my parents told us children that we were moving back to our home on the hillside in Pecks Mill.  There would be more ground for gardening etc.  It may have had something to do with Dad’s railway clerks’ job too.  It seems to me that we were somewhat disappointed, and we knew that it would be more difficult on Mom to leave the modern apartment complex and return to county living without indoor plumbing, running water etc. Now I wonder if my parents didn’t feel the county was a better place for their teenagers than the apartment complex in the big city. Donald and I were joining our peers in picking up cigarette butts off the curbs on the way home from school and smoking them. After a few tries at this Brother Callahan a member of the Church of God saw me and threatened to tell my parents if he saw me do it again; so, I quit. I also regret that I also stole some small parts for my used bicycle on two or three occasions from the Western Auto Shop in Huntington. Thank God I did not get caught and have the police dealing with me. That was over 70 years ago, and I haven’t forgotten it. How much better it would have been if I had not done these things. I do not remember my parents having ever known.

After a few months at living back at Pecks Mill my dad purchased a 68-acre farm up on Crooked Creek.  Before long he installed an electric pump connected it to the well and piped the water into the house.  He also remodeled the house and added on two bedrooms and an inside bathroom.

My parents were hard workers. They and most of their siblings had only a grade school education. I think Mom may have attended the 10^th or the 11^th grade. Their parent thought it was necessary they go to work to help their large family survive the tough life in the Appalachian Mountains during the time of the great depressions of 1910 – 1940.

When I was about 6 years old my dad injured his back while working at the C&O Railroad freight terminal. He was operated on several times and the doctors placed silver screws in his spine. After Dad died 40 years later, he said he had endured or suffered pain every day he lived after the operation. Dad was always busy working in the railroad office, or on our small farm and in the garden. He was always busy raising animals for meat, vegetables, and fruit providing for our large family. Mom was always by his side helping made provision for all of us.

I turned 13 and learned to drive a horse to plow and do other chores on the farm.  Dad and Mom both worked very hard to harvest corn, potatoes, beans and other crops.  Cows, pigs and chickens provided a good diet of meats for the six children.  My cousin Dickey and Johnnie spend several months living with us after their mother died with tuberculosis.

I would often milk the cow before going to school.  One morning I put my dungarees on over my pajama to help keep me warm from the cold air. On the bus ride to school I noticed I still had the pajama bottom on so I just rolled the legs up so no one would know the difference.

After school I had chores or areas of responsibility also such as hoeing in the garden etc. At age 14 I would plow gardens for neighbors and earn money. One Saturday I work all day plowing a large garden and I always remember that they never paid me the $8.00 for my services. Perhaps they need the money more than I did.

Dad allowed a foreigner from either Hungary or Romania to live in a room attached to our chicken house on our farm at Crooked Creek.  What little English he spoke was very heavily accented and he was referred to as a “Hunky man”. His name was Louie Tudor.  Louie was too old to work in the mines and had to live in the old folks’ home on Big Creek.  He preferred to live on our farm where he helped with the farm animals and did some light chores.  He smoked “five brother’s tobacco”; his favorite food was spaghetti.

It was easy to stay busy after school.  I delivered the Logan Banner Newspaper for a couple of years.  I purchased a new Hawthorne bicycle for $11.00 from Montgomery Ward thru their sales catalog when I was 14 years of age.  If I could have afforded only $2 more, I could have had a more deluxe Hawthorne bike with a horn and a better brake system, but money was scarce. I was proud of this new bicycle and rode it on the railroad right of way to Junior High School up in Logan.  Then after school I would ride back to Peach Creek to get my papers to deliver to the residents.  The rain and snow could make some miserable winter weather, but the newspapers had to be delivered.  I would stop to rest at Barbara and Pam McMullen’s home.  Sometimes I would eat supper with them.  They were a couple of years older than me but very friendly.

During my 8th grade at the West Logan school everyone took a class in West Virginia history, the two students who made the highest grade in Logan County were awarded a golden horseshoe. I was one of the two for winners for Logan County. It sure felt good to be recognized by my peers and family. Until this time my brother Tom was the family member that was consider so smart and my grade were not very good.

I did not have much time for sports and other electives in school.  I felt the need to leave the school each day as early as possible, so I could earn money.  I took four subjects and would get out of school early in the afternoon.  English, math, history, plus one other. I attended very few ball games and was not on any of the sports teams.  I felt as if those were luxurious parts of life that I was not supposed to waste my time with. In the 9th grade several of the schools combined at the same location on the hillside in Logan. In algebra our teacher was a pretty young teacher name Mrs. Jackson,  I got an A- in our first year of algebra. My cousin Zetta and many of her peer were surprised as most of them had a disappointing grade. My self esteem soared and I was so proud of myself.

During the 10th grade I made an “A” in American History and then took public speaking from the same teacher Mayor Tom Orr.  In class I gave my speech titled “How Lucky I Am”.  It extolled on things like good health, American citizenship etc. compared with people with broken arms and people without freedom.   Mr. Orr appeared to be impressed by my presentation and recommended me to receive a scholarship to a one-week summer conservation camp over near White Sulphur Springs.  I felt very privileged and enjoyed the camp.  This was the first time I remember having been away from home and on my own.  The Ladies Garden Club of Logan had sponsored me.

College

I do not remember during my childhood of ever having a serious conversation of me or my siblings attending college or any schooling beyond high school graduation. We never visited a college campus or had any hopes of ever enrolling in any college. I thought college was only for wealthy people and  I knew money was scarce and higher education would be costly and unaffordable. My parents and grandparents unusually dropped out of public schools before high school graduation to work and help their family survive. The goal for me and my siblings was for us to graduation from high school with a 12 grade education.  No one in the Winters family or the Hale family had enrolled in any college that I knew of.  None of my siblings enrolled in a school of higher learning.

I knew about a Church of God Bible Training School in Cleveland, TN. My uncle Bill Winters and my friend Lovell Cary had attended that school and we were very proud of their accomplishments but that was not one of my consideration. My plans were to work at any place I could make the most money.

One day after my high school graduation,  my cousin David Robinson and his mother came from Huntington to visit.  Dave challenged me to give up these businesses and enroll in Lee College at Cleveland, TN. My family members came to a party for me, and the small collection of money included a surprise $10.00 from Grandpa Hale. Grandpa John Winters and Grandma Addie Winters gave me a large bible, which I still have today. Going to Lee was a very exciting event for me, as I had not really traveled out of the 100-mile radius of Logan. Uncle Bill Winters was the only other family member to have left Logan to attend college, so it was a very serious matter to me although I hadn’t considered it a possibility until David came by. It was only 2-3 weeks before classes started so we had to rush things up quite a bit.

David’s mother and sister drove us to Cleveland, and assisted us in getting signed in. We went downtown Cleveland and purchased a few items that were necessary for our room and we moved into the Walker Hall dorm, which latter was renamed Medlin Hall. This was my first time to visit any college campus and I was very excited to have this new adventure of being among  these people and living away from home.

But God never called me to preach.  I did not meet a wife.  I even bought a mandolin, hoping I could have a music ministry.  Jim Humbertson tried to teach me to play the mandolin, but the flow did not go to my brain.  I tried voice lessons from Mr. Andrew Yates, but he gave up on me.  I traveled with A.T. Humphries and the campus choir but decided that God had given the ear for music to someone else.

I did not like being without money.  I decided to do something about it.  I went looking for an opportunity. I walked down the street in Cleveland, TN to Callaway’s Grocery Store and asked if they had any work I could do.  They asked me what I wanted to do.  The answer was “Whatever you want me to do.”  When asked how much pay you have to have? ”I answered, “Whatever I am worth to you is what you can pay me.”  As a college student I began to work for fifty cents an hour bagging groceries and cutting meat.  I walked to work every Saturday morning from Walker Hall (now Medlin Hall).  Then walked back to Lee College dining room for lunch and returned to the grocery store to work the remainder of the day.

Calloway’s was located the corner of Central Ave. and Ocoee Street across from where the Bradley County Court House is now located.

Back at the dorm I found a market for hot freshly cooked popcorn in Walker Hall, the boys’ dormitory at Lee. Most nights at about 9:00 p.m., David Robinson, my roommate would begin to pop a little bit of corn and the scent would quickly travel down the hallway and up the stairs. The guys would smell it and come to our room offering to buy some.  We would fold a newspaper and make a cone and fill it with hot popcorn for a dime. Business was so good that I obtained the address from a can of corn and wrote the factory in Evansville, IN. I ordered a 25 pound bag of the un-popped corn, which was a great savings over the cost of buying it in a 10-ounce can. No one could ever explain why the dorm supervisors allowed this enterprise to exist when cooking was not allowed in any rooms. I suspect the supervisors may have found the hot popcorn too much of a temptation themselves. My classmates best remembered me for the popcorn venture.

Funds were not adequate for college expenses so after one semester I gave up the idea of college and decided to return home in January 1951. I did not know anything about student loans or grants. About 8 years later the government started the student loan program in 1958.

End of  Lee College

University of Florida

College of William and Mary

American University while employee of Tip Top

Back in Logan, I worked for a dry cleaner and outperformed any person who had previously held that route. I went back in the hollers where the road was very bad and solicited dry cleaning from people who had not been called upon for some time. Many of them had coats etc. that were badly in need of dry cleaning. While delivering to one of my customers in a nice neighborhood the husband was the manager for the local Electrolux Vacuum Cleaners Sales Agency.  He told me of how much money his salespeople were making and hired me right on the spot. I gave proper notice to the dry cleaners and began selling vacuum cleaners.  This was good sales training. Everyone was much older than me and had lots of experience. We would travel up to about 100 miles into the various coal mining neighborhoods and go door to door selling. Harlem Kentucky was one town that was a good market. Many years later I learned that it was very risky for a 19-year-old boy to be going door to door in that town, especially after dark.

In April 1951 I purchased a Dodge pickup truck which I later traded for a 1948 Plymouth car on November 19, 1951.

My father’s health became worse because of the pinched nerves in his back. The doctor prescribed that he relocate to a warmer climate and suggested he move to either Florida or Arizona.  Dad chose Florida and decided to move near Frostproof, FL to escape the cold. It sounded good to me. I had hardly been out of West Virginia, and it was exciting. I would just need to get a job to make my car payments and help support the family. I resigned from Electrolux and became entitled to begin drawing monthly payouts on the contingences or reserves I had accumulated while working for them.

Our pastor Karl Strader of the Carpentein Home Church in Lakeland Florida would often speak of how he had studied the Russian Languge in college and expeccted to someday go to Russian.  The door was beginning to open and Mary Nell and I visited Karl and told him we would pay his expenses to attend a meeting in Moscow. He gave glorious report that the “Door was finally open and he wanted to return with volunteers to plant a church.

Mary Nell and I voluntered to participate go and tell these unreached people the good news that Jesus Saves.  On Dec2, 1990 we went on this missionary journey.

I paid the expenses for Rev. Karl Strader and me to attend a meeing in Moscow.

Mary Nell and I felt our pastor Karl Strader should visit Moscow and provided funds for him to travel there with Terry Law and others in May 1990. His heart was very touched to witness the great revival and the hunger for Jesus in the hearts of the people.

Opportunity in the Soviet Union

1989-1990  Jesus Film taken to Moscow and Siberia

The door to Russia was opening some. To help proclaim the gospel to the people in Russia I heard that Jim Puhr and Don Sims from Calvary Ministries International in Jacksonville were visiting Moscow and telling some people about Jesus.

I heard that the Jesus Film was available in the Russian language. I wanted to be a part of proclaiming the gospel. I provided the necessary funds for Calvary Ministries International to order the Jesus Film in the Russian language from Campus Crusade for Christ so it could be shown in the unreached villages of Russia. I also purchased a new 15 passenger van with the seats remove. It was used to transport the video projector, speaker, generator, and other equipment. I paid a couple of the young Christian to show this Jesus Film in various communities. They also carried it to Siberia where there was great success in wining souls to Jesus. Thousand were saved from these efforts.

Jim Puhr wrote me a letter reporting that my Jesus Film had recently been shown by my evangelism team over 100 times and had registered over 20,000 conversions.

My First Trip to Russia

Pastor Strader was soon invited back to Moscow to teach the Russian ministers more about the Bible and how-to better minister.  I was thrilled when he invited me to join him in his ministry effort.

I attended the 7th & 8th grades at the West Logan Grade School.  I was an average student.  During the 8th grade I received the “Golden Horseshoe” award for achievements in W.Va. history. Only 2 students from each county received the award therefore I felt much honored for having been selected as one of the two from Logan County 8^th grade students. Next year students from various grade schools were co-mingled into the 9th grade uptown in Logan.  When our first reports cards came out much to my surprise, I had made the honor roll and had an “A” in algebra.  I began to realize that I could make good grades the same as the aristocratic kids or the kids from well to do families. My attitude about myself was beginning to change and my self-confidence began to develop. 

About the WV Golden Horseshoe Award

One of the highlights of the eighth-grade year is the opportunity for a student to become a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe. This prestigious program takes its name from the golden horseshoes given to the early explorers of West Virginia. In 1716 the Governor of the Virginia colony, Alexander Spotswood, saw the need for exploration of the land west of the Allegheny Mountains, most of which is now West Virginia. The governor organized a party of about 50 men, all of whom adopted the pledge, “Sic jurat transcendere monte,” which means “Thus he swears to cross the mountains.” Governor Spotswood presented each member of his party with a small golden horseshoe to commemorate the bravery of those who crossed the mountains into Western Virginia, beginning the Golden Horseshoe tradition.

West Virginia Golden Horseshoe Database
Item Details:	Record Id: 2139
Year:	1946
Name:	Danny Winters
County:	Logan
Location:
School:

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I was working full time and living at home with my parents. On first street in Winter Haven was a lovely white house with a sign in the front yard, Settler’s Business College.

I inquired and they offered a night course in Accounting so I enrolled so  I could continue my education and work at the same time.

In conjunction with a University in Tampa they gave me an appitude test which revealed I was most likely to succeed at a career of managing people, marketing or selling.

I was using a practice course learning  Accounting when “Uncle Sam” sent me notice that he had selected me to be a member of the United States Army.

My parents were depending upon my income to help support them, my two older brothers, Tom and Donald, were already in the Army so the founder of Settlers College suggested I apply for a deferment. He wrote a very flattering letter to his personal friend, U.S. Senator Specard Holland with a request stating he felt I would be more valuable to delay my army duty for a year until my brothers completed their term as active duty soldiers. The request was denied so in May 1953, I quit school and went to Ft. Eustis, Va.

I was stationed at Fore Eustis Virginia from May 1953 until May 1955.  College of William and Mary was located about 20 miles away in the city of Williamsburg so I enrolled in a night course to study Economic 101

While serving in the army I as assigned duty as Chaplain Assistant. During this time my chaplain went on temporily duty at another army post for about 6  month of study, but I was to remain in Ft. Eustis.  Occassionly a soldier or other party came to my chapel and I simply directed they to the post chapel, the main chapel on the base. The army had fresh flower arrangements delivered weekly and I placed them on the altar in the front of the chapel. When I wanted any housekeeping, dusting, and grass mowing, I telephone my unit and ordered a some soldier to come and provide the desired services.

Having lots of time available, I signed up for a correspondence course in Accounting at the University of Florida in Gainsville, FL. I completed the course in a few weeks with perfect results expecting a grade “A” only to learn that “C” was highest grade granted for correspondence work. That is what is reported on my future college transcripts.

While I was working at Tip Top TV and Appliances the nationwide industry conducted a one week seminar for management training at the American University in Washington, D.C.

My company selected me to attend. The various classes were mostly taught by top leaders of national companies such as RCA, Westinghouse, Zenith and other highly qualified leaders in the TV and Appliance industry. I found the classes very interesting and I learned many things that have been helpful to me in management and sales. I did not know any of the students or participants.