My brother Donald was two years older than me.  It seems as if he was always getting into things.  He and I liked to follow on our big brother Tom and my uncle Bobby Hale and the other larger boys in the neighborhood.  To scare us and cause us to depart from them and go home, they would tell us scary things.  One of the favorite tales was concerning an old man who would walk up the riverbank and down the dirt street most every day. The man looked like a tramp and was always dirty.  He carried a burlap potato sack over his shoulder.  Our older friends called him “Bad Andy”.  They would tell us that he picked up little boys and put them into his sack and carried them home with him.  Any time they were tired of Donald or me, they would say “here comes Bad Andy and I am going to tell him to get you and carry you away in that sack”.  That would always scare Donald and me and we would run home for safety, at once. We never played beyond about 400 feet, the end of the dirt alleyway at the edge of our front yard. 

I was very happy living in my small world surrounded by brothers, parents, uncles, and grandparents.

Our homes were directly on the edge of the Guyandotte River. Often after a heavy rain the river would rise as a result of the water draining quickly off the steep surrounding mountains. One day the river was approaching flood stage.  As the river would rise a few feet one of the grown men would go out and move the floating rowboat to higher ground. Donald loved to be near the water although mom would warn him “don’t go near the rising flood waters, because you could get drowned.”  Donald disobeyed and Mom threaten to report the event to Dad as soon as he came home from work. Later Mom called for Donald, but he had hidden under the living room couch; thus, could not be found. All the neighbors joined in an all-out search for the missing 5-year-old boy who may have drowned in the river. By the time someone discovered him Mom was too relieved to find him safe that she could not bring herself to whip him for disobeying.

Grandma Hale often kept a bushel of apples in the basement, to keep them cool.  She would allow us to eat only one apple per day.  I think the older boys would sneak some extras when they could.  From time to time, she would inquire as to how the apples were disappearing.  I did not understand then what was happening. Being their house was on the riverbank, I now assume the basement was damp and dark, I think I recall only once of going down there were the apples were. It was probably cooler down there and possible the best place to keep food from spoiling. I know ice was delivered on an ice truck and us children like to try to get a small piece as it fell from the ice truck. 

My grandfather John Winters, and my father Harold Winters purchased about 10 acres of hillside land six miles north of Logan in an area just south of Pecks Mill.  They began to build each family a house on parcels of the land.  Later Herbert Winters built his family a home on the parcel in between these two parcels.  One day my father allowed me to join them as they went to work on the construction of the houses. On the way back home, Dad stopped at the “Outside Inn” and purchased him a beer and he brought me and my sister Nancy a piece of bubble gum.  After we got home I was chewing my gum and my mother inquired where I got it.  I told her of the purchase of the gum and the beer.  My dad got on to me for telling on him and the beer.  He said that was why he brought me the gum, so I wouldn’t tell.  It hurt my feeling, so I cried. 

I recall starting to grade school at West Logan in September 1938 after I had turned five years old on March 30.  My uncle Bobby and my two older brothers walked to school with me.  I remember that one day a large boy, who was wearing glasses, challenged me in some kind of a fistfight.  Since my brothers were with me, I was very brave and said lots of things.  Such as, take off your glasses and let’s fight.  I will really beat you up. etc.  The boy did not do much fighting at that time.  Later he was always trying to find me without my brothers, so he could beat me up.  I was afraid and tried not to be caught out alone.

In a few months dad finished construction of the small four-room house on the hillside located about one mile south of the Pecks Mill Bridge.  The house was constructed out of very rough sawmill lumber.  The siding was 1″ x 8″ unfinished boards.  There were cracks between them, so he nailed 1″ x 3″ strips over the cracks on the outside.  On the inside of the house, the cracks were covered with cardboard from grocery store cartons.  Later newspapers were pasted over the cardboard.  When money would be available wallpaper would be purchased and pasted over the newspaper.  Plain white paper on the ceiling and designed paper on the wall.  A border paper would be pasted at the top of the wall where the ceiling and wall meet.

The house had one bedroom, a living room with a large potbelly coal stove, a dining room that contained a bed for the boys.  The kitchen had a coal stove with an oven and warming closets.  There was a back porch where we kept the washbowl to wash our hands.  A front porch was later partially closed in for a small bedroom for the boys.  The outdoor toilet was about 30 feet behind the house and up the hill. This was a two hole outhouse as it had a seat for two persons.

There was room for a chicken house, a pig pin, and two large gardens to raise vegetables.  Dad and mom seemed to know all about farm life.  They would grow plants in a hot bed, which was made from enriched dirt under glass.  They would also grow lettuce in hot bed. 

I was very proud of this home.  It is the first time I could remember not living with Grandma Hale.  My mother and dad were both very hard workers and wanted better things for their children. 

We all worked at this new home.  There was dirt to dig off the hillside behind the house to make room to walk around the house.  The dirt would be loaded on a wheelbarrow and then dumped at the front edge of the leveled area.  Eventually we had a front yard that was for an area of about 10 feet by 15 feet.  Dad placed 55-gallon metal barrels at several places under the edge of the roof so the rainwater from the roof would run into the barrels.  This water was used for laundry, bathing, and watering the garden plants.

Drinking water was carried from a spring about 1000 feet north of the house.  The spring was inside Mr. Stevens’ cow pasture, so we had to watch for the cows and hope they did not mess up our drinking water.  At the age of 5 and 6, I carried many a pail of water from this spring. A family of seven used quite an amount of water for cooking and drinking.  Before long, Grandpa Winters had a 4″ deep well drilled next to his home.  We then began to carry water from there, which was only about 400 feet south of our home.  We would let the long metal cylinder down into the 4 ” well.  It was very deep, perhaps over 100 feet.  Then we would pull the rope thru the pulley until the cylinder was retrieved, full of the two gallons of water. It took two of us smaller children to be strong enough to pull the rope.

The house was located about 125 feet up the hillside from the road.  Dad dug flat spots into the hillside and placed large flat rocks into the flat spot for steps. In spots where it was really steep, he would nail a long slender board or pole to the trees for a handrail to assist you in climbing the long stairs to our house.

We had a large hillside front yard with many locust trees on it. We would help dad place a circle of rocks around each tree. Then we would apply whitewash to the rocks and the bottom 36 inches of the trunk of the trees.  The tree limbs had thorns on them so you could not climb them.

Cooking and heating were by coal fuel.  Dad would buy a truckload of coal and they would dump it at the edge of the highway.  This was route 10, and it had lots of traffic.  The coal was right out to the edge of the highway, so we needed to pick it up and carry it up to the house as soon as possible. 

Tom age 10, Donald age 8 and I age 6 would each have a bucket.  Tom’s bucket was the largest and mine was the smallest.  Each would fill his bucket with coal and carry it up the steps to the house.  We would dump the coal onto the coal pile, underneath the front porch.

There was lots of work every day, raising vegetables in the two gardens.  Something always needed planted, hoed, dug, or watered.  Grass had to be cut with a hand cycle on the hilly front yard.  The many large rocks and the many locust trees needed to be whitewashed.  People would often comment about how pretty our yard looked with the whitewashed trees and rocks on the green grassy hillside.

Grandpa Winters also had a garden and a grape arbor behind his house next door. We would sometimes help ourselves to a pod of grapes when we were on our way to fetch a bucket of water.

About 20 feet from the grandpa’s back door there was another building about 20 feet square. This building was referred to as the smoke house. Earlier generations had such a building where the men could go smoke, read, and get away from the house awhile. No one smoked in my grandparents “smoke house”, however they filled it with all kinds of old clothing etc. that we referred to as rummage.  We sometimes referred to this as the rummage house.

  sss When we moved to this home near Pecks Mill, I began attending the Mill Creek grade school to continue my first-grade education.  There were about 35 students attending this one room white school house. Grades one thru six all met in one classroom.  Each row of seats was for students of a different grade.  The wooden seat was part of the desk of the student behind you.  Each desk had an ink well and a grooved place for a pencil.  Each student’s books were placed inside their desk directly above their knees.

One day I was writing on the chalkboard and my teacher came up behind me and slapped me on my backside with her hand.  I had not heard her when she evidently told me to take my chair.  This one lick spanking must have impressed me as I can still remember it 84 years later. That is the only time I can recall punishment in school.

When the older classmates disobeyed, the teacher would order another student to go into the nearby hillside and get a long limber tree branch about 4 feet long.  She would take the disobedient one outside behind the schoolhouse and apply the switch several times.  I never got one of these whippings.

The drinking water was carried in an open 2-gallon bucket and placed on a shelf in the back of the classroom.  Each student was responsible to bring a jar or glass from home, which was for their own use, unless they wanted to drink directly from the one common metal drinking dipper that was placed into the bucket of water.  I took a glass jar and placed on the shelf for my personal drinking.   At the end of the school year, I took the glass home.  The water was carried from a nearby mountain spring by one of the larger students. Later the school board sent our school a three-gallon water tank with a faucet on it.  Then we could run the water directly into our glass without dipping our glass into the open bucket.  We were proud of the new drinking tank.

Rest rooms were built of wood on the edge of the schoolyard next to the creek bank.  The girl’s toilet was constructed about 10 feet from the boy’s toilet.  Old newspapers or catalogs were used for toilet paper.

Recess was a very active time.  Games included batting some kind of a soft ball, throwing a ball over the top of the school and saying, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send __(name)__ over.”

During recess while sitting out on the playground the older boys would tease me and the other first graders.  One day they saw my underwear was the type little girls wore, so they really teased me that day.  They told me I could not use the boys’ toilet, that I would have to use the girl’s toilet.  I beat them with my little hard fist, but it didn’t hurt them. In those days, most of my clothing was handed down or previously owned.  Most of it had been thoroughly worn by my older brothers before I grew into it. Patches were common on our pants and shirts. Many of my clothes had previously been worn by my 2 older brothers so they were faded with patches over the holes and torn spots were normal for me.

The bridge provided road way for those traveling from Logan to Huntington on state highway 10. It crossed both the river and the railroad.

We would walk about one mile to school each day.  Tom my oldest brother was 9 years old and in the 5th grade.  My brother, Donald was 7 years old and in the 3rd grade.  We had to walk on the narrow bridge that crossed the Guyandotte River at Mill Creek.  When large trucks would meet another vehicle, we would have to climb on the curb and hold close and tight to the side of the bridge as the two vehicles passed.  It was always scary, as the cars would often miss you by only a few inches.  As I looked down, I could see the river flowing swiftly about fifty feet below.  I remember more than once Donald would climb and walk on top of the four feet high metal bridge guardrail.  I was too afraid to do so and would beg him to get down before he fell into the river below.  Needless to say, he never fell. Surely there was a guardian angel protecting us because of the prayers of our mother. The railroad engines were all steam driven and produced a lot of smoke from the coal fire boilers. If we were walking the bridge we could look down as the train traveled underneath us. As the engine passed underneath us the smoke and soot will cover us.

On a few occasions, we waded across the river on our way home from school.  Where the rocky shoals began, the water was rather shallow in the summertime.  The water was up to my waist and the rocks were slippery, so we had to be very careful where I placed my foot.  I never did like crossing the water this way.  The water was swift against my small body, and it was hard to stand against the currents.  Usually, one of my older brothers would hold my hand in the more difficult spots.  In 2008 my cousin David Robinson reminded me that one summer he was visiting us, and we all waded the river and he was scared for his life.

There was not much area on the shoulder of the highway No. 10 for walking, but somehow, we never got hit by any of the cars on the busily traveled roadway. Our dad drove the only car to work at Peach Creek and my mother did not drive and our only way to school was to walk. Several months later to public school system extended the school bus system and we were provided transportation to a different school in Henlawson.

As I reminisce, I know my mother must have worried every day about the safety of her three sons walking to and from school, thru the rain and cold. I’m not sure she ever knew all the things we did.

On cold winter days, the water dripping from the rock cliffs would freeze into long icicles. On the way home from school, we would break the icicles and use them as swords to have friendly sword fights with one another. The icicles would freeze until they touched the ground. Some of the would become 8 or 10 feet long which made them too large and heavy for us small boys to handle.

My Uncle Herbert and Aunt Kathryn built a house and moved next door to us.  Now there were three Winters’ families in a row on the hillside.  The houses were about 150 feet apart.  Herbert and his family lived in the center house, with my grandparents living next door to them.  Dad and Uncle Herbert wanted a well, so they began digging by with a pick and shovel. When the hole was about 10 feet deep, they found a hard rock before they could find water.  The three families carried drinking water from grandpa Winters’ well.

My cousin Dickey attended school with me at Mill Creek; he was also in the first grade.  He was three months older than me.  I recall us standing around the old potbelly coal stove eating lunch on a cold day.  Dickey had boiled eggs to eat this one-day. It seemed to me the other children liked his friendly attitude much more than me with my quiet attitude.  My lunch was usually wrapped in a piece of newspaper and tied with some thread or string.  Dickey somehow usually had his lunch in a brown paper bag.

My cousin Zetta did not attend Mill Creek School as she lived in the Justice Addition school district. However, she recalls attending our school for one Halloween event. My mother painted our little faces with black coal soot, so we looked like little Pygmies. Us cousins were very close and enjoyed being together.

My childhood memories of family were delightful. My mother showered her children with love and made each one of them feel special. The family was very involved in church and serving God. The children all joined their parents in working in the garden, maintaining the yard, and doing family chores. Work was a family activity.

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.

I recall when I was about 10 years of age, I prayed the prayer of salvation, during a Sunday school class meeting at the Aracoma Church of God.  Lovell Cary was home that day from Bible Training School and was teaching our class. He wanted every student to be saved before the class was dismissed.  I remember being asked to testify in the Morning Worship as to how we had asked Jesus to save us.  I was holding Mary Sue on my lap at that service.  This is the first time I remember Lovell who later became a very important friend.  

Lovell Carey returned to Bible College. When he returned home, he brought Virginia Glass, his new bride with him.  They began to evangelize in West Virginia.  

The family was attending the Mill Creek Church of God at this time. Lovell later decided to begin a revival campaign in the Crooked Creek neighborhood.  The Winters family helped him get permission to use the local elementary grade school building for the meeting.  This newly married couple lived during this time in my Winters family home.  Those were exciting and memorable days for the Winters family with six children plus Lovell and Jenny.  A special friendship developed that has lasted a life-time.

This was glorious revival, lasting six weeks with over 100 people getting saved.  The schoolhouse was full every night.  There was no advertisement.  The message was carried by word of mouth.  This meeting impacted my life.  Once you taste such a move of God as this, you can never be satisfied with a mediocre Christian experience.

In January 1949, Rev. Messer began to hold a revival at the Mill Creek Church of God.  On Sunday night my sister Nancy went to the altar; accepted Jesus and became a Christian.  As I returned to the inside of the church to warm by the heat stove, she put her arms around my neck and testified of how happy she was and encouraged me to make Jesus my Lord and Savior.  Conviction gripped my heart!  I purposed to heed her advice.  The next night was a Monday and I had previously agreed with my brother Donald that I would escort his girlfriend Betty Stephens to the Kings Kids meeting, therefore I did not go to the revival that night.  On Tuesday night I attended church having already purposed in my mind that I would go to the altar.  I sat near the front of the church on the left-hand side.  As soon as Rev. Messer gave the altar call, I headed for the altar. I did not want to miss out on anything this life changing.   In those days in West Virginia when people got saved, they prayed through, wept and repented and had a real experience.  On January 18, 1949, at the age of 15, my priorities were set. I would walk with God.

As soon as Rev. Messer ask me, I left my seat and went forward.  Today, after 70 years I still consider this to be the most important decision I have ever made.  I made it on my own and I have never regretted it.  I was saved from my sins and the Love of Jesus entered my heart.  The best I can remember now I was filled with such Joy and Peace that for a few minutes I did not ever know what was happening around me.  It was as if I fell asleep or lost consciousness with my surroundings. 

Within a few months I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.  I did not lose awareness of what was going on like I did the night I was saved.  I had been attending church since I was a small child.  I had been to the altar on numerous occasions previously.  I loved Jesus, but on Tuesday January 18, 1949, at the age of 15, something special happened in my life.  It was different.  A few weeks later I was baptized in water on the right-hand fork or Mill Creek.  It was so cold that ice was forming on the water edge but that did not hinder us young converts.  We wanted to follow Jesus all the way. I have never backslid or changed my direction. I am determined to serve Jesus all the days of my life.

The weather was very hot the following summer as I worked several days moving a small portion of the hillside next to my aunt Hildred’s home. I was 16 and working alone digging and shoveling the dirt into a wheelbarrow.  I would haul it a few hundred feet and dump it over the hillside in another location. I had plenty of time to meditate. I thought of how deceiving satan is and how he traps people into a life of sin. Satan lies and deceives people by making things look good, when in fact they are just traps to capture the mind and send people to hell. I thought, “It is just like a carnival midway with all the bright lights, colorful signs, and loud exciting music attracting everyone’s attention.  There is the barter, or announcer with the microphone blaring bidding you to come on in and have a good time. Inside always leads to hell. There are numerous variations of the outside attractions and many different barters with different pitches but once you come inside behind the curtain it all leads to hell. Satan always makes sin look good. Cigarettes look good, alcoholic beverages look good, gambling looks good, illicit sex looks good, every sinful thing on the carnival midway of life is made to look good by satan but once you follow his path you end up in one place–. Hell.” I have never forgotten those meditations. Someone may call it a spiritual experience. Others might say it was the sweating in the hot sun just got to his brain, but I remembered it; and after 70 years I still believe it. The wages of sin is death.

During high school, I also worked in the R&M grocery store in Aracoma for my Uncle Ralph and Aunt Marvel. They later transferred the store to her brother, my uncle Charlie Hale who was married to Evelyn Ramson. I first worked for Uncle Ralph several years earlier when he operated a melon stand on the front porch of a little store located on the curve in Aracoma selling watermelons etc.  I was working there when he applied for work at the C&O railroad.  I recall how I was the only person in the roadside market when a highway patrolman stopped to purchase a watermelon.  I did not want him to know I was frightened of him and was surprised when he paid me for the melon. I would have willingly given him any item without pay.

In my senior years of high school and the year after graduation, I worked for Uncle Ralph and Aunt Marvel at the Logan Plant Store, which was on the triangle at the end of the bridge entering the town of Logan. They were great people to work for and they helped me gain self-confidence. I began to order merchandise from the suppliers as well as sell to the customers. During the fall and winters business was very slow, and in my spare time I would fiddle with any automobile I owned. 

When I was 15 years of age, I purchased a new motor bicycle.  It was a bicycle with a motor mounted below the crossbar. The tire rim had an extra rim attached that allowed a belt from the motor to turn the rear wheel. My friend and I rode our bike to about 45 miles down route 10 for the experience and thrill of crossing the Harts Creek mountains. We had a headlight on our bikes and were not afraid. After a visited my Aunt Evelyn and her family we rode our bikes back to our homes on Crooked Creek.

By the time I was 16 Dad purchased an old beat up wrecked International panel truck. The rear doors would not close, so I removed them. I took a hammer and beat the dents out of the fenders. I painted it a bright medium blue color and recovered the two bucket seats with leather. I was proud of my accomplishments.

People on Crooked Creek discarded anything they did not want into the creek. I noticed there were pieces of old cars and other scrap metal in the creek.  My cousin Johnny was two years my junior and lived with us insomuch as his mother had died a few years earlier in Phoenix AZ. I recruited Johnny and several other younger boys to help recover the scrap iron with the promise of some of the profit.  Many years latter Johnny, after spending 20 years in the US Marine Core, when in my presence would refer to himself as “5% John”. Milking of the cows was one of the choirs that Johnny was asked to assist me with. It was hard for him to understand why he should have to plow, cut hay, hoe or do things like that. He felt that he only lived with us and those things were not necessary for him. He and I had great times together although we often disagreed.  I don’t know how my mother survived all of us in that small house the way we played, fussed and wrestled with each other.

There were always additional people spending time at our home. Johnny’s brother Dickey lived with Grandma Winters, however he stayed with us part of the time. When we got the first TV in the community many of the neighbors would come over at night and we would move the TV to the front yard, so everyone could watch programs on the 9-inch screen with a 13inch magnifier.  Bob and Bill Carey, brothers of Lovell Cary were among the many visitors.

To further supplement my income, I also used Dad’s horse to plow gardens for our neighbors. The turn plow had to be lifted and swung from right to left or left to right at the end of each row.  Since the plow seemed to weigh about a third as much as I did it was somewhat hard to manage on a steep hillside.

The coalmines in our county removed a seam of coal from the sides of the mountains. These tunnels were several feet wide and the height of the coal seam that was from 30 inches to 48 inches in most of our area.  The mines would purchase timbers to prop up the top or roof of the tunnel as they removed the coal.

A neighborhood friend named Fred Fry who was several years older than me worked in this type of work told me how other people were making money by selling mine timbers. Fred claimed that he knew all about this business and agreed to show me to how to do it. So, I decided that at the age of sixteen that I could open my own business to cut and sell timbers to the mines.  It did not bother me that I did not have any experience, I felt I could learn this business. My Dad’s 68-acre farm had some timber on the steep mountainsides, and he gave me permission to cut it.

I began to cut the 30 to 60-foot-high trees.  I connected the trees with short pieces of chain and then attached them to the horse that would pull them to the steepest part of the mountain where the horse would make a sharp 120-degree turn causing the chain to disengage and the trees would then slide to the bottom of the mountain with me and the horse remaining at the top of the slope. After repeating this process several times, I would connect the horse to the trees at the bottom of the mountain and drag them to the barnyard, where I could saw them into the proper length of 30” to 48” depending upon what size the coalmines had ordered. Of course, I had already contacted the coalmines and convinced the purchasing agent that I could deliver a good product if he would just tell me the size he needed.  It took several phone calls; however, once I got his order, I began operations.

The horse I was using was an old mare that belonged to my dad. On day she made the turn and the logs failed to disengage causing her hind leg to be fouled underneath her and as she tried to get it loose, she lost her balance and began to tumble down the mountainside. No other person was with me and as a 16-year-old boy it was an awful sight to witness the horse tumble many times before stopping about 300 feet below at the foot of the mountain in the little creek. I managed to get the horse up on her feet and she staggered the ½ mile to the barnyard where she lay done and died a few hours later. That was a sad experience; perhaps I was responsible for the horse’s death,

I traded my motorbike for a younger horse and continued to work to fill the order for mine timbers. Now that I was 16 the state would allow me to drive a car, so I purchased an old car from my uncle Bobby Hale in Huntington and drove it across the mountains to Logan.  I paid him $50.00 for it and sold it a few weeks later for a nice profit.

I had great difficulty in getting another person to pull the other end of the crosscut saw to cut the trees into mine timbers.  This was before the days of gasoline chain saws.  The crosscut saw was designed for two men to operate.  It was about 5 feet long with a handle on each end.  Any portion of the log that was larger than 12 inches in diameter would have to be split so that no prop was more than 6 inches in diameter. I would build a fire for firelight, so we could saw and split the logs after dark when I could get Fred on one of the other guys to pull one end of the saw for me.

Finally, I got a truck load of the timbers ready but now I had to arrange for deliver about 15 miles to the coalmines that was located beyond the Church of God on Mill Creek. My Uncle Charlie Hale operated a grocery store in Aracoma, and he owned a Ford pickup truck with high sideboards on it, so I rented it for the trip. Looking back, I think he was probably reluctant, but I drove his truck loaded with timbers up the mountainside on the dirt road leading to the mines. I sent my handwritten invoice to the mining company and after some delay received my check. Business had its hardships and challenges however I liked making the money.

My brother Donald is two years my senior.  He went to work on the C&O railroad and continued to attend high school. He purchased a Crosley automobile and drove in a way that was not at all safe. Many times, he would race to about 56-60 miles per hour and turn the wheel sharply while hitting the brakes causing the car to make a 180 degree turn on the narrow-crooked road. To this day I believe the prayers of my mother were responsible for God sustaining our lives on many such occasions.

Many times, during those early teen years we would sleep overnight back in the mountains just for the fun of it.  We would take some apples or potatoes roast them in our campfire. Most time our campsite was under a large rock cliff, and a few times we built our campfire near the big 6-inch gas line. Fortunately, the gas never caught fire or exploded.

I recall these days as happy times.  We had a corn crop on the side of the mountain. One 4^th of July the corn needed hoeing, so my mother drafted me to help her hoe it. Being it was a national holiday, and most companies allowed their employees the day off, I resented being the only hand helping mom that holiday. Suddenly I observed a groundhog several feet away from me in the cornfield. I picked up a rock and eased over toward the groundhog. When I threw the rock, to my surprise it hit the groundhog and he fell over. That night we had groundhog for dinner. Oh well, 

Between 1904 and 1929, the Logan coalfields boomed. Holden, Omar, and many other coal company towns were created. My grandfather John H. Winters moved from farming in Lincoln county to Logan county during this time. My mom and dad were born 1909 and 1911. I was born in 1933.

Success of Logan county was assured when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad constructed its line from Huntington to the city of Logan in 1904. In the meantime the Norfolk & Western Railroad had built its main line in 1893 on the ‘‘Sandy side,’’ the nickname for the part of Logan County lying within the Big Sandy River valley. Rapid development following the arrival of the railroad in 1895. 

Many left to find employment elsewhere. From a high of approximately 11,000 miners in 1940, the number fell to 1,146 by 2001. Logan County population fell by half, from a peak of 77,391 in 1950 to an estimated 36,168 in 2012.

I graduated from Logan High School in 1950 when the population was near it peak.  In year of 2021 

Logan County, West Virginia‘s estimated population is 31,731 with a growth rate of -1.30% in the past year. I moved to Florida at the right time.

Education

Move the following to a new tab. Lee 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.

Lovell and Genny Carey had moved to her hometown in Florida, where Lovell served as an Associate Pastor at the Eloise church in Winter Haven.  Our family decided to join Lovell and Jenny in Winter Haven.  So, I gave up my vacuum cleaner job. Dad sold the farm, the animals, the house, and the furniture. On Sunday January 14, 1952, Mom and Dad had Sunday dinner with Hildred, Marvell, Mildred, Zetta and Maxine. On Monday we ate at Ralph’s with Raymond and Grandma Addie. My un-air-conditioned 1948 model Plymouth was loaded with four of the family members (dad, mom, Mary Sue, and I) plus our clothing and household goods.  On Tuesday the 16^th we were off to Florida for a new life for all of us. This was the first time any of my family had been to Florida. On January 17, 1952, we arrived in Floral City where we spent 2 nights in a cabin owned by Rat Burns who lived on Crooked Creek. We went to a used furniture store and purchased a mattress and oil cooking stove because we expected to stay several weeks. However, the next day we drove to Winter Haven to visit Lovell and Jenny. They quickly convinced us to come further south to Winter Haven.

We had arrived in Florida without any idea of where any of us would live or work.  Because of such a deep friendship with the Carey’s, we spent the first few days with Lovell Carey’s in-laws.  Some members of the Winters family slept on the floor, but we felt welcome and happy to be with friends. Other church members accepted us as friends immediately. The warm sunshine of Florida sure felt good compared to the cold winter air of West Virginia.

As soon as we arrived in Florida, we began to attend the Eloise Church of God.

Rev. Mitchell Thomas was the pastor and Lovell was the associate Pastor. We rented a furnished house on 1^st Street in Wauneta and on Feb 16, 1952, we took a picture of our family in front of the rented house. The Bass family lived one street over and their daughter Alice later married Eugene Boyd. They became the father of Tony Boyd who is now married to Marsha the daughter of my brother Jack.

The Eloise church was a very exciting and active church. They had a large screened-in outdoor kitchen and dining area. They would have fish fries, chicken fries and sell the dinners to the workers at the Snively Citrus packing house nearby. Socials and youth functions were regular events. This church had mothered a church at Rifle Range and was planning to build a church in West Winter Haven. Later they built another church at 7^th Street and Avenue E SW in Winter Haven.

WITHIN A WEEK I MET MARY NELL KING THIS 15 YEAR OLD GIRL BECOME THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN MY LIFE.

READ OUR STORY

I helped provide the support for my parents and I had a monthly car payment. I needed money, so I soon got a job picking fruit for Mr. McTeer the father of Hinson McTeer.  I picked fruit from 5:00 a.m. in the morning daylight until dark.   I only made $4.10 a day with this job.  Feeling responsible for helping to support my family, I decided to find a job with better pay. The next morning my car tire was flat, so I missed the departure of the fruit picking truck. I fixed my car tire and started looking for another job. I made plans, expecting God to direct me.

My faith was fixed.  I knew that faith is a major ingredient in obtaining the blessings of God.  I knew his faith was vital if I was going to break out of the bonds of insufficiency.   I drove until I saw an aluminum sign that had the name of Race & Race Irrigation Company on it. It was located on Highway 17 between Winter Haven and Lake Alfred.  I walked in and said, “Hi!  My name is Dan Winters.  I am looking for a job.”   George Mullins the office manager liked my driving personality.   They hired me on the spot; February 15, 1952. This was a “God thing.”  This job came from the Lord.  I knew that I had the favor of the Lord, and that God was blessing me. My starting salary was $225.00 per month which was good for those times. George was an accountant and a real gentleman. He and I remained lifetime business friends.

Nancy and Jack had caught the Greyhound bus in Logan and rode to join us in Winter Haven. They both enrolled in Winter Haven High School where they shared some classes with Mary Nell.

Dad purchased a dilapidated house that the Veterans Administration had repossessed at 1214 seventh Street SW across from the Southside Baptist Church annex for $1 ,400.  He worked very hard replacing the interior wall covering, the roof and other essentials. I assisted when I could.

These were happy times. Citrus and vegetables were plentiful. Dad made church friends with George Jackson, LC Bilbrey and others. Jackson owned the Rainbow Boat Basin on the Lake Howard-Lake May canal. Dad began working with him operating the boats and giving ski instructions to the many young men who were flight students in training at the Bartow Air Base. Dad also became a fishing guide and had free use of the several boats and motors from the boat basin.  He provided plenty of fish, so fish fries with the friends and family became regular events. Florida Cypress Gardens was nearby, and Dad would take us in the boat thru the canals and we could view the ski show free of cost. The citrus and flowers were so beautiful. It was only an hour drive to the Gulf of Mexico or to the Atlantic Ocean.

Many of the relatives came from West Virginia to visit us and witness this new life we were enjoying in the land of sunshine. During first four months visitors included. Tom & Maxine, Donald & Betty, Grandma Addie & Grandpa John, Jim, Ralph & Marvell, David and Dorothy Robinson, Garland and Belva, Woodrow and Hildred and several others.  Marvin Dial and his truck driving friend came for a load of watermelons and spent the night with us.  All the friends and relatives were welcome and there was always room on the floor for another person to sleep although we all had to share the one bathroom.

My mother got a job at Erick’s department store downtown on 4^th street NW. She was a very good salesperson, and she maintained a good rapport with the migrants and minorities. Although the Erick’s were Jew who migrated from Germany my mother talked about the Lord to everyone, and they seemed to love her. Mary Nell also worked at Erick’s on Saturday. She later worked for the Winter Haven Herald, a weekly newspaper owner by George Burr the mayor of Winter Haven. His wife Josephine managed the business and liked Mary Nell who was a DCT student at Winter Haven High School. Jack was also in DCT and worked for Poitras Electric on Central Avenue. Nancy was a DCT student and soon got an office job for Central Truck Lines which was located within walking distance of our home.

Erick’s had a big business on Saturday as the crew leaders would bring the migrant workers to Erick’s to buy their clothes. Of course, Erick gave the crew leaders some form of remuneration. On Saturday if I was off work at Race & Race I would also help out at Erick’s.  I am sure Mary Nell was my primary interest in the department store. Otherwise, I could only see her a few hours each week.

At Race & Race, beginning Feb 15, 1952, I first worked in the office in the bookkeeping department.  Then on July 7^th I was promoted to timekeeper in the plant. I often worked overtime on Saturdays unloading pipe or boxes from railroad cars onto trucks.  I only weighed about 125 pounds so it this was tough work, but I would work with the common labor crew at hard labor just to make money. My cousin Marvin Dial moved down from Logan and got a job at the same company. Also, Mary Nell’s brother Joe began to work there.

After working in the office at Race and Race only about 5 months I was promoted as “timekeeper” and “shipping clerk” in the plant. Later in February 1953 I was bonded and given the legal responsible of being custodian of the inventory during the vacation period of my superior. During one vacation period the company placed me in charge of the entire assembly plant, which had dozens of older employees. Somehow everything apparently ran smoothly with this 19 -year-old in charge. Looking back, I don’t know how I avoided conflict from guys who had worked there 15 or 20 years and obviously knew far more than I did. I often felt that Joe King resented having to report to me…but I always tried to be nice to him. On December 8, 1952, I sold my Plymouth and purchase a 1950 Ford car. In 1954 I turned the car in to the dealer as deposit on a new Oldsmobile.

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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