In the summer of 1941, we decided to add a room to our home. Our 5-room frame house we had built in 1928 was too crowded. Our three boys had to share one bedroom. Harry and Charles were in high school and Frank was seven years old. We had oversized bunk beds and an oversized single bed since both Harry and Charles were over six feet tall and we could see that Frank would be as tall.

We first went to the loan company that held our mortgage to see whether they would finance this addition. They said they would but suggested we trade our present house in one already built. At that time homes were at rock bottom prices. Loan companies had empty houses to sell. Our loan company, Adams and Leonard, gave us a list of those houses. We found one at 556 (now 552) South Allegheny in White City addition.

This house had been overhauled and even had two floor furnaces. The inside floors had been redone and all the walls had been repainted. The outside brick had been painted white and the brick was on tile. The house was in tip-top shape. We bought half the lot which was 70' by 216'. Later we bought the other half for an additional $200 making our lot measure 2/3 acre. This was a three-bedroom house. There was a separate garage with half partitioned off with gas and water which we used as a wash room.

We traded our 5-room frame house, then 13 years old, in on the property leaving $3800 mortgage with monthly payments of $38. This I am bringing out so you can compare prices. After 13 years we sold it for 3 times our original cost. (We traded in property so the value was more than the $3800.) Today houses in White City are selling for $65,000 and up. Interest rates are much higher than we ever paid anywhere.

When Harry and Charles were in high school, we lived on Allegheny Street in the White City addition of Tulsa. Both boys still had paper routes, but they had bought a 1937 2-seat-2-door Chevy. They used this means of delivering their papers instead of bicycles. As they hadn't had their car too long, the boys were anxious to make short trips. Saturdays I would fix a roast with all the trimmings. Sundays we would slice the roast and make sandwiches.

Erwin bought an ice chest for lemonade. When the boys finished throwing their papers, we would all go somewhere usually taking the whole day to drive. We would find a good spot or roadside park and eat our lunch. Most of Oklahoma from all directions were covered on these trips. 

We also spilled over into neighboring states going to places such as Noel, Missouri or Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We went to Turner Falls, museums, such as Woolaroc, lovely places to swim, such as the clear streams in Arkansas. The boys' payment on the car was $9.00 per month each. This they paid out of their route money. We paid the car expense. Many happy Sundays and vacations were spent in this way.

Harry, Charles, Frank, Erwin and I decided to go for a drive one Sunday,, which just happened  to be December 7, 1941. We drove south and west from town. When we stopped at a filling station, we learned of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Radios were not common in cars in those days. We drove on to Beggs on our way home to the house of my niece Helen and of course we were all excited and upset.

In a previous chapter I told you about gardens. The main one we had was our victory garden during the war. In the spring of 1942, Frank was playing at the back of our lot. Pretty soon I looked out the window and he had a shovel trying to dig up a spot on the newly acquired piece of land. I called Erwin and Harry and Charles and we all laughed watching Frank. We decided to go down to where he was and see just what he was doing. He told us he was making a garden.

We were all surprised to see how rich the ground was. The outcome of this was a hand plow, tools to make a garden, and a 100' square patch for our family victory garden. All families were encouraged to start gardens because our fruits and vegetables could no longer be purchased at the local grocery store without using our ration stamps. Meats, sugar, coffee, and gasoline were all rationed.

The garden was a godsend. Each year I canned 50 quarts of tomatoes, about the same amount of green beans, and other vegetables. In addition, we canned dill pickles, sweet pickles, and bread & butter pickles. We even had a strawberry patch about 25 or 30 feet square which produced enough to can 25 or 30 jars of jam.

We had fresh green corn. We raised a hybrid corn that had kernels like golden bantam and tasted like golden bantam but was larger. We even got a pressure cooker, but I didn't have much luck with corn or lima beans. We even planted soy beans. 

Harry finished high school in