I came into this world on June 8, 1931 which was in the middle of the Great Depression. A time when Franklin D. Roosevelt, although still the Governor of the state of New York, was just beginning his campaign for the President. We were in the middle of the "Great Depression" after the stock market of this nation collapsed in 1929. Between that date and my birth the stock market losses had been in excess of $50 billion. This was the time when the birth rate had dropped to the lowest in our history. No one wanted to bring a child into such a unsettled period. My parents didn't either, but there I was - a third son.
My father Rollie had an 8th grade education and had been hired by the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad as a Teletype operator and later a trainman. He had been laid off during the depression years and did not
work for the railroad for about 5 years. During this period of time he worked wherever he could find a job, everything from digging ditches to construction labor to anything that he could do that would feed him family. He was a proud man and would never
of gone on the "dole" (welfare). Our family never starved but one might classify us as poor but very proud. As this country began to recover from the Depression and began to prepare for World War II he moved back to his job as trainman, first on the
extra board and then as a regular. He continued to work for the railroad until 1948 when he was elected as Legislative Representative for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainman for the great state of Kansas in 1948. This continued up to shortly before his
death on his 64th birthday in 1964.
In this position he had to be in Topeka, the Capitol of Kansas, anytime that the legislator was in sessions and for other political events. My father was a politician's politician. He did not want the lime light, he was content to work out of the "smoke filled" back rooms and the local taverns and bars. He was the maker of labor politics in Kansas at the time. He dictated what labor would do and when they would do it. If you wanted something and you were a member of a labor union, my father was the one to see. He knew all of the politicians from Kansas including Bob Dole and many other politicians of the time. One of the more famous names that he had the honor to meet was John F. Kennedy who soon was to be elected President, and I was with him at the time. Another was Dwight D Eisenhower, another President of out country and from Kansas. A great national Republican leader until his death was Alf Landon, who was defeated by Roosevelt in 1936, had been a long time friend of my father.
This great leader of the Labor Movement in Kansas, with and 8th grade education, was an alcoholic and died at 64 mostly from the effects of alcohol. Because of the alcohol his greatness was overlooked by some members of his family, but never overlooked by those who were his friends or those few who were his enemies. He was affectionately known as "Gramps" to his closest friends and family.
Smart, strong willed, opinionated would be the best description of my mother. She had likewise been born in Pratt. Her father R. F. Crick was the prominent attorney in Pratt. He saw that his 4 daughters were well
educated. My mother was sent to the east coast to attend school at Radcliff, the women's Harvard. Here she spent one year and then returned to Kansas to finish her college education in Winfield, Kansas. Following her college she taught school for a few
years.
She met a young man, my father, and they fell in love. He certainly did not meet the expectations of her parents for their daughter. They finally eloped in mid 1925 to Oklahoma and got married. They continued to live in Pratt for the rest of their lifetime. They did rent an apartment in Topeka when it was necessary for my father to be there after becoming the Legislative Representative for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainman but Pratt remained their home. This is where their three son's were all raised.
Mother loved history and knew not only the history of the United States but also the history of much of the world. She could meet anyone and they would feel at home with her because she had the ability to carry on a conversation at any level. Early she had learned to play the piano. She could both read music and play "by ear". This made her a very popular person in Pratt and came in very handy in the political circles in Topeka.
She brought education to bear in helping my father in his position and was able to hold her position in any conversation. An astute politician, in her own right, but she was never able to move with the winds of change. Once she made her decisions there was nothing that could change them. This was not always helpful in the political arena and my father had to repair fences that she had knocked down. But, even with this, she was a very well respected person among the politicians.
