Dad moved us to Mulberry Bottom, on Red River, in 1947.
During my formative years we were poor, as were most country folks. Kids growing up in the country after the Great Depression had to create their own entertainment.
Dad made almost everything he needed with which to make a living. He made his own river boats from pine boards, twenty feet long, that he hand-picked from the lumber yard in Bonham, Texas. The boat?s flooring was tongue and groove pine boards like you would floor a house with. Dad tarred the seams "To keep Red Riverfrom seeping into my boat," he said. With his boats we would ply up and down Red River in search of deep water holes where he could place his nets and trotlines.
During the long winter months Dad trapped for fur-bearing animals and hunted geese and ducks. He always gathered dogwood, which he deemed suitable for the hoops of his nets, any time he found suitable dogwood poles.
When the weather was unsuitable for outdoor activity we worked in our living room, tying long hoop nets from cotton twine. My job was to keep the sheet-iron, wood stove dancing on its feet. It wasn't long before we got a "New fangled coal oil heater" as Mom called it. I got a job promotion to net tying.