A Father's Legacy

Larry Lynn Martin, Feb. 3rd. 1951 (Born in the old VonKeller Hospital on 12th. Ave. N.W. Ardmore,Okla.)

Next birth was that of Anita Susan Martin. Dec. 12th. 1955 (Born in the new Southern Oklahoma Memorial Hospital --- Just one street north of the old hospital Ardmore, Oklahoma).

The next blessed event was the birth of Terry Lee Martin, who made his presence known on Jan. 28th. 1958 (He also was born in the Southern Oklahoma Memorial Hospital, Ardmore, Oklahoma)

You may find my answer to these questions a little picturesque but somehow I just couldn't afford to let this matter go in an unremarkable way.

Well, daylight arrived on April 13th, 1921. It was a Wednesday morning and everything otherwise seemed OK here in Hugo, Oklahoma. The noise you hear sounds kinda' like a small animal caught in a trap... or maybe it's just another baby.

Well, it was a boy and came as the last of a series of children in the order -- a Boy, a girl, a boy, twin boys and now this boy was born. A law enacted by the state legislature effective in 1918 required that a birth certificate be filed with the State Health Department and that's exactly what was done in this case, and right on time [about Fifty 50 plus years later it was discovered that the report of the birth listed an "unnamed baby boy"]

Well, the baby boy was given a name all right but all the really good names had been used up and since the parents originated in the South it was entirely proper to "make up" a name, if you could think up one.

There was a neighbor lady that lived close to the P.D.Wilson's over on the farm at *Boswell, Okla. [Mrs. Wilson (Aunt Lucy) was a sister to the daddy in this case.] Well this neighbor lady was a good friend to Mrs. Wilson and she had insisted that the poor little defenseless baby boy just might live over a name she was especially fond of... so when Mrs. Grubbs said to name him Dorsey (Dorcey) that is exactly what was done; however don't you think we could put a name with that one in order to fix that young'un up for life... they all sat around to think, think, think and think but somehow there was nothing that could make that name sound any worse. About that time the 7 year old sister jumped up and yelled "I know!--- I know!--- I know!---I know one that will nail him down for good. Let's call him Dorsey Ernest Martin!!!".

To that, someone said "hey, this kids a genius" and from that day forward there were those that called him Dorsey Ernest and there were those that called him Ernest Dorsey.... It just so happened that there were more that called him Ernest, than those that called him Dorsey.

Well anyway in polite society it was usually Ernest Dorsey. It was 57 years later, when he (the child) was a member of the Oklahoma State Senate that he asked the Chief of the Vital Records Department at the State Health Department if he would furnish him a Certified copy of his birth Certificate. With the certificate in hand it became evident that there was no name listed .... but being the gracious young man that he had become, from living under such a handle (and in-spite of the fact that he had the authority to have a name choice entered there-in) he decided that he could live with the name they laid on him for another 57 years, and it is so

My nick name was Teague. This is the story as I remember it. There was once a very popular comic strip in the funny papers...... (Now back then they were Funny Papers because they were funny.... now days they call them Comic Strips, and they just really ain't funny )..... by the name of Barney Google, now Barney Google had extremely unruly hair. So let that point be made and we go to the next phase.... I was little for my age and all by cousins called me teewiney.... which was to infer imply that I was teeney. My dear brother, Calvin admired my hair-do so much that he combined the two terms (from Barney Google & from teewiney) and came up with "TeeGoogle" This stood for a while until he shortened it down to "Tee"..... from that came the illustrious name "TEAGUE". I carried that name, without shame, and there were many of my peers that never knew it wasn't my real name....(I really didn't care because I disliked "Ernest" anyway).

The next item listed in your book is to describe your childhood home and what was your favorite room? You must be patient for the answer I am about to relate to you because... There is no simple one paragraph answer. Although it is known that I was born in Hugo, Oklahoma and it was there that my brother James, died when I was about a year old.... and it seems to be correct that the family moved back to Bennington, Oklahoma for a while (for what ever reason I can not explain nor understand.) I do Know, that we later lived at the Northern fringes of Broken Bow, Oklahoma & that daddy worked in a Drug Store there. Details of these events are not clear to me and I must rely on information from my sister (Susan Ruthelle --- Who is 7 years my senior)

My life as I remember it actually began at this location and I can clearly remember the beautiful countryside with the magnificent trees & mountains all around.... I remember going to the woods with my mother to pick up hickory nuts, and how she loved to slash the lower bark of the giant sweet gum trees and gather the gum to chew at a later time. How that daddy would dig sassafras roots (and other necessary parts of the plant) to make Sassafras Tea..... the tea was suppose to help purify the blood.

I remember hearing the Wolves howling at night, and I cried when some men came through our gate from a wolf hunt in the woods after killing a large, beautiful, wolf .... I thought they had killed "The Lone Wolf" that I had seen in a painting we had on the wall. (I was probably 2 or 3 yrs old.).

I remember a little girl, we called "Midget" and her big brother "Buster" ...They had one tricycle and midget would cry when buster was mean to her and knocked her off the tricycle. I remember my brother & sister and maybe some other kids in the area were boiling eggs in tin cans on fires they had built in the back yard....They may not have remembered it as like I did and I suppose I remember it because I thought it was mean when some kids sneaked in out of no where and kicked the cans over... I thought that was mean.

The house in Broken bow is still there (1997) and when I am in the town I go look at it.... I loved Broken Bow and the surrounding country side. North of town on the now non-existent gravel highway was the treacherous hairpin-curve where many accidents occurred... but it was a beautiful sight... then there was the Beaver bend area which is now modernized and converted to a State Park Area... and when they built the Broken Bow Reservoir they destroyed it's pristine natural beauty.

The next move the family made was to Ponca City, Oklahoma which is located just about as far north as you can go and still be in Oklahoma. Kansas was just a few miles from Ponca City and is located on the map at about the center of the northern border of our state. Even at this very tender age I soon noticed a very evident difference in the dialect..... I Knew our neighboring state was "Kan-cis" but why did the people from Kansas pronounce is "Kaun-sis"?

I soon realized that we had moved into the yankee part of Oklahoma and the southern dialect did not fit in too well here. Many years later I became aware that the northern part of Oklahoma (Okla. Territory) had been settled primarily by people from the North while the part of the State that we came from (Indian Territory) had been settled mostly by people from the southern states. Also this part of my story was occuring at a time that was in the neighborhood of 60 plus years since the War Between the States and the awful Reconstruction period. Consider also, that even though we had just come home from Europe after fighting World War I (The War to end all wars) and we had fought gallantly as one nation, there was still somewhat of a rift between the North & the South. [Years later when I first entered service during WW II the induction centers, especially in the south, separated men from the north from the men of the south... and most definitely the blacks were separated even further from either group.]

I remember the prairie in the area around Ponca City but most of all I remember the large oil tanks filled with crude oil, that were lined up neatly in rows all along the way in sight of where we lived. There was a trellis attached to our front porch covered with morning glory vines (may have been honeysuckle) and I would love the fragrance of its flowers and I was impressed by the extra large grasshoppers therein.

My Granddaddy Estes was staying with us at that time and he seemed to be very ill..... my Aunt Virgie, Uncle Ferds wife, had quit her job and came all the way from Texas to help take care of him during that period.

My daddy was a pharmacist working for a Mr. Taylor, who daddy had worked for before. Mr. Taylor had come here to open a drug store in this oil boom town and he had asked daddy to move to Ponca City to work for him. This seemed like a good idea to Daddy and we had moved there for that reason. However, my dad was a very devout Christian and an entirely honest man of great integrity and after about six months my dad discovered , by accident, that Mr. Taylor was selling boot-leg whisky out the back door..... WELL that did it and pop walked out without ever looking back....... Our next move in my young life was to Ardmore, Oklahoma and by now I am about 4 years old & probably about 1925 (26).

* [We are still on the subject of childhood & favorite room]

We had an open touring Star automobile equipped with curtains & canvas top... tool box with all necessary tools located on the running-board, spare cason (tire) mounted at the rear... and I suppose it was a second-hand car but was in pretty good shape. The ''highways'' then were usually dirt or maybe gravel and about the only pavement you encountered was in some of the larger towns. The distance from Ponca City to Ardmore was 200 plus miles and the routes took you all over the countryside because there just was no such thing as a straight route. Sometimes you had to stop the car and open a gate to continue on your way. I was too young to know all about these things but I was not too young to know that it was a miserable trip.

Somewhere along the way we encountered rain and the ditches ran full of water... The road surface was narrow and very slick, especially in that Oklahoma red clay. We slid off in the ditch in the vicinity of Shawnee and broke a front axle. When we hit the ditch Calvin sailed out the back window and landed on his feet. While the necessary effort was being made to get things fixed and going again we were obliged to go into the farm home of some good people and wait it out. Well, dear old dad must have fixed things up, even in the downpour of rain. Usually it took a team of horses or mules to pull a car out of the ditch but during that period of time there were probably more horses & wagons than automobiles on the roads.

The highway through the Arbuckle Mountains that we know as Hwy-77 did not exist and we came through Sulphur and crossed the Washita River somewhere in the vicinity of Berwin (now named Gene Autry....because the movie star had bought a ranch in the area and the folk were so overcome with delight that they sacrificed the name of the town "Berwin" and called it Gene Autry - back in 1941. He later sold the ranch and now you can't get him back even when the people there want to honor him on a day of celebration.).

Anyway we finally made it to Ardmore & Pop moved us into a downstairs apartment on 1st Ave. S.W. at the corner of E St.& 1st Ave. --- The lady that rented us the place was a Mrs. West. This location put us within 3 blocks of where daddy was going to work. The drugstore was located in the S.E. corner of the 1st floor of the Ardmore Hotel... it went by the name of Grissom-Keys Drug Store. (Years later the Hotel was closed and the building was converted into the office building that houses the Lincoln Bank.)

I think Daddy worked there about 3 years and later went down to the Ardmore Pharmacy which was located in the Simpson Building (later the Little Bldg. & now the Colston Bldg.) Daddy worked there about 7 years for Mr.Gravitt at that Drugstore.. (years later Mr. Gravitt sold out and built the new Gravitt Drug Store which later went by the name of Parks Drug & is now the Kerr-Reavis Drug..... At the time Mr. Gravitt built the store everyone marveled at the fact that he would have the nerve to move so far to the outer edge of the business district.... They said he would not make it and in fact he really didn't make it and when he passed away, the store was not very successful even up to that time.)

I seem to wander ahead of my subject but now I will go back & attempt to fill in the "in-the mean-time'' part of this saga. As stated before Pop worked for Mr. Gravitt for several years - the store was a very modern store with an elaborate soda-fountain with full meal service. The Exchange National Bank was located next door --- Where the downtown Citizens Bank is now and the Drug Store sported a very complete cigar and tobacco department... And it had a flame burning at the end of a jet that made the lighting of cigars so very handy.

When there was a parade celebrating the opening of H.W. 77 through the mountains I went up to the mezzanine level and got a perfect view of the most colorful parade I have ever seen.... Complete with covered wagons, buggies, indians, real cowboys, and everything that spoke to the early days of this great land. Drug Stores kept long hours back at that time. They opened early and closed very late --- around 11: P.M.

The old City Hall was located in the same block as it is now but the impressive part was the fire-station which was two-stories in height with a large bell that was rung every hour (by some fireman pulling a rope to make it swing). That same building was equipped with a whistle, much like a steam boat whistle and when a fire was reported and the trucks were making their run the whistle would blow the number of times necessary to advise the public (and the voluntary firefighters) what Ward the fire was in.

First Ward was NW; 2nd. Ward was NE.; 3rd. Ward was SW and 4th. Ward was S.E..... And the town was pretty well divided equally to each of it's 4 Wards. I brought all of this material to the forefront in order to say that often at night while we waited for Daddy to get off work, my mother would take me to the car, which was parked in the parking lot just south of the building, and I could stretch out on the back seat to sleep while we waited, but when that BIG bell rang to tell the time or the sirens and fire whistle would go into play it shook me into reality and fit into my young life in a romantic manner ---

[Much like when at the train depot & watching the sparks fly as the giant wheels on the steam locomotives spun on the steel tracks as the engineer tried time after time to get enough traction to move the 100 or more box cars to rolling speed down the track- They would use large oil cans with long spouts to lubricate the connections and they would deposit sand from the sand boxes onto the tracks to help get traction under the drive wheels ....... sand was also dropped on the tracks in front of the wheels when they were attempting to help in slowing the train down for a stop..... I'll let up a bit here - I don't want to sound too much like Walt Whitman]

There was a sound that still permeates my subconscious ear that is not heard these days. The sound of drums and the blaring of musical horns made by members of the Salvation Army Band as they marched up the streets until they came to their designated spot at the NW corner of Main and North Washington Streets in Ardmore on saturday nights.

When the Salvation Army Major had finished his brief sermon they returned to the Salvation Army building located on First Avenue SW --- All of this was done in a most orderly manner and to me I was impressed by it all because in my very young mind I felt that it was a tribute to the freedom we enjoyed. Likewise it was not uncommon for any itinerant preacher to stand on a street corner and preach the gospel as he felt led to do so. There apparently was no city ordinance against it in those days. We must have taken those freedoms for granted and without noticing it, they gradually disappeared.

Another sound that became common place to me but a very rare one for most people was one I often heard, while if ever, when I was waiting in the parking lot behind the Drug Store and that was the huge ice crushing machine they used to crush ice for the fountain. The noise it made was somewhat like the sound you could imagine by rolling an empty barrel loaded with a dozen broken bricks inside of it. The machine was turned by hand with a crank and when the fountain boy would crush the ice you could hear the noise for a country mile. The machine was located in a little anti-room at the *south entrance to the store (above the door on the outside was a sign stating that this was "The Way To Main Street") and the fountain syrups were usually stored there and most were mixed there to be used in the pumps at the soda fountain. Coca-Cola syrup was furnished in wooden kegs, which were dated, and through its bung hole spout you could fill your container to be carried to the fountain pump.

*(This entrance is still there, and although there is no longer a drug store to walk through, you can reach main street that way just the same.)

We didn't live at Mrs. West's place very long and later moved over on E St. SE (I can show you the house). It was a quiet neighborhood and only about a block from the Jefferson School. The older kids of the family were on their way to school when they looked in the corner of the old school building and they found a pretty little bundle of fur that turned out to be a tiny little puppy...... She was so small and so cuddly that they brought her home and named her "Tiney-gal" - Tiney for short. Tiney was a virtual member of our family for many years. She looked like a small collie but Mama seemed to think she was a mix "Spits & Rat Terrier" because her tail curled up like a do-nut and she could, and did, catch mice & rats in wholesale numbers. We loved this little dog and took such good care of her that she lived to be 18 years old..... I was away in the army during WWII when she died. (I was glad to not be home at that time).

I remember a lady next door had a screened in back porch and she had it occupied by all kinds of colorful birds, I just always thought they were canary birds but she had other kinds too. I remember the smell of burning leaves, as people would rake them up into piles and burn them, the air was blue with the smoke. I liked that neighborhood. By now I am still not old enough to go to school and there was no such thing as kindergarten, so I just knew what I saw.

Our next place of residence was at 711 E .St.NW and it was located less than a block from the Franklin School (1st.Ward). I would be old enough to start to school soon and sure enough we moved to 409 12th. Ave.NW just before I was to enroll. It was while we lived at 711 E. St. my Granddaddy Estes passed away. He had been ill for quite some time and my Mother and Daddy had taken care of him through most of his illness. He died in his bedroom at this house, the year was 1926 and he had just had his 69th. Birthday Oct. 4th that year. I was only five years & 7 months old. I loved my Grand-daddy Estes, and he was always so kind to me... Granddad called me "Sweet-meat" and he had always been a successful man and although he was a Medical Doctor as well as a Registered Pharmacist, I did not know him in that capacity, I only knew him as Granddaddy Estes. Therefore I did not know him in his active days. I do recall that in his better times that he always wore a hat with suit and tie & I guess you could say that he looked like a Doctor.

The house we moved to on 12th Ave. NW was not a very old house but I don't think we were the first family to live there. Some years later I was told that the house was built by Uncle John Martin when he lived in Ardmore. Uncle John (my daddy's brother) was a building contractor and was successful at it where ever he lived. It was in Ardmore where Calvin was born in 1918. Like many other builders he went where there was a need for home building. I suppose he lived here when the oil boom was occurring in this part of the state and actually he lived in Ardmore at least one time after we moved here.

The street we lived on was the last paved street in the north part of town, actually it was a brick street and only went as far east as "A St." which made for a very quiet neighborhood with no through traffic.... We could play shenney in the street with very little interruption from traffic. The house was built to look all right but it was painted a barn red and I thought that was an awful color for a house. Years later (perhaps 4 or 5) daddy had it painted white..... And as time went by the house was remodeled twice in the front that I know of. The back porch was just a little stoop on the north side of the house so Pop had Uncle John to come and build a larger and much more useful porch across the back of the house.

Originally the new porch did not have windows along the north wall so a tarpaulin was rolled up on a long stick so you could let it down when the weather was bad. Here is a good place to mention the room you asked about - this is where they set up a double bed & put many layers of quilts on top of it because this was the room that Calvin & I slept in...''together.'' There was no heat in the "room" and it was isolated from the main part of the house, so in the winter time we tied the tarp down as tight as we could ...and slept through the slapping of the ducking against the screenwire. I suppose it was kinda like living in a covered wagon. This room was necessary through the years, because at various times (some quite lengthy) we had relatives living with us when they were down on their luck.

Without trying to put this in chronological order I will attempt to go through the list of occurrences that my mother and daddy opened their hearts and their home to for the relatives that just had to have help. [Remember; this was before welfare had been seriously considered and besides not one of these loved ones would have applied for it anyway.]

Elzene, Aunt Flora's oldest daughter was ill and needed special food, rest and medical treatment so the pantry for the kitchen was enlarged and converted to a bedroom for Elzene. I don't know how long she lived with us. The collapse of the stock market and the drought that caused the great dust bowl began in late 1929 (all of this after a period of false economic boom after WWI) caused many workers to be laid off from their jobs. Uncle Ferd Estes,(Mothers brother) had worked for Western Electric for 10 years... He was dismissed (now days we call it down-sizing). But worst of all he had lost, to death, his wonderful wife, Aunt Virgie (Harrell) back on May 31, 1929 & shortly thereafter he also lost his infant daughter (Virginia Susan). It seemed that Ferd. Estes's world had fallen in on him. He had served in France during WWI and the veterans of that war had been given no benefits when they were discharged, but there had been talk of a bonus for over 10 years.

There were thousands of veterans that were without work and they were desperate for aid. You have read of the thousands of veterans storming Washington DC to demonstrate and seek help from the Federal Government, but they were forced to leave the grounds under threat of a bayonet. Uncle Ferd did not take part in that effort.... He had about given up on life. He was welcomed into our home and stayed with us for several years. Uncle Ferd was a trained electrician but could find no job. He worked for a while pumping gas at a little two-pump gasoline station... But when Lake Murray Park area was being cleared to build the lake he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. (CCC's) and since he was a veteran he was regarded as a retread and had a position during his tenure there. Later he went to Wilson, Okla. and acquired a little automobile parts store. I don't know how long he was at our home but he was not a burden while there... Later he went to Kingsville, Texas and worked for many years at Corpus Christi, Texas as an electrician.

During this time frame my mother, who was still in her early 40's had a terrible stroke that kept her bedfast for about a year. The stroke had affected her left side and as time went on she could get out in a wheel chair.... Later she could get about with crutches, then a cane and through a strong will and a deep faith in the Lord she vowed that she would walk again... That she would drive the car again & that she would recover... And by the grace of God that is exactly what took place. [Mother died many years later due a stroke & just on the threshold of medical advancements that soon could help prevent a serious stroke].

Aunt Bessie, Uncle Carl's wife, came to stay with us while he was away and, while she was there, she gave birth to a daughter they named Peggy Ruth. My older brother, Edgar, was attending Drury College at Springfield, Mo. and at the time Peggy Ruth was born he was dating a very pretty (and wealthy) young college student by the name of Martha Washington Adams.

I really don’t know how it came about but maybe it was because Edgar was so smitten with Martha that he had her name on his mind and the name was arbitrarily assigned to Peggy Ruth…. Before long the family was calling her "Martha" Ruth. Later when Peggy Ruth’s daddy finally showed up he got that little matter corrected in his usual gracious way. Peggy Ruth is my cousin and lives with her own family at Irving, Texas. She was probably 2 or 3 yrs old when aunt Bessie & Uncle Carl moved to Dallas.

Uncle Cliff (Clifford) Adams died at Wewoka, Oklahoma rather soon after his appendix ruptured. Aunt Flora and Rena came to stay with us for a while. They had very little to get by on and needed support also. When Edwinna (my cousin) married Hugh Roberts and it came time to deliver the child, she came to our house and Gary, her son, was born there. They later lived in Oklahoma City and Aunt Flora went there to live with them. Rena got a job in Houston and went there & later Aunt Flora joined her there. Soon the whole family ended up at Houston, Texas.

Janelle, Ruthelle and Dewitt's daughter and mama & daddy's first grandchild was also born at 409 12 St. NW.

At this point I must make this very important statement in regard to the wonderful Christian Mother & Daddy I was blessed with. From the notes above you can justifiably wonder where the energy, financial resources, determination and dedication could possibly come from. My dad worked very long hours and at that time pharmacists were not paid a high salary... But somehow it was very unlikely to even hear of an unemployed pharmacist & if a job was not open where he wanted to live, he could open his own business and hope to survive. Well you just know that besides a strong will and dedication to his family that my Daddy drew his strength and understanding from his very strong faith in God and the many silent and continuos prayers that he made throughout his life. Yes we attended church when ever the doors were open. My Mother was a good Bible scholar and was very active in various functions of the Church and at the time she had her stroke she was superintendent and teacher in the Junior classes at "The First Baptist Church." The church had just recently been built by members of "The Central Baptist Church" (often called the Broadway Baptist Church) which had been located on the SW corner of C St. & Broadway N.W..... Just west of the Convention Hall (now after rebuilding, it is the Civic Center).

When Mother was bedfast and recovering from her stroke I sat with her most of my free moments and especially at night until Daddy got home from the store. It was then that she told me bible stories and explained passages from the bible that she knew were important for me to know. She explained certain prophecies in the bible. She explained the existence of Heaven & Hell and made you realize they were real places.

How that the deserts in the near east would be productive & produce great wealth and how that water made available to the region would make it possible to produce abundance in food. This was at a time when the Jews were still scattered around the world but she said that the Bible told of the day that they would have their own Nation and that the Jews would return to Palestine. She told me about the floods, earthquakes, & many natural thing that would bring destruction to areas of the earth but that only God had the authority to destroy this earth.

She told me about the Wars and rumors of wars... And how many false prophets would come & how there would be many that would follow them... She mentioned the Mark of the Beast...... These things I did not understand then and although I am seeing many of these things take place I do not understand it yet.

We would see a time when man would possess great knowledge and that many scientific discoveries would be made..... And you know there have been more advancement of knowledge in this past century than all of man's past history combined.

After working a full shift, Pop would change his clothes and work in the garden. We (and I do say "we") dug the garden up with garden forks.

This is ... What you do with the garden fork. You put the fork straight down against the soil and press down on it with all your weight... Then you pick the soil up and turn it over. After the acre or more has been tilled this way (usually by Calvin & me) you then take your hoe and break up the clods into little particles (You may have to" hit the clods with the hoe like you are mad at them).... Then comes the raking of the dirt into a smooth & level surface. Daddy would lay out the rows to be planted either with a hoe or the old push type garden plow (that I have in our barn) that he put a million miles on.

Worms were to be left in the dirt and all bermuda roots must be carried outside the garden area. Then young garden plants were set out, like Cabbage, Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet potatoes etc.

You had to water them and sometime when they needed a lot of water you buried a can (with holes punched in it) next to the plant. This is where you poured the water (understand?) and if the wind and sun were drying the water up too quick then you threw a little loose soil (for mulch) around the surface to help alleviate and correct the problem. Well there is more, but I think , since its getting dark, that I will put my tools up out of the weather, that is, if its all right with Pop.

Daddy had very little time off that could be called free time, except when he took off to visit my Grandpa & Grandma Martin down in Texas around Cumby, Cash or Greenville. It was at their rather large farm where we met & learned to know our relatives in that part of the world. My Grandpa was a rather tall man and was affectionately referred to as Grandpa Red. Grandma was a very small woman & wore thick glasses. She seemed to always be wearing a knit cap on her head for some reason.

*(There will be more written about them later as well as our more frequent visits to see aunt Lucy & Uncle Purlee Wilson at Boswell, Okla.)

1. To be a friend you must be one. Strangely enough sometimes we may have a bad experience with an individual which brings about an atmosphere of distrust, dislike or even hate, but later a reconciliation is made and the individual becomes a very close friend. It seems that this can only happen if both parties want to resolve their differences or if one of them approaches the other in a Christian manner.

2. Do not make up a story or tell a lie. If you tell one lie it seems to open the opportunity to tell another one to cover up the first one and so on. You may forget that you have storied about something and then later have to lie again to cover up the never ending cycle. Besides if you tell the story correctly in the first place you don't have to remember what you told before.

3. Do not try to gain something for yourself in a dishonest manner. Very simply, you will gain nothing by doing so, because some day your sins will find you out and it may cost you much more than your small gain. (This is especially true if you are a Christian).

4. Be kind to the ones you love. A kind word or a kind deed for a loved one is worth much more than a material gift.

5. Don't let the quest for material gain dominate your life. Be thankful for what you can honestly provide for your loved ones and your self.

Less than a mile for elementary but , about a mile for Junior & Senior High Schools. I walked until high school and then I rode my bicycle - which I bought by carrying paper routes and paying for it with every hard cent I managed to set aside for that purpose.