Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

2.4. RETURN TO WEST VIRGINIA Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIThis was during the last years of the American chestnut tree and chestnutscould still be found although most of the trees were dead. The nearest storeswere about four miles away and it was quite a job getting supplies such asflour, sugar etc. This chore fell on me as the oldest and at eight years oldlugging flour, lard and sugar over West Virginia hills was not my idea of fun.We children were city raised but it didn’t take long to adjust to thenew type of life. We learned to like meals generally consisting of potatoes,sorghum, corn bread, milk etc. My mother cooked in the fire place with bigiron kettles and skillets. We persisted in calling stones bricks and had othercity traits which our neighbors found amusing.2.4.2 Poor and Hungry in MinnoraWe moved from Nicut to Minnora after about one year (1930?) so my mothercould be near the school she taught. My mother bought a 300 acre farm whichis where the Minnora parsonage is now.The farm was mostly hill side and woods. We bought some cows, pigsand a horse. The horses name was “Dan Patch” and was one of the meanesthorses around. He would bite or kick any of the children he could reachas long as somebody did not have hold of his head. However, once he washaltered or bridled he was O.K.My mother lost her job teaching school. At the time the members of theboard of education insisted on being paid by teachers to whom they assignedschools. My mother refused to do this and lost her job. Our income for along time consisted of 40 to 60 dollars a month, from my father’s disability.My brother and I hoed corn from six o’clock in the morning to six atnight, and things were in general very hard.Our meals were very skimpy and at times almost non-existent. My motherraised two big gardens and we butchered hogs, raised chickens and cows, buteven so we were often hungry.One summer most of our hogs died from cholera, and we didn’t have anymeat for a long time.11