Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

2.4. RETURN TO WEST VIRGINIA Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIher bachelors degree.2.4.5 Sand ForkIn the fall we moved to Sand Fork in Gilmer County where mom would teachschool.The high school at Sand Fork was very small and there were no coursesgiven at the time in mathematics. The only sport offered was basket ballwhich I detested. At noon the boys boxed and I participated in this but itwas not a school sport.During this year our house burned to the ground, with all our clothes andbelongings (1937). The car was saved but since the keys were lost it couldonly be driven after I jumped the switch. It was weeks before we found aperson who could make a key from lock numbers. The people at Sand Forkwere wonderful. They took up a collection of canned food and clothes forthe family. The Hayes family allowed us to stay with them until we couldfind another house. For a long time in the new house our main furnisher wasorange crates.The house we found was really half a house. The other half was occupiedby Pentecostal “missionaries”. These people had come to Sand Fork fromAkron, Ohio to bring religion to the natives.After a series of “rolling in the leaves”, speaking “strange tongues” typeof revival meetings the populace tired of them and withdrew their support.The Pentecostals would not plant a garden or otherwise do useful work. Theyspent hours praying for food and if someone brought them a jar of cannedfoods, more hours giving thanks for it.We moved to another house and left these people. We still had our 1936Chevy and Ray and I became interested in working on it but we had no tools.I would let boys who couldn’t drive drive for a block or two in exchange for awrench, pliers etc. and gradually obtained tools enough to work on the car.In exchange for a boat I let one boy drive about four blocks. He hadfound the boat after a “raise”. I paddled many miles up and down the Little17