Mahlon fixed up an old bicycle for us to ride. It was hard because there was no money to buy new tires, but I all of us little kids got a chance to ride it some. He made a wooden gun for Lloyd when Lloyd was about eight. I remember how lucky I thought Lloyd was because he got to play with that gun. The hoodlin’ wagon was the best invention. He made a cart that had two big wheels. We used this for everything, to haul milk cans, garden produce, flower bed clippings and everything that required something bigger than our Radio Flyer red wagon. We often pulled each other around in it also for fun. There was a shed in the west field that was divided in half. There was a square cut in the bottom about 15 inches square for the chickens to go from half to the other. This shed was used to store junk and machinery. Mahlon bet me I couldn’t crawl through that square. I did and to this day I have nightmares about being stuck in that square.
We used to all play hide and seek – “Ollie Ollie oxenfree, who’s all out, come in free” – indoors as well as indoors. Playing this game inside with dim visibility of coal oil lamps, so one night, my brother Mahlon picked me up and put me in daddy’s overalls that always hung behind the door. Being very small, I just sit there, hanging inside the overalls, and no one ever found me. Very imaginative!