The school he attended was Huntington Township. He had to walk 1 1/2 miles one way.
His mother would pack a lunch of homemade bread and apple butter and sometimes an apple. Apples must have been abundant in their home. He can’t remember what kind of container he took his lunch in, possibly a lard bucket.
His clothes were always patched up. He started off with one pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year and when he outgrew them he had to go barefoot.
He said that he was never kicked out of school but did play hooky a few times. He spent the hooky days hiding out in a corn field looking up at the clouds. This seems like he was just escaping, trying to make sense of his life. The teachers assigned homework but he usually didn’t do it.
I asked him what his hopes and dreams were as a child. He told me he wanted to have a happy childhood. The way he has described his childhood to me makes me think he had a very lonely existence. The family was on survival mode. They were taking care of the physical needs for their children but the emotional needs of these kids weren’t getting met. Again – this makes me so sad.
A couple of nicknames that Carl had were toe head since he had white blond hair. His mother would also call him her potato boy.
He can’t remember having a crush on a girl while in school. I found this hard to believe but he was very shy and intimidated with being so impoverished.
2FaithfulSisters 