We grew up very low-middle class.   My father was a barber and my mother was a substitute teacher who then went into the homes.  She taught handicapped children…oh what are they called?  The ones with the large water heads and that?

So, she would go to their homes and teach.  With dad being a barber they didn’t make big money back in those days, and we didn’t get things we always wanted but we got what we needed.  There were two girls, my sister and I, and needless to say, I won’t tell you that’s where my name comes from.  I was to be the boy who was to be Walter Louis.

So that’s where Walta Lou came from, and anyway, mother would, like for birthdays she would make a new dress for our dolls.  Dad would do things for us, mother always baked us a special angel food cake.  Things like this.

She always made everything very special, a special holiday for us, but we were not, we couldn’t just go and say we want to go and buy a new dress.  We didn’t have it.

Mother canned and we had our own garden, raised our own fruits, vegetables, whatever, we did and then we had to pitch in and help.  I used to stand and iron my dad’s barber towels, and when we washed, we had the old ringer-type washer and we heated our water (Laughs) Sunday nights so we could wash Monday morning!

The clothes.  Monday was always wash day.  Tuesday was ironing day.  That’s back when they used to do things, you know, in a pattern.  A certain day for a certain thing.   Sunday was always church and then we’d have family in for dinner, and then Monday we’d start right in again.