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When Poppie Was A Child Written for Tiffinie ................................................................................................................

	My Daddies father was an only child. As a young boy he lived on a dirt road on the out skirts of Pittsburg, Kansas. Poppies real name is Woody. He lived with his mother and grandmother in a small house on four acres of land. They had apple, plum and pear trees. My Poppie use to climb up into the apple trees and eat green apples. Their little house had running water and a telephone but no bathroom. Poppie had to take a bath in a metal tub on the kitchen floor. He had to walk outside to a little wooden “outhouse” to use the toilet. In the winter they burned coal to keep the house warm. ..........................................................................................................................
	Years ago the coal company dug big holes in the ground to mine for coal. Later the big holes filled with water. These “strip pits” were very deep so you had to be a good swimmer to jump in because there were no shallow areas. My Poppie went swimming and fishing in these deep strip pits. One day he brought home a stringer full of fish. When he left them outside the house his dog ate all the fish, leaving only the heads.
	Poppie rode his bicycle everywhere around Pittsburg. He put baseball cards in the spokes of his bicycle so it sounded like a motorcycle. My Poppie use to go to the movies for only 9 cents. On hot summer days, he would stay in the movie shows all day to keep cool. In those days nobody’s house had air conditioning or a television set. If Poppie needed to phone home, he went to the drug store and put a nickel in the pay phone. Some days he would sit in the drug store for hours reading comic books.
	My Poppie had to walk over a mile to attend school. There were no school buses. He walked to school with his best friend Ralph. The school put Ralph and Poppie in different classes so they would not get into trouble. When Poppie did get into trouble, his grandmother broke a switch off a tree to spank him with. He soon learned to stay out of trouble. My Poppie says that being a young boy in the country was a lot of fun.
	My Poppie wrote out his story, for me, on his computer and sent it to me in an e-mail. He now lives in New Mexico with my grandmother who says she is only 29 years old. Poppie sure has a very young wife.
	Written for Tiffanie

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