| OCR Text |
Show Robert E. Irion eptember 20'h, 2002 ROB: No. Most of it was in Junction City. That's where I lived most of the time and then was in Milford for about five years. BEN: So where was the high school started then? ROB: I started high school in Milford. Went two years there, then we moved to Axtell, Kansas in '39, and I finished high school there. BEN: Okay. With the various moves and ah, not being too familiar with the Kansas lifestyle, what kind of things did you do growing up? ROB: As a kid, because my grandfather was a farmer- he lived in town, but he had four farms out around in the countryside there. I grew up following him around in his footsteps. At six years old, I used to ride with him in his pickup truck, while he'd go out and check on what the men were doing in the various places on the farms. So when I was a kid, I started my first job- I carried water when I was twelve years old, as a water boy, driving a horse and buggy, believe it or not. With the water bottles, I'd take out to the men who were pitching the bundles and hauling the wheat into the threshing machine. The next year, when I was thirteen, I got a job as a shocker, they called it, where you shock the grain and then pitched the bundles from the shocks on to the wagons that took them in. Finally, when I was fourteen I was driving the truck, hauling the grain. You could get a license at fourteen in Kansas in those days, for farm work. BEN: Was this expected of you, being part of the family, or was this actually pay for you as well? ROB: Oh I was paid- I was paid a dollar a day. BEN: So it was expected of you, but you were receiving some kind of pay? 3 |
