Our two story house (small for all the living and the lives it con- tained) was seldom quiet but actually more orderly than you would assume. We had a spare room, the living room and kitchen down- stairs and two large bedrooms upstairs. Mommy and daddy were buying this house on contract and we moved in when I was only two years old. We had coal stoves for heat and no inside facilities save the cold running water at the kitchen sink. Linoleum floors were always cold on my little feet in winter.

Although poor, we were happy and our family grew. Mommy always said she wanted six children and all to have the same daddy. About the time I was five we received the blessing of a new mem-

ber. A curly dark haired cherub to be named Shay. At first I wasn’t really cracked up on sharing the limelight I had owned for so long and was heard to advise people coming to see the new baby to play with me instead as Shay was red, ugly and always crying. I later learned to be a good big sister. Good thing cause before I knew it we had another sister named Beth. Now she was a redhead and a bit of a loner right from the start. Soon I had become an old hand at sharing and settled right in with along came Becky and just one short year later Maria, arrived by now we were quite a crew and daddy had all but given up on having a son, but remembering mommy’s wishes for six children they tried again. This time a son named Marcus was born. Daddy had his son and mommy her six children and life was very good. Times were hard but love flowed freely and this is the preface to the tales of good times and bad to be shared in the pages of this book.