Home life was pretty good.  Daddy worked as a rural mail carrier and Mamma ran the house.  Mamma's real name was Eva, but most people called her Totsie.  I have my suspicions about where that moniker came from, but I guess I'll never know.  She was short (about 4' 9") plump (around 150 lbs) and had dark brown hair.  Born in 1910, she knew about most everything that happened in the 20th century.  She lost a sister and a father to the "Spanish Flu" in 1918.

Totsie sometimes carried a gun.  She kept the .32 S&W in her apron pocket a lot of the time.  I remember more than once when someone came to our door, Mamma answered it with hand on pistol.  It didn't occur to me until years later that since our house was on a dirt road and really remote from everyone else that we were in danger from outsiders.  Now, I protect my home much the same - except I don't wear an apron all the time.