The Cooks lived right behind us and Margaret Cook and I were playmates.  We went to the Blacksmith Shop once in a while to watch her father work.  He did not like us around too much though as it was very dangerous. 

One day Margaret, her brother Billy and I were playing in the Cook’s yard.  We saw a big touring car stop on the street behind their house.  There were several men in the car and we saw them tie bandanna handkerchiefs over their faces.  We ran in and told Mrs. Cook and also my Mother that we saw some robbers.  They thought we were making up the story and just laughed at us.  My father called Mother to get me inside and soon he was home to get his gun.  Sometimes it pays to listen to the children. 

One hot summer day the whole town was put on alert by the fire siren.  Margaret Heminger, who was 2 or 3 years older than me, was missing.  Everyone was searching for her and the men were at the lake in boats hunting.  It was a scary situation.  After several hours had passed without any sign of Margaret, her parents were getting very discouraged.  All at once here came Margaret into the house.  It turned out she had gone up in the hayloft and had fallen asleep.  She hadn’t heard the siren or any calling, but just had taken a long nap! 

Another exciting day for our town was the day the gypsies came.  There were several carloads of men, women and children all dress in bright clothes.  They parked their open touring cars in our block, right in front of our house.  The men folk went uptown and the children got out and played on the walk.  Mama locked the doors and we peeked out the window to watch them.  One of the gypsies came to our back door with a canvas bucket.  He knocked, but Mama did not go to the door.  Then he filled his bucket from our pump.  Toward the end of the day the caravan left town.  They may have been told to leave because they were watched closely for shoplifting.