22.

1. what did your mom and dad do for a living?
before becoming a lifetime farmer, he owned "helpy self laundry" (LOVE THAT NAME!!) as well as a cafe. all of the kids worked at the cafe. (i knew about the cafe because nanny taught me how to properly set the table and how to carry 5 dinner plates at one time to the table because of her experience at the cafe)

2. what is your fondest childhood memory?
meeting all the kids that lived around us halfway at a tree. we would yell out our front door to all the other houses "meet you halfway", then all the kids would run to the halfway tree. if you got to the halfway tree first, you would say "i'm halfway".

3. did you go to school in a one room schoolhouse?
no, it was a four room schoolhouse. we had a spanish teacher that took a crash course in spanish to be able to teach. he laughed at himself every time he said something in spanish. the only thing we learned in this class all semester was how to count to ten in spanish.

4. were you a good student?
i don't know if i was smart, but i never had to take finals because my grades were good enough that i was able to comp out of taking them.

5. what is the biggest world event that has happened in your life?
the bank crisis. this did not have a huge effect on my family because we were poor and had no money in the bank, but this was devastating to many people and to our country. people were committing suicide by jumping out of buildings on wall street. this was the beginning of the great depression. i hear the word recession being thrown around now, and i can't imagine that our economy will ever be in as terrible shape as it was during the 30s.

6. what are some of your memories of pa?
i wanted sell all of our silver dollars when they were worth $27 dollars for 1 silver dollar. reid would not let me do this and said that silver dollars would be worth so much more someday. silver dollars are worth about $4 today.

he told me that one day we would be able to see a football game that was happening in new york from our living room. i could not imagine this to ever be true. clearly he was right.

7. where all have you lived?

i was born in center point, arkansas. we packed up 2 cars and a truck and headed to texas. we spent our first night in a wagon yard in henrietta, tx. we lived in gasoline, quitique, amarillo, cactus and back to quitique. reid was transferred from quitique to lamesa to work at a tire store, which he eventually bought and renamed reid bethel tire company. i have been in lamesa for 65 years. (reid bethel tire company has a famed miss uniroyal in front of it still today)

8. did you know any of your grandparents?
i only knew "ma cook". everyone called her ma cook because she had 5 names that were really long and difficult to pronounce. she did not have any teeth, and she always chewed tobacco.

i'm so happy this was on the list!