General Notes

[basham.ged]
Our Father was a very intelligent person. He only had a third grade educ
at ion, but there was never a Math problem he couldn't solve in his he
ad b ut the hard ones he couldn't put on paper.
He was a very hard worker and was very innovative. Had he had an educa
ti on he would have been an outstanding business man. He was very succes
sf ul even without a formal education.  In 1938 there was a flood in Mile
s, T x. where we had a wholesale oil business. All the farmers had their c
ro ps wiped out. I don't know how my Father did it but he furnished fu
el to a ll of his customers for over a year without pay. To this day the
ir relativ es still remember what he did, and thought the world of him f
or helping th em at such a crucial time in their lives. At one time peop
le kept steali ng his 50 gallon drums so he painted a huge T on all of the
m. After th at he was forever known as Big T. I felt I was very importa
nt when I was s mall because he took me on his deliveries to the far
ms to open the gates f or him. It was very difficult for my Father to sh
ow affection to we childr en. The only way we knew he cared for us was wh
en he would give us gift s. If we were in school events he would never l
et us know that he had be en to see us perform. My Mother would tell us la
ter. WE had a very norm al childhood and I enjoyed every minute of i
t. My Father was a good provid er and we never knew that their was a depre
ssion . We knew it but we didn 't feel it like the other people in Mile
s. When the banks closed I rememb er Daddy saying he lost everything he h
ad in the bank.  In his later yea rs my Dad drank a lot. After he got diab
etes he had to quit drinkin g.  We were thankful for that, especially f
or my Mom.