There were 11 children in our family, plus Mom and Dad. I am the third oldest, Howard. I was born in Buffalo, NY in the very good year of 1932, on October 5th.  I have an older brother, Don, who is one year older (Sept 8,1931). Our oldest sister, Jean died of cancer several years ago. Their names in order of birth are; Jean Marie, Donald F, Howard L , William F, Marion N, Tyrone D, Patricia A, Sandra L, Barbara, John E, and Thomas G.

My earliest recollections are of city life in Buffalo. Things were very tough then and my family lived together ... that is, two or three families lived together in the same house. Mom and Dad lived with Grandpa and Grandma Parker, and Uncle Cecil Pettit and Aunt Beulah ( Dad's sister). In all there must have been 15 or more living in that big house. I don;t really remember very much, except that it was a big house with a "dumb waiter".

Work was at a premium and at one time, only Grandpa Parker was working.  A tale is told of Cecil bringing home greens from the A & P store where he worked. I assumed there were given to him. It is told that they, Cecil and Dad, put them in the washing maching to get the dirt out of them.  I'm not sure how it turned out, but I'll bet it was a big laugh. That is after they threw out the shreds? On one occasion I remember finding a large penny on the street. Those were the ones that preceded the Lincoln penny which is much smaller.

People are born with certain characteristics. These can be changed and molded, but they are basic traits that remain throughout a persons life. Brother Bill was born with a "funny bone" He is a joke teller, party pleaser, and general "nut". He is always looking for the hunorous side of everything. He apparently was used to getting into trouble, because Mom had to "tie" him up to a tree so he wouldn't run away.  In the early days when horses pulled the milk wagon, we used to sit on a roof under the second floor window and watch the horse go by. I don't know if Bill did this just once or many times, but he would go down on the street and deliberately walk down the middle of the street right in the horse manure?  I'm not sure if he had any clothes on or not.

Well, we were a big family, and had a lot of fun growing up in several different places. The fact that there are still 9 of us living is somewhat remarkable. Tune in next time for the next episode.