Ready for Sunday School. Delbert (9), Doris (6), Donald (8) Wilson.

Clabe lived in the Hemphill house SE of Dexter, Iowa, and farmed for B.C. Hemphill. Because B.C. went to the Presbyterian Church in town, the kids took the horse and buggy to church, and tied Nancy to the hitching post on the east side of the church.

That’s why, when Doris had a chance to buy a little Sunday School chair from the church decades later, she got one. I have it now, as I also went to the same Sunday School as a child.

Their mother had just ordered a new treadle sewing machine through the catalog. While the kids were at school, she got a note in the mail that a package had arrived at the post office that was too big to come on the route. She waited for these three to bring the buggy home, then she drove it in to town to get the sewing machine. She made Doris an Easter dress of light green pongee. The fabric was soft and had shiny figures in it.

Doris’s cherry hat came from the Sears Roebuck catalog. She asked if she could wear the hat to school. But, she had it on while she rode on the giant strides and lost the cherries.

Delbert and Donald have new suits. Through the years the hems were let out and let out. And a good thing, too, as Wilsons would soon feel the squeeze of the Great Depression. Delbert and Donald even wore those knickers in 8th Grade.

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