Growing up at Simpson's Camp 3

This is the conclusion of Jim Howell's memoirs of growing up at Simpson's Camp 3 between 1934 and 1946.

We were poor and so were most others. I got two pairs of shoes each year. Ninety-eight-cent tennis shoes for summer - they usually lasted for a month or so and then I went barefoot. When school started I got a new pair of sturdy shoes. For supper our main, and sometimes only course was cornmeal mush. Pork was our main meat staple, except when an old hen quit laying and then we had chicken and noodles.

My dad worked very hard to support Mom and us three kids. He had only one arm - he'd lost h...