By Land and By Air

my stormy arrival had something to do with some of the storms in my life, but I am quite sure that my parents were quite happy to have the only baby boy that survived, as later my twin brothers died, and the youngest boy was born dead two weeks before my mother died, although seven girls survived to grow up and get married.

Through the years, many fights occurred between me and John Blue, who was three years older, but he had one weak spot; if he was struck on the nose, it started to bleed, which ended the fight for that day. I also had to battle with Willie Sickles. We were about the same age, but we fought many battles, often started by one of the bigger boys who liked to watch the fights. Willie, who went to Boston, visited me many years later, when I was a Doctor in Eldon. At that time he was a large, able, good looking man. I was the only one he could remember of the former students of Little Sands school

I never could enjoy going to concerts, as there was always that idea of a fight hanging over me but, no doubt, it prepared me for some of the verbal battles which I had to fight in my later years. One time I went to Sunday School with Hughie MacNeill, who asked me why I was not outwith the boys. When I told him that the older boys tried to pick a fight with me, Hughie took me outside, and he told the boys, ”This is my friend from the West; anyone who as much as lays a hand on him will have me to contend with,” as Hughie was known for his boxing fame in his Boston days, as a conductor on the street cars. No one ever made any attempt to hassle me after Hughie's announcement, and being in a crowd became much more relaxed and pleasant. I could not but remind myself of Hughie’s kind deed as I attended his funeral, on such a stormy day that I was the only pallbearer able to get to his funeral, some 70 years later.

36