Looking Back

This photo of JoAn Key, Suzie Perry and Carole Curtis on Charlie Perry’s horse captures a moment of simple fun in the post-World War II years. Mrs. Key, then 11 or 12 years old, lived on the Arnold Farm, down the road from the Perrys, the Chandlers and the Lukerts. “Charlie and a friend of his would ride to our house on their horses. He had brought the horse down to our farm and he took Suzie and me and Carol for a ride,” Mrs. Key said. “He let us ride, and then took our bicycles. There was a hill near our land on Arnold Road, and everybody liked to walk their bicycles up the hill, and they would ride down fast. The funny thing was, they would often ride the bicycles around and we would ride the horse occasionally - not me, because I wasn’t too fond of horses.”

Mrs. Key earned money every summer from raising and selling chicks and tending to her father’s chickens. “He fixed a coop where I could keep them inside,” she said. “I had to feed them and take care of his chickens. I could sell them - I didn’t want to eat them. I would sit in the chicken coop and pet them. Before school started, I would sell my chickens and I would buy my Christmas gifts.” Occasionally, she also joined her sisters in pulling cotton, and those earnings bought the bicycle that Charlie Perry and his friend liked so much.

“We were taught that if you wanted money, you earned it,” she said.