And they were sitting on a bookshelf made from 1”x 6” stained boards propped up with bricks. I think at that point my parents still had 28 “easy” payments left to make on those Encyclopedias. They were a prized family possession and a rare luxury that my Father sacrificed money on to help educate me and my 3 sisters.
We were living in a 100 year old unheated farm house in Keswick VA in those days. $50 per month since the land was being farmed by a share cropper, and the house was a rat hole that nobody wanted to live in. We cut that Christmas tree down from the edge of the field next to the farm land. The toys were gifts from the local church...my Father couldn’t afford such things back then.
