Black Diamonds: A Child's Joy & Loss

These memoirs describe what it was like to grow up in the 1930s on a small poultry and dairy farm in Eastern Wyoming. Older relatives of the author obtained title to properties in this area via homesteading. Due to the construction of Pathfinder Dam on the North Platte River, the formerly arid lands where they farmed could now be irrigated.

The author recounts the circumstances which led to his parents meeting and marrying. His family lived for fourteen years in a basement house. He describes how his family persisted through close brushes with death, frequent illnesses, the financial depression of the 1930s, drought, dust storms, grasshopper infestations, hail, and the womenfolk made clothing from empty feed sacks.

The story starts before the depression of the 1930s and continues until the author entered the Naval Academy in 1944. The author recalls the excitement of learning new ideas in school and the activities of recess. He remembers the long hours spent on farming tasks-irrigating, gardening, tending the cattle and chickens, painting, milking, and delivering milk. He recalls his great interest in railroads. He notes the almost indescribable joy of his mother when the family built a real house and moved into it in 1941.