Growing Up during the Depression of the Thirties

Walter was born November 9, 1922, (PERSONS born in 1922 are Betty White, Eleanor Parker, Cyd Charisse, Redd Fox, Judy Garland Kay Starr and persons born on November 9 are David Duvall, Tom Weiskopf) (on November 9th, the gates to West Berlin were opened by Russia (On November 9th, 1930 the first non stop airlines flight from New York to Panama)

1922 WORLD EVENTS: Jan 30-World Law Day lst celebrated. Feb 22 Congress authorizes Grant Memorial $1 gold coin. Feb 27 Supreme Court unanimously upheld 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. Mar 6 Babe Ruth signs 3 years at $52,000 a year with NY Yankees contract Mar 14,15,16 Radio transmissions begin. April 16 Annie Oakley sets women's record by breaking 100 Clay targets in a row. May 23 Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company. May 19 US Supreme court rules organized baseball is a sport and not a business and not subject to antitrust laws. May 30 Lincoln Memorial dedicated Greece won independence from Turkey.

His parents who were both twenty-two years of age. The birth took place in the Ephraim McDowell Hospital in Danville, Kentucky, where Blanche Marie Phillips, his mother, had lived since 1916. Dad (David) and Viola Phillips, Blanche's father and mother, lived two blocks from the hospital. Walter's parents, Walter Sr. and Blanche, lived in Lancaster, Kentucky and had just bought a new home in Haselden Heights, where they lived until both died. Walter was told that the house was purchased for $1,800 in 1922, when Walter was born. It was a large house with four rooms on the first floor and two bedrooms and a hall on the second floor but no basement. There was no water and only electric bulbs were hanging from the ceiling. A cistern out back was the water supply and a little two-hole house out back served as the alternate to a bathroom. The lot was 50-by-150 feet, backing on to a farm.

As to Walter's mom's mother and father, Dad (David) Phillips was a master barber on Third Street, just behind the Spoonamore Drugstore at the corner of Main and Third streets in Danville, Kentucky. Dad had five barbers besides himself and his chair was the last one in the line. The shop had showers in the rear and almost every man in Danville came to get a shower, shave, shine, or haircut during the day or week.

When Walter Clay was only four or five years of age, he would visit his grandparents during the summer months and Dad would take him to the shop many days during his stay with them in Danville. He would watch the men getting a shave and watch the shoeshine man shine their shoes. Afterward, some of the men would take him to the drugstore and buy him ice cream in a cone. When the day was done, Walter and Papau would walk home and carry the day's take of coins. When they arrive home, they would dump the coins on the table for counting. When there was an Indian Head penny, it would be put aside for Walter and he still has them in storage to pass on to his loved ones. To this day, there exists a one-man barbershop at the same place on Third Street.

When Walter was not up town, he was with his grandmother, Viola. She was an industrious woman who washed all the towels, sheets and other necessities for the barbershop, using an electric washing machine that had a clothes compartment made of copper. It rocked back and forth and sloshed the sheets and towels to clean them. She also had an electric ironing machine, through which she fed the towels and sheets to dry and iron. Grandma Viola also grew a large garden consisting of every vegetable imaginable, a grape arbor, fruit trees and roses and she canned all kinds of vegetables for the winter. However, the main ingredient was wine from the purple grapes that grew in a grape arbor in the rear of their home. The wine (from sweet purple grapes) drew a large number of doctors and lawyers in the afternoon for a glass of the very potent liquor. This was in the 1920s, when prohibition was enforced and there were no cocktail hours at the restaurants.

The one thing Walter remembers about his grandmother was her arthritis. She was always stiff and hurting and as a result, she tried every remedy available to try to cure this malady. One he remembered was a kit that had electrical attachment and clear glass that housed wires that turned red and blue. She would rub those items on her legs and hips, thinking they would help. They never did any good. Every month a black man would travel to her home and cut her toenails and trim her feet. This was interesting to watch and the man told Walter that someday he may wear the winning boxing belt because his uncle Gus Myers who was his mother's half brother was a prizefighter and pretty good.

One story about Gus was in the news. It seems there was a man who accosted the girls on the street of Danville and the police could not catch the guy. Uncle Gus dressed up as a girl and walked the street where the bad guy had been doing his dirty work. When the man came up behind Uncle Gus, he was coldcocked by the dressed-up Gus and the police had their man. The newspaper carried the story and Uncle Gus became a hero.

Uncle Gus and Aunt Emma, who worked at the Hub Department Store, were living on the same street, only closer to the hospital than his grandparents. They were without children, so Walter Clay was a favorite and was given gifts at Christmas and birthdays. He remembers an outing when his parents, Gus and Emma, took him to Joyland Park in Lexington, Kentucky. He must have been only three years old then and the one thing that sticks in his mind is the little miniature train that he rode on while there. He can remember that because the train had a bell and a conductor, who rode on the engine part of the train. The other favorite gifts at Christmas that were expected every Christmas were Billy Whiskers books, which depicted the life of a pet goat and his many antics.

One man (Mr. McDonald) lived only three doors from the grandparents and was a mail carrier who carried mail from the rail station to the post office. Mr. McDonald kept his horse in a stable behind his house and had a buckboard to haul the mail. Every morning at six thirty, he would hook up the horse to the wagon and head out to the railroad station. He would ask Walter Clay if he would like to go with him and being a boy of five years of age, it was a great...