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[underlined/] Waco [underlined]
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Sam had been taken ill with a heart attack, while working in Buffalo and when the illness became prolonged, Clayt had changed his work to working at nights, taking care of Sam daytime. Finally Sam was taken to the hospital, and for nine long months lay completely paralyzed except for his eyes. (His heart had been injured when he was about fourteen and his rapid growth to six feet two and a half inches, coupled with an energetic nature, didn't help to overcome the weakness.) Sam's life was despaired of, so his Mother took him home to Minneapolis, where he recovered rapidly. Clayt's care of Sam during this illness left Sam with an exorbitant sense of obligation. It was on the return to Buffalo, that Charlie and George found the boys, decidedly on their uppers. Since George and Charlie had their ships paid for, (nearly), ad good mechanics were as scarce as test pilots, in the ensuing years, who could tell an engineer by analogy what "bugs" were in the design. An arrangement was made for Sam to work for George and Clayt for Charlie. I had not met either of the boys, as yet, but knew of them from hearsay. George and I took a summer cottage on the Lake Shore, across from the boy's flying school. The field was bound on one side by the customary high tension wires, (for the interurban), and a deep twenty foot ditch on another side. In this arrangement, George could come home for lunch, and I could be nearby in fresh country air. It was the first time I had ever been on a farm, much less lived on one, so I committed more than theusual "city" errors, accidentally saw a calf born, tamed a wild rabbit from infancy; learned the difference between hay and wheat, helped in thrashing time, by peeling potatoes by the hundreds, and even put the pies, by the dozens, together. I also learned why farmers do not eat as well as city folk, for all the cream and best foods go to town. Buddie was just months old so the lack of improvements made a summer cottage difficult and the daily dozen more than the usual. The boys pumped the water for me.