LIFELINE I

 

LIFELINE I

I was born August 19, 1941, at home at 84885 Hwy. 9, Lineville, Alabama, to CLANDA FERNE GARRETT INGRAM & WILLIAM GIFFORD INGRAM.

December 4th marks the "Day Infamy" when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and U.S. entered WWII, and which I was born at and lived into.  I have many memories during the war, including the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, at his beloved Little White House Historic Site, GA. I was at my Aunt Eunice Garrett's (wife of Artis) house in Riverview (now Valley), AL, and neighbor Mrs. Abernathy burst into the house with her Southern drawl "the Pres-i-dent's dead".

I also well remember the day late in the war that a very low flying plane, a Japanese Zero, with the red circle symbols under the each wing.  I was standing in my backyard and ran up the steps into the house to tell Mother.  I was so scared that we were being invaded I peed my pants.  I only learned when Bob Riley was Governor that the Alabama Air National Guard a few Zero's, captured in the war, that flew over the state frequently.   I was relieved to learn that, because I gone through life no one had believed my story.

The war ended and in the Fall of 1947 I would enter Lineville Elementary School.  I never had a 1st day of school because I was in Shawnee, Oklahoma celebrating my 6th birthday with my two first cousins Judith and Caroline Malone.  The family had taken vacation in Shawnee to see the Malone's (Alma and Rev. Clifton) and celebrate my birthday.  I remember the beacon light at the Shawnee Airport that rotated 360 degrees once every 10 seconds.  I remember the hot nights when people slept on their roofs.  I remember the beautiful 1907 round fountain in the grounds of-the SantaFe Depot Museum.  (It has fallen into a state of disrepair currently.  The fountain was donated by the National Alliance of Philadelphia.)  I also remember the ornate Central Fountain Woodland Park.

My school days were always special because I always got excellent grades and therefore special privileges like reading all the books in the second grade in the first-grade.  When I finished high school, I couldn't read all the books in the school library, but I tried! I got a double major for my degree at Samford University in Art and... ENGLISH!  I believe that was the reason achieved the level of Senior Management, one of 400 in the company, at Chrysler Corporation.  It also could have been that I could out-talk Engineers without a degree!  I have the suspicion that my bosses throughout my career read Stamford, rather than Samford, in my resume.  They may have thought they just left out the "t", but I never tried to prove that!

KEITH