"The Rat And My Nose”

     In the spring of 1932, it was moving time again but this time our parents bought a place south of Des Moines that we knew as the Butler place. It was a small house with no running water, bare wood floors, and no bathroom. Mamma and Daddy slept in one end of the living room. The rest of us in the other end until Daddy could build on two more rooms, one was a bedroom for the girls and the other one a bedroom for the boys.  We have many fond as well as bad memories of this place.

            One night while I slept, a rat entered our room. Climbed up on my bed and began chewing on my nose.  I awoke to a series of sharp pains and felt the rat’s feet on my chin while he chewed away on my nose.  I wanted to scream for fear and from the pain but I was afraid to open my mouth.  All I could do was groan and that I did as loud as I could. Franticly (sic) I tried to lift first my right hand and then my left from under the covers to knock him away but as quickly as my hands reached out from under the covers, the rat would chew on my fingers.  I didn’t know how many rats there were there for it was dark.  Merv heard me groaning and came to my rescue.  He chased that horrible creature away and then went to tell Manna and Daddy what had happened.  They didn’t believe him and told him to go back to bed.  When he told them I was covered with blood they said I probably just picked my nose so Merv went back to bed.  I covered my head with my blanket and even then I was so frightened and hurting that I couldn’t sleep.  I pulled the covers as tight as I could around my head.  The next morning after I heard Mamma in the kitchen I got up and went into the kitchen.  When she saw me, she almost screamed for then she realized it was really true.  She cleaned me up and put medicine on my sores.  She felt so bad that she hadn’t believed Merv when he first told her.  From that day until I was married I always slept with my covers tightly pulled over my head – summer and winter.