After the death of brother Bradley, father Brad began taking the family to Gull Lake for Bible conferences. The deal was that he would take them there and give them a vacation if they would agree to attend one of the services. Kenneth always attended…
The Landons' moved to Randolph St. when Kenneth was about seven and a half years old. He was playing baseball and later began to run into gang battles.
The Landons move to Baldwin St., where at age 6 or 7 Kenneth met a girl named Jean Kitchen, whom he refers to as his first great female love, and was pleased to play with her.
Kenneth took a job at Erie Railroad at about age fourteen. His could have been turned down because of his weak physical appearance, but because Brad was his father the foreman took him on. Kenneth recalls working in the storehouse, driving truck.
Kenneth and brother Bradley would hide from their father the money they earned. Their father would take it if he knew where to find it, and actually searched for it. The boys would hide their money inside the newel post on the stairs and dad couldn't…
At age twelve, Kenneth became a tenderfoot boy scout. He went to a three week long scout camp but stayed one week only--he was sick of waking up early to make bread. At the end of the first week he woke up very early to walk thirty miles back home.…
Orphans chased Kenneth's brother home, threatening to beat him up. Once home, Kenneth's mother called the orphans cowards and challenged them, saying her son would beat them one person at the time. No orphan wanted to take up the challenge singly and…
Kenneth tells how his brother Bradley died a year before his graduation from college. Bradley had frequent bowel troubles and their father stupidly suggested once that he used a machine in their home that operated an eccentric (that was "guaranteed…
Kenneth's first bike was made of a girl bike frame and parts from several other bikes. He and his brother were to keep their tires soft lest the repair blows up. The second bike was good and had the right kind of frame.
At age twelve Kenneth would play "follow-the-leader" at a swimming hole in French Creek. His mother didn't want him to be swimming at the river, so he would always manage to come back home with everything dry. But his mother always knew and would…
At age fourteen, Kenneth worked with the Erie Railroad and got used to lifting heavy things in a storehouse, which quickly built up his upper body muscles. He worked various kinds of jobs before working in the blacksmith shop, where he learned to…
Kenneth was close to his mother and inclined to care for her. She was often sick and Kenneth would help her out, doing massage therapy using something called Viavi salve. He remembers buying his mother a new muff and fur piece and charging his father…
The brothers were actually quite close. Kenneth gave him a fine clothes brush once, and an expensive watch he had won playing craps at the railroad shop. Margaret remembers how, when she first met Kenneth, he would talk often of Bradley, and warmly.
At age three Kenneth thought the train was going to run him down when it swerved as it came into the station. He took off, running out of the station and then home. Nobody could catch him, so the family had to have the train held until Kenneth was…
Kenneth loved Necco wafers--the old, large size ones--and he would eat two after breakfast, two before lunch, two after lunch, and three after dinner. His brother Bradley would steal some if he found them.
As a young boy, Kenneth used to travel by train to New York, using his pass and spending time with his aunt Maude. He enjoyed riding the ferry, the street car, and the horse trolley across the city. Aunt Maude was his great favorite.
Kenneth tells about the houses he lived in as a child: the house in which he was born, the houses on N. Main St., Park Ave., Baldwin St., and Randolph St., as well as some of the events associated with the time they were in each one of them.
Kenneth tells how at age 4 he would often go sledding down the hill on Main Street with the help of college students, and how his mother lived in terror as a result. He explains that though there were dangers, nothing bad actually happened.
Kenneth sings a song from his childhood. He mentions that it just came to mind as he was washing the dishes the other day, and Margaret was surprised to that she had never heard it before. Kenneth is quite amused by the way that things that have been…
Kenneth tells how at age 4, mad at his father and his brother for often siding against his mother, he ran away and was captured by and old man at whose house he spent the night and eventually was taken back home the next morning. This was the first…
Kenneth, then six years old, played with a group of boys aged four or five a game called "follow-the-leader." He led the group to jump out of a first story window, then a second story window, and finally from the attic. Two of the boys wouldn't jump…
Kenneth tells about his childhood gang fights using beebee guns and .22 shorts in pistols. They would wear heavy overcoats and shoot at each other with these things. Kenneth sings, "In the fields and in the marshes."
The sequel was just as hilarious. Mae was ill, and people from church came to call with the visiting committee. There were three women. Mae was up and thanked the women for coming. But when they came in the door, they stopped cold and began sniffing.…
Kenneth's mother, Mae, was anemic and was told by her doctor that she should have a stout or dark beer that would help her overcome her anemia. This was standard procedure in those days. The father, Brad, was preaching against alcohol consumption and…