Dad worked long hours at his job. He was always glad to get overtime work because it meant a fatter pay check for him to take home to Mother. He had to have some way to get to work, because the Indianapolis street car line did not go all the way out to Broad Ripple. So he bought an old Tin Lizzie that had snap-on curtains for windows and took a lot of cranking to get it started. That was the first family car; Evelyn and I loved to ride in it to downtown Broad Ripple, where Mother did her shopping.

At some time during those early years Broad Ripple was incorporated into the city of Indianapolis [in 1922] and the street car line was extended out to Broad Ripple. We began to get some city services also. Fortunately, the town did not become too citified and kept its small town feeling.

In 1920 Mother had another baby--this time a boy who was named Troy Wallace Scott Jr. (Wally). After that our family grew steadily because every two years we got a new baby brother until there was three more: Howard, Tom and Charles (Chuck). Then there was a lapse of about five or six years before John (Jack), the fifth boy arrived. As they grew up they were known all over town as the Scott boys.

As the family grew, the little house became more crowded. Mother and Dad tried their best to improve and enlarge it, but times were hard and money was scarce, so they had to do it gradually. They installed indoor plumbing first and turned the small kitchen into a bathroom. A room was added across the back of the house for the new kitchen and a small breakfast nook. The upstairs, which was the attic, and one unfinished room were fixed up and served as the boys' bedroom.

Dad dug a basement under the house and had a furnace installed, which made our winters more comfortable. Mother did the washing in the basement with the help of an old wringer washing machine. Unfortunately there was no drain, so all the dirty wash water had to be hauled up the stairs by the bucketful and dumped in the alley. This became the boys' chore, which they hated, and therefore would put off as long as possible.

The End - part two