In Palmer, Alaska, 1951

I think this was the summer I turned 11. In this picture, Tootie is 9. I had seen a person on stilts on a movie somewhere and decided I could make some. I used 2x2 boards about six feet long, pieces of 2X4 for footrests, and straps from an old belt to hold my feet in. I got a friend in the Army to find me some old combat boots, and nailed the top parts to the stilts to hold my legs in place. I had to sit on the top of our Husdon Hornet to put them on. Two things amaze me about this incident. The first is that I never fell down. I caught on quickly, and walked all over the place, up hills, over ditches -- I was king of the world. The second thing that amazes me is that Mom let me do it in the first place. The two dogs in the foreground are Butch, our Cocker Spaniel, and(I believe) Suzie, our Golden Husky that we adopted when someone shot her left eye out.