The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-08
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

March. because it brought the winds which would lift the kites.
 do not think so much of store- bought kites. I realize that they are necessity. for city children somehow do not as rule have the initiative in making their playthings which those living in the smaller towns and coun- try have.
 I recall distinguished lawyer, l reared in well-to-do family, in which l there were five boys and four girls, speaking of the joy each one used to I get out of the simple and inexpensive toys which came at Christmas time. He was contrasting the blase attitude of his own little ones even over their high priced mechanical toys.
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 | look back on my own boyhood days, My father was most induIgent and gave without stint to his children. We had pony and got a lot of fun out of him. for we lived at Eufaula We had guns and dogs, and fishing tackle and made traps and lived in the woods and the fields, and had lot of fun in natural wholesome way.
 1 You know I think boy misses a great deal who has not had close sorry for the city lads with all that money can buy save the things which boy nature most needs and that is to know something about outdoor life that cannot be had in playing baseball or golf. or rowing on a pleasure lake surrounded by amusement features. I am glad that my father gave us 1 wide latitude in our soings and com 1 for it made us independent. We hunted. fished and ran wild. and during the summer spent the greater part of the afternoon in the Chattahoochie river, or the Chewalla creek or Sherrys mill pond: It was a species of unrestrained life that few lads get in city.
 I am very much afrLfd that the mod ern city boy is too much coddled. I | l2 years old. I asked father to let me go to Blue Springs to spend a month. I went all by myself. made all arrange ments. ran my own schedule. Went swimming. fishing or hunting every day' In other words. was my own l man.
 I recall now with some amuseme t | that while at Blue Springs, Billy Mur- phy came over from Troy with a fine trotting horse. and look a fancy to me and asked me to go nome with him for week. It appealed to me- and without writing home. or considering if anything out of the ordinary, I went with him. and I had the time of my life, and remember him to this day with genuine affection because his heart went out to a boy. s~s.a know to be writing in this way will sound like treason to many fathers and timid mothers but I believe the best thing parents can do for their boys is to give them a chance to be self-reliant. Father trusted us, and knowing this we son learned what it meant to be put on honor. He taught us to be truthful. but he never both cred us about petty rules. or put us through civil service examinations ev- cry time we showed up.
 But if I don't quit this reminiscing I'll have so much tail to my kite story that it won't fly. Now. if you ever made kites when boy. you will recall that it took some art to get the tai. just right; for if too heavy it would stick to- the ground. and if too light It had to be just right. and it took a master hand to get it just right. Oh, the joy of getting the proper kind of wood for the strips and then the luck of finding strong, thin paper, and then the pleasure of mixing the paste for in my early days there was not such an abundance of ready-made ad- ! hesves, but with flour and water we could manage to get sticky sub stance that would do the workA I. might not have been as clean job as some of the modern pastes. but it held tightly. all the same.
 Then. what a joy 1t was to save >ur to get enough twine to send the kite higher than any of the-othef kids. To this good hour I like to stop and watch gang of boys trying to get their kites started bv running with them. There is many bitter failure uptil the guide strings. in front and the tail are equally balanced: but my, whai q moment when it takes an upward curve and misses the telegraph wires and gets over the tree tops and then sails heavenward.
 I have fished in many streams and attended some of the great fishing contests. I have tried deep water, the dead lakes, rivers. creeks, ponds and and black bass I have had expensive fishing tackle, and owned some cole. brated fishing rods. l. have known the wild joy when lad with reed ir hand. watch my cork sink and then give one frantic pull and throw min now over my head.
 I have stood waist deep and fell my reel sing and watched my rod bend. and have sensed the electpic cur rent of the pull of the flashing live game fish as it swallowed the fly. anJ it's some sport: but I ask you fisher men. that is. if you were raised in a lev <,n1Y rto,. li stxrsr, z