This was written probably in the fall of 1928 in Lexington Kentucky.  It is written in pencil on lined paper.  Perhaps it is a draft of a college entrance essay?

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Walter C. Scott

The Story of My Life

Although I was born in Kentucky, the first that I remember was the two years our family lived in the Arkansas river valley of Arkansas.  Although only four years old at the time I well remember the play house that my sister and I made, and also my first time at school.  Here I received my first lesson in perseverance when my uncle made a pair of stilts for me, for as you well know I could not walk on them at first trial.  I was advised however not to burn them at the time and I soon learned to walk on them.   I also had my first trial at picking cotton.  Starting out one afternoon at one thirty with high ambition I was very tired by the time I had picked a quarters worth, but about 1914 that bought me a pair of gloves so I did not wory. 

The year the great war began, our family moved back to Kentucky and bought a farm of two hundred acres in Meade County.  The farm had been rented for several years and was not in very good condition, but as about two fifths of it was in woods, we cleared many acres which grew the best of burly tobacco. 

I was again started to school when I was six years old, making about average grades, and most of the time liking school pretty well.  I always managed to like my teachers although I liked some better than others and think helped me.  This attitude I think was brought about partly by my mother's influence, as she had been a school teacher, and knew how to sympathize with the teacher.

The year I was eight, dad started building a very large barn, which interested me very much while the lumber was sawed and while being made into a barn; but what interested me most was two pet lambs, one that I bought and one that my uncle gave me, which I had the responsibility of.  I had very good success with them and in about three years I had a flock of ten sheep besides money in the bank.  I incidentally kept them until I was eighteen, but how they thus disappeared is another story.

When I was twelve, I took the eighth grade exam, but failed.  I went to a town school two months, took the exam again and passed with a grade twice what I had made before in gram.  I started to Ekron Hschool the following fall and went on until the mid term was ended; but got sick and could not keep on in school, so I went home to help with the farming.

The next fall I started to Big Spring High, a two year High S., which was close to home.  I was mostly interested in basket ball and my second year there, my team won over every team in the county, and as I played center, I felt pretty important until one of the teams practiced themselves into good shape and gave us a good beating.

After my second year at Big Spring High I helped dad put in a big crop of corn and tobacco, but when school time came again he let me go to B'burg high to finish my course.   My younger sister and I had our first experience at light house keeping.  I determined to get through in three and one half years so I took five subjects the first symester and made pretty good grades so I was allowed to make six subjects the last Sym.by getting one outside of my regular work.

After school I again helped dad on the farm but in July I was taken very ill and was several weeks recovering, and when got better again, my Uncle Harold Scott , who was visiting from Iowa, took me back with him.  We went almost to the border line of Canada sight seeing, then came back to Iowa and here I worked on a dairy one month, picked corn for a time and in all saving my first one hundred dollars. I came back to Ky. in December, finished senior year in High school, took the teachers exam and passed with a grade of 88.6 and then attended the month of C.M.T.C. which is held at Camp Knox.  I taught a rural one room school for the seven months, until Feb 10, 1928 and helped on the home farm until about June 1. Since then I have hunted jobs, having varying luck and making various wages at some dozen different jobs, and at the present have only a Courier Journal route which I think I can make my school expenses with.

Walter at Citizen's Military Training Camp