Sid: The Early Years

Here ‘tis, fellow travelers. I just know that all of you poor unfortunates out there have been waiting for this great burst of nuclear energy to turn our very own internet into a raving monster that can and will devour all those who venture onto its shimmering surface. This bundle of energy can turn our planet EARTH into another planet Mars, into a rocky lifeless mass. Yes, fellow travelers, you are taking your chances but here goes:

This is a Sid King blog. Delve deeply into your computer’s innards. You will find there a mass of wires and other assorted parts. Dig carefully but deeply. Soon a red glow appears, signifying that you have uncovered the source of all energy – SID KING’S BLOG. Read on at your own risk

You may have already read SID’S attempts at blogging located elsewhere in this mishmash of words, sentences, paragraphs and so on.

Anyway, Sid first saw the light of our world on January 21, 1920, in Fairbank, Iowa, a small farming community in north eastern Iowa. Our family was very middle class, my father being the proprietor of King’s Grocery. My father’s mother, Nellie King, and her step son, Percy, also lived at this home. A bit crowded!! My mother’s two sisters, Gertrude (we called her “Gersie”) and Nelle (crippled), played a rather dominant part in the raising of me and my younger brother, Bill, since both were teachers and assured of a steady income during the Depression years.

I might mention that the Depression of the 1930’s had a great influence on my growing up. I was always neatly dressed and attended church regularly. Had roles in school plays, vainly attempted sports, attempted (and sometimes successfully) attempted flirtatious relations with the young ladies at school, and so on. I spent several summers at the Methodist Church Camp at Clear Lake, Iowa, with kids mostly in my own age group.

There also was a serious side to those years. There were two high schools in Fairbank, the public school and the Catholic School. There was considerable rivalry between the two schools which often led to physical encounters, i.e. fist fights... I was never condemned at home because of fighting; actually, I believe my father who had a son, small physically, (that’s me) that would fight the largest of his rivals, and usually best them Actually he was very proud to have an offspring that would “wave the King banner against any enemy and be victorious.”

However, life in Fairbank during the 1930’s was not entirely fisticuffs. My Dad had a sister living in Minneapolis and we visited there quite often. My Dad enjoyed camping out and we did quite a bit of this. I can vividly recall a lunch in Hibbing, Minnesota, in the pouring down rain with my Dad holding an umbrella over my Mother in the midst of this violent rain storm. An aside – my mother’s two sisters often accompanied us on these camp outs, I have often thought it was more for help with the costs of the journey than for the companionship they furnished.

I also recall taking in the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, our home of record during this period being a run-down campground NEAR Chicago (of all places) but it was CHEAP.