Flash Gordon and Rocket Man were the big serial...
Flash Gordon and Rocket Man were the big serial heroesFor cartoons, I preferred Bugs Bunny, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Baby Huey, with whom I probably identifiedI saw a lot of movies, and especially liked the westernsMy favorite was High NoonI probably saw it half a dozen times during its run in Hope, and have seen it more than a dozen times sinceIts still my favorite movie, because its not your typical macho westernI loved the movie because from start to finish Gary Cooper is scared to death but does the right thing anyway

When I was elected President, I told an interviewer that my favorite movie was High NoonAt the time, Fred Zinnemann, its director, was nearly ninety, living in LondonI got a great letter from him with a copy of his annotated script and an autographed picture of himself with Cooper and Grace Kelly in street clothes on the High Noon set in 1951Over the long years since I first saw High Noon, large gucci bag when I faced my own showdowns, I often thought of the look in Gary Coopers eyes as he stares into the face of almost certain defeat, and how he keeps walking through his fears toward his dutyIt works pretty well in real life too

I n the summer after my first-grade year, Daddy decided he wanted to go home to Hot SpringsHe sold the Buick dealership and moved us to a four hundredacre farm out on Wildcat Road a few miles west of the cityIt had cattle, sheep, and goatsWhat it didnt have was an indoor toiletSo for the year or so we lived out there, on the hottest summer days and the coldest winter nights, we had to go outside to the wooden outhouse to relieve ourselvesIt was an interesting experience, especially when the nonpoisonous king snake that hung around our yard was peering up through the hole at me when I had to goLater, when I got into politics, being able to say I had lived on a farm with an outhouse made a great montre cartier tank story, almost as good as being born in a log cabin

I liked living on the farm, feeding the animals, and moving among them, until one fateful SundayDaddy had several members of his family out to lunch, including his brother Raymond and his childrenI took one of Raymonds daughters, Karla, out into the field where the sheep were grazingI knew there was one mean ram we had to avoid, but we decided to tempt fate, a big mistakeWhen we were about a hundred yards away from the fence, the ram saw us and started to chargeWe started running for the fenceKarla was bigger and faster and made itI stumbled over a big rockWhen I fell I could see I wasnt going to make the fence before the ram got to me, so I retreated to a small tree a few feet away in the hope I could keep away from him by running around the tree until help cameSoon he caught me and knocked my legs out from under meBefore I could get up he butted me in the headThen I lady dior was stunned and hurt and couldnt get upSo he backed up, got a good head start, and rammed me again as hard as he couldHe did the same thing over and over and over again, alternating his targets between my head and my gutSoon I was pouring blood and hurting like the devilAfter what seemed an eternity my uncle showed up, picked up a big rock, and threw it hard, hitting the ram square between the eyesThe ram just shook his head and walked off, apparently unfazedI recovered, left with only a scar on my forehead, which gradually grew into my scalpAnd I learned that I could take a hard hit, a lesson that I would relearn a couple more times in my childhood and later in life

A few months after we moved to the farm, both my folks were going to town to workDaddy gave up on being a farmer and took a job as a parts manager for Uncle Raymonds Buick dealership, while Mother found more anesthesia work in Hot Springs than she could gucci clearance handleOne day, on the way to work, she picked up a woman who was walking to townAfter they got acquainted, Mother asked her if she knew anyone who would come to the house and look after me while she and Daddy were at workIn one of the great moments of good luck in my life, she suggested herselfHer name was Cora Walters; she was a grandmother with every good quality of an old-fashioned countrywomanShe was wise, kind, upright, conscientious, and deeply ChristianShe became a member of our family for eleven yearsAll her family were good people, and after she left us, her daughter Maye Hightower came to work for Mother and stayed thirty more years until Mother diedIn another age, Cora Walters would have made a fine ministerShe made me a better person by her example, and certainly wasnt responsible for any of my sins, then or laterShe was a tough old gal, tooOne day she helped me kill a huge rat that was hanging around our chanel earrings logo house