Everyone seemed to have money now but there were still some things that they could not buy because of the war. Many things were rationed; such as sugar, flour, coffee, tea, gasoline, tires and other things. The government issued ration books to every family. The larger families got larger books. When they bought things that were rationed they had to give the merchant coupons from the book as well as the money. Earl remember that tires for their car were especially hard to come by; most of them went to the military. They ran the tires until they became so thin they would go flat; then Uncle Tom would patch the hole in the tube and put a large rubber patch called a boot over the thin spot of the tire and run them some more. He once bought a trailer that he did not need, just to get the tires as they fit his car.

Many of their neighbors had sons in the military, and some of them got killed. Their closest neighbors were the Lambs, they had a son in the Navy named Drew that was killed when enemy fire hit his ship. They had other sons, one was about Earl's age named Don Lamb. They were close friends and Earl was sad because of his grief. Their postman, Bruce Williams, had a brother named Dale who was killed, and several others. We thought it was unusual for so many from our small community to be killed but I suppose it was like that just about everywhere. They went to several of the funerals at the Lake Creek Cemetery; Earl was impressed with the military men giving the twenty-one gun salute. This was a very sad time in all our lives.

There was an army camp north of Paris called Camp Maxey. When they would go to Uncle Jim and Aunt Jessie's house in Powderly, they would go by the camp. Earl remembers seeing the soldiers marching down the parade grounds that were near the gate. Many Prisoners Of War (POW) were kept there, both German and Japanese. Sometimes he would hear about prisoners escaping and they were terrified that they might come to their house and kill them.

Some of the prisoners were allowed to go work in nearby cotton fields under heavy armed guards. (But Uncle Tom never wanted them in his fields.) One morning Earl and some other kids were waiting for the school bus in front of the Lake Creek store when three army trucks carrying prisoners stopped at the store, they could see the large letters POW on the back of their shirts and they knew what it meant. They were accompanied by Jeeps carrying armed guards with machine guns. Earl said, "Some of the men went in the store for a Coke and we kids must have looked frightened as we saw our country's enemy face to face. One of the guards said, "Don't be afraid kids, they know what will happen if they try anything."

On August 21, 1943 my Uncle Tom and Nell's fourth child was born, a boy and they named him Kenneth Gary Johnson. Uncle Tom nicknamed him Hawk. Their little two-room house was now getting very crowded, so Uncle Tom bought an old house for fifty dollars, to be torn down, just down the road. He tore it down and salvaged enough doors, windows and lumber to build two more rooms on their house. He built a small bedroom for Kerry, the only girl at the time, and she was so proud of it.

That same year 1943, Big Mama got real sick. They took her to the hospital but she did not live very long, she died of cancer and everyone was heartbroken.

In 1945 the war ended and our country breathed a sigh of relief. Things soon got back to normal; the rationing ended and we enjoyed a time of prosperity. They remodeled the old cotton gin; they replaced the old steam engine with a new diesel engine and new modern equipment. The new machinery would separate the cotton from the burr, the dried boll. Now they did not have to pick the cotton out of the burr as before, just pull the burr off with the cotton. They called this, "Pulling bolls." This was much faster and easier, but it would be many more years before there were machines to harvest the cotton.

Earl said, "Wes tom (my daddy) had learned how to work on the steam engine and the other equipment. He bought books and studied them. Now he had to buy more books and study them to learn how to work on the diesel engine and the new machinery. He was a good mechanic and could usually figure out how to make things work. After a time he could fix just about anything in the gin, so the gin manager promoted him to ginner. He ran the gin stands, the machines that separated the seeds from the cotton. When the gin would break down the gin hands had to make the repairs, but since Daddy knew how to fix just about any part of the gin he did not have to do any actual repairing, he only had to tell the other hands how to do it. Also, good pay raises came with this extra responsibility."

Earl had several cousins living near them in Lake Creek. Uncle Tom's sister Nancy (Johnson) Cain and her husband Everett Cain lived about a mile from them, just west of the Wilson home. He called them Aunt Mutt and Uncle Happy. They had two sons, James Wesley and Aaron. (Elvena was not born yet). James Wesley was about a year older than Earl and Aaron was about a year younger. Uncle Tom's other sister Harvena 'Red' Johnson married Clayton Johnson. The cousins called them Aunt Red and Uncle Clayton. They had three children; Walter, Susie and Lola Nell. Walter was two years older than Earl and Susie and Lola Nell were younger. Sue Ann's two daughters, Katie Bell and Mary Ann Flowers still lived with Granny. They were both a little older than Earl. By now Earl was about twelve or thirteen years old.

Sometimes all his cousins, brothers and sister and a few friends would go to Granny's house on Sunday and play ball in her cow pasture. One day while they were playing a young man about twenty one years old came walking down the road and said to them, "My name is Calvin Skeen, I think I may be some kin to you." They ran into the house and told the folks that Calvin was outside; Uncle Tom ran out and hugged him and cried. Calvin taught the cousins many new games he had learned at the orphanage and they taught him how to play ball. Although he was older than them he still liked to play.

Uncle Tom had a brother named James Allen Johnson and he was married to Jessie. Earl called them Uncle Jim and Aunt Jessie. They had eight children: Roberta, James Allen Jr., Vida Mae, Wilber Leo, Sarah Jane, Neomi Ruth, Haley Vena and Lillie Nell. They lived in Woodland Texas and Earl did not get to see them very often. Sometimes they would come to see them and they would go their house about once a year. Earl always enjoyed going to see them; Uncle Jim was a truck farmer, raising fruit and vegetables to sell to at the wholesale market. He had a small tractor and he would let the kids drive it. They probably ruined more than they helped.