My parents felt strongly about passing on these lessons:

My mom wanted me to be kind to people even if they disliked me. My Dad taught me that if you get yourself in trouble you get yourself out of it. My mother was really superstitious, she used to say if a bird hit the window that someone would die, if dogs barked she would say something. A lot of people then were like that, probably some are today.

Mom always told me to help people out, because they helped us out during rough times.

One time I took a hammer out of my Father's toolbox, they made their own toolboxes them days, I don't know I was three or four, I can remember, I was outdoors with the hammer, and I don't know why I did it, I broke some headlights out of peoples cars, and one of the guys came up and told my mother what I did. He said the trouble was that the car that the headlights were broken out of belonged to his boss. I got in a little issue I guess, like most kids did. I learned not to do it again, she took away one of my toys or something I liked instead of giving me a licking.