I still wanted to go to school during the day. And after much pleading I was permitted to do so. The understanding was that I was to go to work early at the furnace and work until school started. And return to work after school for at least two more hours.

I found myself with two problems when I started school in the daytime. It was considered quite the thing at that time to own a cap or hat. My first problem was that I had neither. When I explained the situation to my mother, she told me that she was not able to buy one.

However, she used her ingenuity to make me one from some jeans. And I became the proud possessor of my first cap.

My mother taught me through that experience to have enough strength of character to not try to be what I was not. She did not try to impress others by going into debt to buy what she could not afford. Since that time I have had many hats, but I have never been as proud of any of them as I was of the one my mother made for me.