electric vacuum cleaner. In those days, my Mother would receive beautiful dust caps sent to her from California by her sister Julia. Mother would wear the cap to cover her hair as she swept the floors and beat the rugs. Dust caps were used by all the women who did household work. Also, many of the women wore sun bonnets to shade their faces as they worked outside in the vegetable gardens. DARIUS'S DEATH In my childhood, I had my tonsils removed and had chicken pox. My Sister Ida and I had inoculations for the dreaded disease diphtheria which caused my brother Darius's death a few days before Christmas 1916. We never contracted this illness. Darius's death was a terrible shock. It brought so much sadness to all of us and especially to my Mother and Father. I remember my Father pacing back and forth on the outside of our home crying out loud. A night before my brother's death, I remember my Mother telling us that she heard knocking at the back door of the house on a door which we never used. When she opened the door, there was no one there. The next morning, they looked for footprints in the snow, but there were none. I think Mother thought that this was a premonition that her son was being called home. We all realized Mother's great loss. A VISIT to CALIFORNIA My first trip to California came when I was seven years of age. It was also Ida and Mother's first visit there. My older brother Darius had passed away, and after the funeral Aunt Julia felt that it would be good for Mother to come to visit her in Huntington Park to help ease Mother's sorrow. My brother Orion worked for the Southern Pacific Railway. He made all of the train arrangements for Mother, Ida (who was just about 5 years of age), and myself. We had a berth. I remember looking out the train windows at night and only once and a while seeing an electric light off in the distance. Also, the mourning sound of the train whistle sounded so forlornly. At Aunt Julia's, Mother, Ida, and I slept in the same bed, and I would hear mother crying softly during the night. Soon after arriving at Aunt Julia's, Ida decided to play a trick on us. Outside she hid in a deep window well. When I could not find her, I told Mother and Julia. They looked all over the neighborhood until they her found in the window well. Aunt Julia wanted to have us enjoy a good time while visiting. She took us on a train or trolley to downtown Los Angles. This was exciting for us to see the big city. It was