The female half of the family was immersed in Girl Scout activities. On this fine summer day both mother and daughters, were away on training missions. The mother left early in the family car for meetings in Columbus, about ninety miles from home. The girls, high school junior and senior, were at the Girl Scout camp, almost half way to Columbus. My boys were away, leaving me to hold down the fort alone. This was all right with me, for I had my Saturday chores to do. I would enjoy the peace and q...(click to continue reading)

In my early days at Westinghouse, electric power systems used 28-volt direct current generators to provide the electric power required for airplanes. Control and protection devices were required to complete the power system. Our military business was involved with people at Wright Patterson Air force Base where our sales representative was Jack Crockford.

Tall with sandy colored curly hair, Jack was a young man in his twenties as were many of our coworkers. He made a trip to Wright Fiel...(click to continue reading)

He was a slim, six-foot tall man with curly hair that never needed combing, or maybe always did. In his more than ninety years he never lost his curl that showed some gray only in his later years. A kind and shy guy who seldom raised his voice in anger, Isaac Jessee was reared on a southwestern Virginia hillside farm. Despite spending his entire working career as an office worker he never lost his agrarian character. Everywhere he lived he had a garden with vegetables, berries and flowers. He re...(click to continue reading)

The sweet scent of honeysuckle and roses, now and then overpowered by the chokingly pungent odor of the blossoms of a surviving red haw tree, wafted on the ever so gentle breeze.  We lived in a recently developed neighborhood where some old houses, the kind with front porches and a second story, sat scattered amongst the newer, smaller ones and vacant lots.  There was a variety of house styles throughout the area but many were variants of particular styles. 

My parents came to Ohio from...(click to continue reading)

Isaac Welch Jessee was the last of thirteen children born to my grandparents, James Abel Jessee and Margaret Bailey. Thus, it will come as no surprise that I tell you that I had many cousins born in the mountains of Virginia. Most of them were a lot older than I, for my dad was 30 years my senior.

Having grown up on the family farm, Dad joined the National Guard during World War I but never saw combat. He later worked for a hardware store in Knoxville, Tennessee while going to business ...(click to continue reading)