(Editor's note: The following column appeared originally in the Sunday, Nov. 30, 1997, edition of the Herald Democrat. It has been edited for this new publication.)

(Continuation of "An Horatio Alger Story," as related by the one who lived it, in answers to questions asked in a 1989 interview):

"In 1939 we moved Dad & Lad's store to 313 W. Main Street in Denison. We had a nice store. Business was picking up, but the Depression wasn't over. We had to hustle for business.

"I'd try to find someone new each day to go have a cup of coffee with. I'd say, 'Oh, by the way, we just got in some new suits,' and I would take him back to the store and often make a sale. We really had to work at it in those days.

"That year (1936) I built a house out in the 1600 block West Crawford. We paid $500 for that lot and the house cost $4,500. It was a pretty nice house. George O. Morgan (owner of Denison Dr Pepper Co.) was one of our neighbors. That was the second addition built in Denison in a long time. Quinnie Cuff had built first one -- Cuff Addition in north Denison.

"During that period I started smoking cigars. Salesmen would give me cigars; that started the habit. Many times I would wake up in the middle of the night, go out and sit on the front porch, smoke a cigar and plan my business activities for the following day.

"Quinnie Cuff owned the Liberty Theater in the 200 block West Main. At one time there were five theaters in that block: the Liberty, Rio, Star, Superba and Arcade. Those were the Tom Mix days, and the serials.

"I never have forgotten when (Buck Jones) died. I was in Navy boot camp in Providence, R.I., when he was killed in a fire in Boston, Mass., in the winter time. He was the most popular cowboys actor in those days.

"In 1942 I went down and talked to Henry Etter at the Citizens National Bank to get some advice. He told me, 'Well, you'll probably be drafted and you probably won't be able to get merchandise.' I had decided to go ahead and join the Navy or go buy all the merchandise I could buy.

"I personally thought there would be a scarcity of merchandise, and it turned out that way. Some people really made a lot of money, for it turned out that people had money but there was nothing to buy. During the war years there were no new cars, no tires, nothing.

"I went ahead and signed up for the Navy in 1942. We planned to keep the store, cut it down and rearrange it. I wasn't called up to active duty until October, 1942.

"I signed up as a storekeeper in the supply corps of the Navy. They put me in the 'Seabees,' which were the construction battalions of the U.S. Navy established to build landing facilities, airfields, etc., in combat areas.

"On the train going to boot camp at Davisville near Providence, R.I., I met another enlistee, Robert Wilson, from Pilot Point, Texas. Bob Wilson and I hit it off from the start. We were in training together, served in the same outfit all over the South Pacific, became partners in business and lifelong friends.

"After three months' training at Davisville, they sent us overseas. I was in supply, Bob was in the payroll section of our Seabees outfit. We landed in the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. We lived on the ship but would go ashore and work in the supply buildings.

"From there we went up to Guadalcanal."

(Guadalcanal is one of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. In and around it, some of the fiercest battles of World War II were fought.)

(to be continued)

R.C. VAUGHAN of Sherman is a retired senior District Judge.