Want to post the results of my meeting with our youth church group which ranged in age from 10 through 19 plus four adults. I was given 30 minutes but actually spoke about an hour at the request of the audience. I gave some early 1930 take on conditions during the depression and how people helped each other cope with rationing, etc.

I very quickly gave about 10 minutes on my Navy service at the latter part of WWII and Korea and devoted the rest of the time to my research of the Civil War. As I begin to summarize since my allotted time was over many of the young individuals asked me to please continue that their parents would not if the we 30 minutes late.

I continued with my Civil War research and then got into my Great Great Grandfather and his father and his two brother's Civil War Service and some of the battles in which they participated. They did not realize that some soldiers were as young as 11 years old. At the end to my presentation there was a huge clapping of hands and many hugs from the young ladies (that was great) and hand shakes from the young men and the adults present.

After leaving the room and making my way out of the building four different teens asked if I would meet with them some Saturday and spend an entire morning talking about my early life and to explain how they could find out if their ancestors fought in the Civil War. I made no promises concerning Saturday, but promised I would speak again, if invited, on their Wednesday night services.

I did not realize that so many young individuals were so interesting in the Civil war era, several of them said we only studied the Civil War for one or two hours and the text did not mention most of the information that you spoke about.

Maybe I sparked some interest in our early history. Hope so anyway.