10/24/2024
I am honored to be featured in this interview. Thank you
“You think about being young and not having a whole lot of material things. A lot of my friends that went to school, they had their own bikes. They had this, they had that; gadgets that they played with. We didn't have that. We were always very sports minded--my younger brother and I. We made our own toys. We played a lot with sticks, ax handles, and that type of thing. They were made into baseball bats. We lived near the railroad tracks, and our enjoyment was to go out to the tracks and hit rocks. We hit so many rocks on the railroad. We would hit rocks almost all day long. So we became very good baseball players, because we had a lot of hand-eye coordination. But that's how we did that. If we did have a ball, it was normally a tennis ball, or something like that. We would play with it. We'd play home run derby, which was very popular at that time. Just different things.
It was toys that we could make ourselves. We made bow and arrows. We made slingshots, and so forth. That's how we did. But thinking back and asking yourself, "What did we miss as kids? What is it that we didn't have, that we missed?" I can honestly tell you that we didn't miss anything. Some of the memories, we wouldn't trade for anything in the world. We never felt like we didn't have this, or we didn't have that. My parents were able to always put food on our table. We were able to enjoy one another. We lived a simple life, but it was a life that was very entertaining, and very fulfilling. Those were the things that I have memories of, when we were kids.” —Pete Bega
For the rest of his story, go to his page on our website >> https://oralhistoryetx.org/pete-bega-pt-1
Austin History Center, Austin Public Library
City of Elgin - Municipal Government
Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Elgin - Good Shepherd Catechetical Center
Jeanette Shelby Realty & Property Management
https://www.facebook.com/ElginISDTX?mibextid=LQQJ4d
