PREFACE The five autobiographical accounts included in Volume I of the "I WAS THERE" Series are the first of a larger number of stories to appear in later volumes. All the events described in this series are still quite clear to me, even though more that half a century has gone by since some of them took place.
The accounts are basically factual with but very little addition or elaboration. I must admit, however, that my recollection of some of the details may be subject to error.
In retrospection, these happenings seem to have been milestones in my life, some of them important to me because of their uniqueness, sadness, or humor. Other events described were actual turning points in my rather varied career.
The first story, "Blackie and Danny Go To See The President," tells of an experience my brother and I had in the year 1916, when he was six years old and I was four. The last event recounted in Volume I, "My First Day at Skipwith, Virginia," took place in the late summer of 1931. The other three occurred in between these years, sometime in the 1920's.
The vignettes in this series are just that--separate and brief views which neither in substance nor in chronology necessarily have any connection with one another. The reader, however, may very well detect in these word pictures some common threads of thought, values, and behavior--not because it was planned with that in mind, but rather because the same person, the author, was himself a part of every event described.
I dedicate this first volumes of stories to my two grandchildren: Monique and Theodore Travelstead, in the hope that they will both enjoy them and at the same time gain a better understanding of their grandfather's life.
Chester C. Travelstead
September 1, 1979
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