Writes His Dad-- Part 6: All He Wanted Was a Pony

Around the turn of the century, a developer bought the eight acres surrounding  the Parenti homestead (Harley Wayne home) and made a subdivision of it called Evergreen Park.  That is why you see houses around the Wayne residence today.

It is surprising that littler Charlie's chalk marks on the basement wall would have survived to this day.  According to the Parentis, it is a dry basement and that helps.

"All I know is that after we bought the house in 1956 we talked to Dr. Melvin Adams, who was then 76 and had been around Union all his life.  He lived in the house when he was a teenager, from 1904-1911.  He told us that his father instructed the children not to erase any writing or drawing on the walls.  Not to deface them in any way.

"So even back then the owners of the house seemed to have an awareness of the importance of the scribblings if a small boy during the Civil War."

A small boy who wanted a pony.  And probably would have settled for a father.

This is another side of war that you don't often get the opportunity to hear.

--Old Secesh