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Lawrence Alton London said that his childhood idol was his Dad. He said, "I wanted to do all the things that he could do. If he was working on the car, butchering hogs, building something or planting a garden I was at his side. I respected my mother. She was always there when we needed her or had a question about anything or needed comfort in any way from any hurt. I loved both my parents very much."

Emery taught Rolen and Lawrence the carpenter's trade when we were in high school. As a result Lawrence had not trouble getting a job when he got out of the Army after World War II thanks to his father. Lawrence did carpentry for several years until he found a job with some benefits, such as insurance and retirement.

Dad worked for G. A. Nichols and built some of the big, beautiful homes out in Nichols Hills in Oklahoma City. That was the beginning of Nichols Hills. Rolen and I worked there. Those were good memories working with Dad and family. The 1,280 acres now known as Nichols Hills were developed as an exclusive residential area by Dr. G.A. Nichols in 1929. Today (September 17, 2017), Nichols Hills is known to have some of the highest housing prices in the state of Oklahoma. Its citizens have the highest average household income in Oklahoma.

Lawrence talked about life during the Depression which hit in late 1929. He said, "I remember when the depression hit and the bank where Dad had his money went broke. There was no work in the City, so Dad and Uncle Marshall decided to go to west Texas to pick cotton. We had a four wheel trailer that they converted into a covered wagon and we took a tent along. Besides Dad and Uncle Marshall there was Olice, Rolen, George Johnson and myself loaded in and headed for Plainview, Texas. The first morning we were there it came a big frost and Dad had to go into town and buy tennis shoes for Rolen and I before we could even get out. It was warm when we left home.

Dad and Uncle Marshall would go into town on Saturday after we were paid and send all the money home that they could to Mother and Aunt Maude. We lost our home on S. E. 31st Street that Dad had built and we moved into Granma Jobe's house.

When our money was lost in the failed bank we were getting ready to move to Anadarko, Oklahoma on some Indian lease land. Dad was planning to farm and run some cattle on the land, but of course, that was out of the question, then."

The depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday). The US didn't get back close to 1929 employment and earnings levels for a decade after the crash.

Lawrence told all about his brother and sisters. "As for favorite stories about my siblings, there are so many that it is hard to pinpoint favorites. When I was very little Mother was sick a lot and Thresa took care of Rolen and I. I've heard her say that she had a date one night to go to a carnival and had to take me along. She and the boyfriend fed me so much chocolate candy I was sick. She said it was to keep me from crying.

She also said that Rolen had to be fed Eagle Brand formula and he liked it and he got pretty fat. She said he would sit on the floor and cry for her to carry him because he didn't want to walk. He was so fat he didn't want to walk.

When we were little boys, probably nine and ten years old we lived in Capital Hill on SE 31st. We had a croquet ground in our back yard and there was always a crowd, especially on Sunday afternoon. Dad built a bench for people to sit on. Rolen and I drove shingle nails in the bench seat and wound copper wire around these nails, put the wire through a knot hole in the wall of the garage and tied it to an old Ford coil. We would catch a group of people on the bench and we'd run in the garage and crank the coil and shock people. They cleared the bench in a hurry.

One Sunday Dad caught Rolen and I on the bench and he slipped in the garage, took the wire off the coil and tied it to the spark plugs on his car, cranked his car and gave us a big charge. That took the fun out of that for Rolen and I.

When we were living in Wheatland I got my first car. Rolen and I got one just alike, 1936 Chevrolet coupes. Every morning when we started to work we would race to see who would get there first. I always beat Rolen and it tore him up. He did everything he could to get his car geared up to beat me, but he never did.

Rolen and Jay started bumming their way to California and were thrown off the train in Arizona and Jay fell on a cattle guard and cut a big gash in his knee. Rolen had a brand new pair of cowboy boots when he left and they got to hurting his feet so bad that he traded them to a Mexican in some little town for a pair of sandals. They were really glad to get back home.

Rolen and Floyd kept me in a fight all the time. They would tell I could whip some little boy and I'd get beat up and they would tell me how well I had done. Guess that isn't one of the favorite things about my brother. I believed him then though.

I tromped a man's onions down one time, but don't think that was Rolen's fault. I think a little friend was with me. The man came over to tell Dad and I crawled under the bed and he pulled me out. I chased a ball into a pasture after we moved into Grandma Jobe's house and a big bull got after me and when I came under the fence a barb wire cut a gash down the middle of my head. I have the scar today.

Of course, my "little sisters" were pretty little girls and special little girls. These two were usually in a row about doing dishes. I guess one was afraid she would do more than the other one. One Sunday one of them found the other hiding in the car reading and she pulled her out to help do dishes. They grew up to be the best homemakers, mothers and cooks. Not a lazy bone in those bodies.

Maybe the girls were a lot better than Rolen and I. They didn't get into as much. Thresa always said she wished she could have traded places with one of her sisters because Mother and Dad let them get by with a lot more than the older ones. By the time they put up with us I guess they just were not as strict. My brother and sisters were great and we all had a good home, good parents and a lot of good times together as kids growing up and after we all married. The family get togethers are great with all the nieces, nephews and the greats that have come along and some great greats."

Lawrence said, "My favorite family memories are some of the things that I have mentioned. I remember a trip that we took to Orange, Texas, to see Aunt Buna and her family, down on the coast. The bad thing about this trip was Dad getting so sunburned. We went to Arkansas to visit Dad's uncle and Uncle Coin and Aunt Suzie went. There was all of us kids, too. Rolen and Floyd and I were up in the mountains and found the uncle's still and poured out the mash. He had a still going. That stuff smelled bad!

The weekends were favorite times. All the families usually got together and that was fun for us kids. We had a good home and Dad always provided for us and [we] had parents that cared about us."

Reference: Recollections of Lawrence London as communicated to Lorene London about 1990