From my mother's writings of some of her experiences. She began high school in Short Creek, KY, in 1932. At some point during high school she was on the school's debating team. Ruby Carter Humston in her self-published book, "My First Sixty-Seven Years," wrote this:
The subject of our debate was "Socialized Medicine". We were assigned our parts and I was on the "pro" side. Our speeches were already printed for us and we just memorized them, since we were not expected to change any national policy, but just learn how to speak before an audience.
In my speech was a word I didn't understand, but I used it anyway since it was a part of my speech. One day while practicing our speeches, the principal asked to see my paper. The sentence he crossed out was this: "Socialized medicine would prevent abortions."
I saw what he had crossed out and said, "I'm glad you crossed that out for I didn't know what it meant. What does it mean?" His face turned red and after a moment he said, "Ask your sister when you get home." I could hardly wait to get to the dictionary to look up that new word. Now it is as common as blackeyed peas.
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