Bob Birks’s Family Memoir

Chapter One
Parents’ Togetherness (1930–1944)

The Beginning of the Family: Robert Birks, the Young Years
It begins with the marriage of a Texas farmer’s son, Walter H. Birks, who left his home on the farm at age sixteen. The only schooling, he had was the fourth grade because in his time farming was a priority for the boys of his family of sixteen children. He migrated from Waco, Texas, in Crawford County, to Oklahoma City, to Kansas City, and then to Detroit, Michigan. Finding a job was not easy; he had to work to secure anything that was available at his educational level. He learned to adjust and was self-taught in his jobs.
He met a young lady named Lucille Scott from Birmingham, Alabama. She was a maid’s daughter with a tenth-grade education, yet she would be a supportive housewife who was determined to look for a better future for her family and herself. With their marriage, two boys were brought into this world: Carl Walter Birks in 1930 and me, Robert Cremo Birks, in 1932.
In the early years, living was tough. My parents had to depend on welfare for financial support at first. However, Father would not remain on welfare. He worked many jobs and made enough to support his family independent of county assistance. Mother also worked daily as a household maid. Carl and I were helped in the home by our mother’s mother, Susie Jones.

After the family was established and Mother and Father were able to be supportive, we learned how to survive in a ghetto community with limited finances.
Starting School: First Step—Elementary School
My parents emphasized that education and an individual’s determination to achieve were the primary forces for success. Elementary school was the beginning of a long process.
After my parents instilled the values of education, I started kindergarten. Ms. Barber was my teacher. After half a year, the teacher said that I should be promoted to the second grade. She identified a quality of absorption of learning in me.
The teacher talked to my parents and obtained permission to promote me to a higher grade. From that time on, my educational learning was rapid. It kept me out of trouble and provided me with the incentive to achieve.
From my early school days, Mother kept Carl and me clean and well nourished. School was a priority, and we both did well. We became star students. The school double promoted us because of our high academic achievement. However, my parents could see that moving too fast in school had its problems. Socially, our peers were older than we were, and readjustment to older students was necessary. Mother slowed the school down so her boys would not move too fast.
During the time of early social levels, we were both successful, but in different things. Carl excelled in track and swimming, and I became a Boy Scout and excelled in swimming, as a lifeguard, and recreational football. All of this was done while working delivering the daily newspaper and maintaining an elevated level of academic achievement in high school. We both stayed on the honor roll from elementary school through high school.

Early Years of Growing Up and Adjusting to Economic Costs
In the early years of growing up, my brother and I could not afford new clothes for school. Our parents would go to Goodwill and select what was available, and I received hand-me-downs. Our shoes were worn, with holes in the soles. Cardboard pieces were placed in the bottoms where the holes were, even in the wintertime. Mother would bake sweet potatoes and wrap them up, and we would place them in our pockets to keep our hands warm in route to school. Then we would eat them for lunch.
When we started working at the newspaper, we started buying our own clothes and shoes. This helped our parents keep us well dressed for school and other events, such as clubs. We always looked clean-cut, and we looked like little gentlemen. In high school, we dressed in a clean shirt and tie every day. When we returned home, these school clothes were replaced with our old working clothes, and Mother would clean and set out our school clothes for the next day.
My brother and I were trained to support the family’s needs and my social affairs at the church. It took the pressure off our father, who would work seven days a week at odd jobs to support the family’s needs.
From our daily work, my brother and I saved enough to start to pay for our college expenses. Father would not accept any money from us for living at home as young adults.
Working was fine, but my brother and I had to learn how to save and not spend freely, with some thought of gaining financial security. Carl was best at this and taught me. With an outlook to obtaining better things in life, my parents allowed us to keep 80 percent of the money we earned. They advised us on how to spend without exhausting our source of income. Father did not require payment from us for living with him at home if we were in school and showed him that we had plans to improve our status. School and working were our priorities in moving ahead toward a better way of living and for making our family proud of us. Every step of the way was an aggressive act toward our future legacy. Thus, my brother and I showed that our legacies were possible with a constant aggressive attitude in school and work.