When Harry Truman was about five years old, his family noticed he washaving eye troubles. With these eye problems, Harry wasn’t able to seestars or the falling dust from fireworks. Harry never noticed this. Whenhis mother got his first pair of glasses, they were thick glass in whichthe doctor said that he shouldn’t run hard or play in many sports with themon. Harry saw a whole new world when he first got the glasses. He wouldstare for hours just looking at the bright stars. But, Harry’s fun withthe glasses soon ended when he went to school. The other kids would teasehim about the glasses because he was the only one in the class withglasses. The teasing didn’t bother him much because the other kids grew uplearning not to hit kids with glasses.
Harry liked reading books in his spare time. He especially liked MarkTwain’s books ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’. He had to read mostlyadult books. Another one of his favorite books were biographies of theU.S. presidents. Harry read most of the three- thousand books that were ina nearby library. Harry was very good in school because of reading all thebooks. His mom wanted Harry, his brother Vivian, and Their little sisterMary Jane to enrich their lives so she bought them a piano. She gave thechildren lessons and noticed that Harry was especially gifted with thepiano. So, she sent him to get professional lessons with a woman namedMrs. Edwin C. White. Everyone in his family thought that Harry wouldbecome a concert Pianist. Harry thought so too. Harry had experiencesthat the other kids did not have while playing the piano. Harry’s teacheronce was a student of one of the greatest pianists ever to live namedIgnacy Jan Paderewski. When he was having a concert in their town, Harry’steacher brought him to the concert and introduced Harry to Ignacy. Ignacyshowed Harry how to play his own famous composition Minuet in G. It was amoment Harry never forgot. The kids at his school really started to makefun of him when they saw him going to school with music roles because theythought piano playing was for sissies. But he kept on going and stillignored them. Harry’ father got harry a pony so he wouldn’t be all booksand piano playing.
Harry graduated as the class of ’01 out of High School and planned togo to College but Harry’s father lost money on their farm so Harry had tostay home and help out. Harry did finally go to school in the fall of 1901.
Harry got into the Spaulding Commercial College in Kansas City. He studiedbusiness skills. But his father’s money problems got worse and Harry hadto quit music lessons even though his mother and his teacher plead him tolet Harry go. Harry even had to quit college. Harry had to get a job tohelp his family. He got a job as a timekeeper for a railroad. He had tocheck all the railroad stops and see if people were working. Whileworking, Harry became of Baptist religion. After, He found a job in amailroom of the Kansas City Star newspaper to help his family. After thatjob, Harry and his family had to sell their house to pay debts. They movedin the same city but to a smaller house. Harry and his brother applied forjobs at the National Bank of Commerce. They started at the bottom,literally. They started in the basement. Harry had to work on the farmnext. When he was 26, he met a girl named Bess Walace. They starteddating for about a year then Harry proposed to her. She said ‘NO’. Overthe next two years, Harry’s unlagging devotion and attention slowly won herheart and she accepted. They kept their engagement a secret because Harrycouldn’t afford to buy her a ring. The same year after Harry proposed, farmprices went down and worst of all, Harry’s father died. Harry had to tryto run the farm by himself. He had thee debts and the prospect of hismarriage to Bess made him try to find ways to make money. Harry tried alead and zinc mining business. He and two friends formed the TCH MiningCompany. None of them knew much about mining. The prices also went down,their equipment broke, and they
