An adventurous Fortean—on the lookout for monsters of mountainous caves.
Paul Alfred Doerr, Jr., was born 1 April 1927—and that apparently wasn’t a joke—to Paul and Mary Doerr. They lived in Sharon, Pennsylvania, where Paul senior worked in a steel mill. Paul and Mary wed sometime around 1925. By 1930, they were living in a rented house (sans radio) along with Paul senior’s mother, also named Mary. (Conversations had to be confusing, or there must have been nicknames.) Another family was living with them, too, relatives, Vance S. and Anna J. Bowen. Vance worked in a grocery store.
In February 1936, Mary Doerr, the younger, divorced Paul on the grounds of “indignities to the person,” which roughly is equivalent to the mental cruelty of today. The divorce made the papers (though the city directory listed them as married for a few more years). Paul moved out, and his mother became head of the household. The 1940 census had her at home, along with her own daughter, Alice, her daughter-in-law, Mary, and Paul. The two sisters-in-law worked at a bakery, Alice as a clerk, Mary as a baker; Paul was in school. Much later, he would remember his childhood fondly—it was when he started learning the survivalist techniques he would refine throughout his life. He wrote,
“When a kid, we would go out for weeks with only what we could carry: a bottle of water, a bag of ground grains, maybe salt, a blanket, a knife & digger, a pan or pot, and a gun or bow. We could eat only what we got that day. I also had a small seine since minnows are handier than bigger fish. The blanket had a slit in the center and was blanket, serape, carry-pack, etc.”
Paul Alfred Doerr, Jr., was born 1 April 1927—and that apparently wasn’t a joke—to Paul and Mary Doerr. They lived in Sharon, Pennsylvania, where Paul senior worked in a steel mill. Paul and Mary wed sometime around 1925. By 1930, they were living in a rented house (sans radio) along with Paul senior’s mother, also named Mary. (Conversations had to be confusing, or there must have been nicknames.) Another family was living with them, too, relatives, Vance S. and Anna J. Bowen. Vance worked in a grocery store.
In February 1936, Mary Doerr, the younger, divorced Paul on the grounds of “indignities to the person,” which roughly is equivalent to the mental cruelty of today. The divorce made the papers (though the city directory listed them as married for a few more years). Paul moved out, and his mother became head of the household. The 1940 census had her at home, along with her own daughter, Alice, her daughter-in-law, Mary, and Paul. The two sisters-in-law worked at a bakery, Alice as a clerk, Mary as a baker; Paul was in school. Much later, he would remember his childhood fondly—it was when he started learning the survivalist techniques he would refine throughout his life. He wrote,
“When a kid, we would go out for weeks with only what we could carry: a bottle of water, a bag of ground grains, maybe salt, a blanket, a knife & digger, a pan or pot, and a gun or bow. We could eat only what we got that day. I also had a small seine since minnows are handier than bigger fish. The blanket had a slit in the center and was blanket, serape, carry-pack, etc.”