Walt and Ruth, as the babies of the family, had few tasks on the farm, and those they had weren’t overly strenuous. Their memories of the farm were almost entirely favorable — with the possible exception of the time they got into deep trouble for doodling on the barn with black sticky tar. The same wasn’t true of his older brothers, who labored mightily to help Elias squeeze a decent living out of the land. As Walt grew older, his universe expanded to the town, where he became friendly with a variety of interesting characters like Erastus Taylor, a Civil War veteran who told Walt a succession of dramatic tales of battles long past. Family members were ever present, including Grandma Disney and Uncle Mike Disney, who was a railroad engineer. Uncle Mike would come roaring into town behind the throttle of a giant locomotive, carrying striped bags of candy for the children. Aunt Margaret, Uncle Robert’s wife, “would bring me big tablets — Crayola things — and I’d always draw Aunt Margaret pictures and she’d always rave over them,” Walt later recalled.
In Kansas City, EliIn Kansas City, Elias bought a newspaper route. Walt and Roy were his staff, and he imbued in them a drive for perfectionism. Walt rose at 3:30 a.m. and was required to place every paper behind the customer’s storm door — not out on the lawn like other newsboys. In the winter, crawling up icy steps with heavy bags of papers more than once drove Walt to cold tears. As a result, Walt’s schooling was characterized by intermittently successful efforts to stay awake. Occasionally, though, he’d surprise his teachers. In fifth grade he memorized the Gettysburg Address, came to school dressed as Lincoln, and performed for every class in the school. He loved theatrics and studied Charlie Chaplin movies for tips on performing. He and a buddy, Walt Pfeiffer, worked up little skits to act out at amateur-night competitions. A talent for art also clearly emerged, and Walt drew his own versions of Maggie and Jiggs, a popular comic strip.
Elias has often been described as a ne’er-do-well who bounced from job to job. In fact, his newspaper route was very successful, and he began investing money in a jelly firm in Chicago, the O’Zell Company. O’Zell planned to produce a bottled carbonated beverage, and Elias was convinced that such drinks had a big future. So he sold the paper route, increased his investment in the factory to $16,000, and became head of the company’s plant construction and maintenance. This, of course, required moving to Chicago. Unfortunately, the executives in charge were less than honest, and O’Zell didn’t last very long. When Walt’s folks left for Chicago, he chose to stay behind for the summer. He lived in the family house with Roy and his oldest brother, Herbert, who by now was married and had a two-year-old daughter, Dorothy.n=”center”>Walt Returns to Chicago
Roy decided that it would be educational for Walt to have a summer job selling newspapers, candy, fruit, and soda on the Santa Fe Railroad. Walt loved the uniform, the trains, the candy, and the chance to see the country. He paid scant attention to the business end of the enterprise, however, and wound up losing money. Walt didn’t mind. He never did anything for the money. At summer’s end, he joined his family in Chicago, where he attended McKinley High School. But his mind was thousands of miles away, on the battlefields of Europe. Walt wanted to be part of the War to End All Wars. In the meantime, he attended the Chicago Institute of Art, worked at the O’Zell Company, and drew patriotic sketches for the school paper. When school let out for the summer, he began to work at the post office, where he narrowly escaped an untimely end when the building was bombed.