What would a 12-year-old boy do to entertain himself in 1934, long before television, computers, cell phones, and bottled water? Five 12-year-old boys living in the same neighborhood in a small Midwestern town and in the same grade at the same school were the best of friends. I was one of those boys. My name is Nathan Witte, and my friends called me Nit. I wonder why? My best friend was Todd Hoadley. We called him Toad. He had two warts on his butt. Nicknames were in in the 1930s, and boys were seldom called by their first names. Runt was about three foot tall and about as round as he was tall. Beanstalk was just the opposite at six feet tall and very slender. Moptop had a full head of bushy red hair.