Born November 18, 1954 in Great Bend, Kansas. 

My name is Theresa Ann (Erb) Peters.  I am the ninth child of Leonand and Francis Erb.  I was born November 18, 1954 exactly one year after my brother Philip's birthday.  It was like we were twins even though we were a year apart.  The oldest three of the family were grown and gone by the time I was eight and I was the only girl after that.  When I hear John and Betty talk it feels like we were from two different eras.  I don't know about mom's family or the Erb family, just from what Mom has told me.
Timken had so much going on when we were growing up.  There was Eddie's, a small, I guess you could call,"convenience store", where the old men would play cards.  Eddie would let you trade in your pop bottle for 3 cents apiece if you could collect enough on the side of the road you could have enough for a nice cold bottle of Pepsi for 10 cents, and if you were ambitious enough you could also buy a candy bar for 5 cents.
There was a grocery store, a lumber company, a Co-op, a post office, a bar, a liquor store, an Implement shop, a gas station, a bank, and I was told there was a bowling alley at one time..  All is gone now except the bar, that has been turned into a restaurant, the lumber company was turned into a seed company, and the Co-op still stands. There is still a building that was called the City building, where meetings, and dances were held, but I think it is condemned. When I would tell the "old timers" I was from Timken, they would tell me about how much fun they had at the dances there.  I am not sure where they were talking about but could see in their eyes when they talked it was good times. And of course there was Grandpa Herman, when I need a break I would go to Grandpa's house just to hang out, play cards, talk, or just swing on the porch swing. Grandpa also had the best climbing tree ever. Don't know what kind of tree it was but it had seeds that looked like cigars and we would pretend we were smoking them.  
When I was growing up in Timken there were enough families that we had plenty of kids to play with.  Summers were all about riding bikes, playing baseball, tennis (we didn't have a tennis court, tennis consisted of hitting the ball against the side of the liquor store when Dad wasn't around, I guess there was a problem with the siding breaking off), running through the sprinkler, and when we were lucky Mom would take us to the pool in LaCrosse and of course climbing on the roof of the house, it was forbidden but sometimes you just had to have some alone time. 
Dad and Mom always had a garden.  Mom canned a lot.  She made the best sweet and sour pickles in the world!  She told me Dad and Uncle Joe had a competition as to who had the better garden. When I think about how she cooked enough food for all of us when times were tough I would think about the story of the Magic Soup Bone.  She always managed to feed us well.  
We would spend at least a week in the summer at Springfield.  My cousins were a blast to be with.  I remember one summer we took two cars, and had a walky talky to talk to the other car.   
We listened to the radio, the station KOMA out of Oklahoma City had the latest hits of the day.  Watched whatever Dad wanted to watch in the evening.  Wasn't much to choose from, Gunsmoke, Lawrence Welk, and Ed Sullivan were his favorites. 
Every night we prayed the rosary, we took turns leading.  Everyday we went to church, sometimes two and three times a day, I believe it was Mom's faith that kept her going and what she instilled in us, she was a very smart and Good woman. 
When I was small we had Latin masses.  I remember some of the Latin even now.  The renovation of the church was a big deal, we as children were confused I can't imagine how confused how Mom was.  When we entered the church women had to have a scarf or even a handkerchief over our heads.  To walk into church without something over our heads was like going into church naked. My brothers were alter boys.  Girls were not allowed to serve.