My first "love" was when I was six or seven years old. A teenage neighbor boy named Charlie Savicky was our hired man for a while. He was my idol. He had muscles that bulged beautifully and an Adam's apple which went up and down as he talked. One day he picked me up and carried me from the dining room to the front porch and kissed me on the way. Oh, Joy and ecstasy.
My next kiss was one that Charles Malicote sneaked at a Free Home School box supper. I must have been in the sixth grade so was about eleven years old--I had skipped a grade. Charles was in my grade but was a couple of years older. He bought my box and suggested we go to his car to eat. We ate the goodies then he said, "Now I get a kiss" and proceeded to kiss me. I was embarrassed and realized I should have known better than to go to the car with him. I had always disliked him but I don't really know why. Maybe I just disliked boys in general at that time, at least I couldn't stand any of those at Free Home School.
What I considered my first date wasn't really a date. Victor Capper asked if he could take me home from Epworth League. It was early in the summer of 1936 and I had just graduated from 8th grade. Since 9th graders were allowed to go the the High School Epworth League, Ruby and I started going to the Sunday evening meeting with brother Wesley who was to be a junior. One balmy June evening Victor visited the group and afterwards asked to take me home. I told him where I lived because not many fellows had cars. He said he had his dad's car. I asked Wesley about it and he gave his consent. He knew Victor as a high school debater and upcoming senior.
Friday, November 8, 2013
a few more memories
I remember one time the door to the bin was left open and a cow got in there and broke a number of jars. That was one of the few times I saw my mother cry. She needed that food to feed the house builders with enough left to feed the family thru the winter.
Back to early chores. It must have been when Dale was a baby that mother tied him in the rocking chair and my job was to stand and rock the chair so he would go to sleep. Or she would tie me in, with him tied on my lap, and I would rock him. When summer came I pulled him in the little wagon up and down the drive. Evidently there was a baby buggy for the older children. The only thing I remember about that was Wesley putting someone in the buggy upstairs and wheeling them part way over the open stairway to scare us. Later Daddy put wooden rails around the stairs.
Back to early chores. It must have been when Dale was a baby that mother tied him in the rocking chair and my job was to stand and rock the chair so he would go to sleep. Or she would tie me in, with him tied on my lap, and I would rock him. When summer came I pulled him in the little wagon up and down the drive. Evidently there was a baby buggy for the older children. The only thing I remember about that was Wesley putting someone in the buggy upstairs and wheeling them part way over the open stairway to scare us. Later Daddy put wooden rails around the stairs.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
School days
It was the custom at Free Home School for five year olds to "visit" one day so they wouldn't feel strange the next year. So off I went in the spring of '28 to visit school. I don't remember the day in detail except that it was long but fun. My mother tells the story that I came home and proclaimed that I didn't wet my pants. Perhaps it's true since I was in the habit of waiting almost too long to make a trip to the outhouse.
I do remember the first day of school in September. I set out with Lewis Wesley and Ruby Mae wearing the prettiest of the 5 of mother's hand-made dresses I had. I had high hopes to learn but was disappointed when the teacher ignored the first grade most of the day. She did draw a big letter on our desks, probably on A, and let us go out to pick sunflower petals to outline the letter. Seemed pretty childish to me. I already knew the alphabet, could count to a hundred and (thanks to the patience of sister Ruby Mae) could read all the primers and part of the first reader. But things improved as time went by and I was able to show off my reading abilities. I must have been insufferable for I was always quick to offer to help the "slow learners" with their reading, spelling and arithmetic. If I remember right, we had three first graders. One girl left after that year. My 2nd grade classmate had trouble with reading and arithmetic and often recited with the 1st graders. I did my work and sometimes recited with the 3rd graders. How proud I was one day when I went to the board with the 3rd graders and was able to write the Roman Numerals higher than any of them! Come spring my classmate "failed" and I was promoted to the 4th grade. It was not uncommon for a child to be allowed to "skip" a grade, but I cried a few tears in the fall before I finally mastered the times tables which I had missed by skipping 3rd grade. I had to put in extra time on geography also, but soon I was at the top of the class again.
Our school was the typical one room frame school with 3 outhouses in the two far corners of the school yard. Center back was a small barn, shed really, for the horses that some students rode to school. Carl Bode rode a pretty brown pony every day thru all eight grades. Paul became tall and had very long legs. He was the butt of much teasing in 7th and 8th as he stepped over that pony and drew his long legs up into the stirrups. Others rode horses from time to time. We rode Old Billy--a gentle white work horse. Since we had to walk a mile and three quarters, we usually got to ride the horse on muddy days. On good days we cut across the fields using our pasture and the Riggs pasture as far as possible and walked along the fence of the wheat field in the fall before the wheat was up and the ground was hard enough to make a short-cut path. On rainy days we were sometimes allowed to hitch Old Billy to the old buggy and ride to school in style. But that horse and buggy couldn't go thru snowdrifts which meant we had to hike across the fields on snowy days. We ran much of the way but still got bitter cold. The teacher stood me on top of the stove once to thaw me out. The standard remedy for frozen fingers was to soak them in cold water. My hands and face were always chapped from fall to spring. One time the snow drifts were so high we went over the pasture fence on the drift instead of crawling thru.
I do remember the first day of school in September. I set out with Lewis Wesley and Ruby Mae wearing the prettiest of the 5 of mother's hand-made dresses I had. I had high hopes to learn but was disappointed when the teacher ignored the first grade most of the day. She did draw a big letter on our desks, probably on A, and let us go out to pick sunflower petals to outline the letter. Seemed pretty childish to me. I already knew the alphabet, could count to a hundred and (thanks to the patience of sister Ruby Mae) could read all the primers and part of the first reader. But things improved as time went by and I was able to show off my reading abilities. I must have been insufferable for I was always quick to offer to help the "slow learners" with their reading, spelling and arithmetic. If I remember right, we had three first graders. One girl left after that year. My 2nd grade classmate had trouble with reading and arithmetic and often recited with the 1st graders. I did my work and sometimes recited with the 3rd graders. How proud I was one day when I went to the board with the 3rd graders and was able to write the Roman Numerals higher than any of them! Come spring my classmate "failed" and I was promoted to the 4th grade. It was not uncommon for a child to be allowed to "skip" a grade, but I cried a few tears in the fall before I finally mastered the times tables which I had missed by skipping 3rd grade. I had to put in extra time on geography also, but soon I was at the top of the class again.
Our school was the typical one room frame school with 3 outhouses in the two far corners of the school yard. Center back was a small barn, shed really, for the horses that some students rode to school. Carl Bode rode a pretty brown pony every day thru all eight grades. Paul became tall and had very long legs. He was the butt of much teasing in 7th and 8th as he stepped over that pony and drew his long legs up into the stirrups. Others rode horses from time to time. We rode Old Billy--a gentle white work horse. Since we had to walk a mile and three quarters, we usually got to ride the horse on muddy days. On good days we cut across the fields using our pasture and the Riggs pasture as far as possible and walked along the fence of the wheat field in the fall before the wheat was up and the ground was hard enough to make a short-cut path. On rainy days we were sometimes allowed to hitch Old Billy to the old buggy and ride to school in style. But that horse and buggy couldn't go thru snowdrifts which meant we had to hike across the fields on snowy days. We ran much of the way but still got bitter cold. The teacher stood me on top of the stove once to thaw me out. The standard remedy for frozen fingers was to soak them in cold water. My hands and face were always chapped from fall to spring. One time the snow drifts were so high we went over the pasture fence on the drift instead of crawling thru.
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