High School

 

    

Graduation Picture  1942

High School……What a rude awakening.   Our school bus was just a covered bed, put on a flat bedded farm truck, with a bench on the outside and benches back to back down the middle.  Thee was no heat and little window space.  We had to walk a fourth of a mile up the lane and wait for the bus, we were almost on the end of the route, only four houses ahead of us.  In the winter it was a long cold wait and then since there wasn’t heat in the bus the kids on the outside would stretch their legs to the bench in the middle and we would sit on each others feet to keep our feet warm and huddle together on our bench for warmth.   During the two weeks of spud harvest the school bus cover was taken off and the regular bed was used to haul spuds.

     There was a definite line between the city kids and the country kids.  We didn’t bring any lunch because the city kids made us feel like hicks for carrying a lunch.  Our school was a nice red brick building on main street just down from the old Jr. High.  The teachers were excellent and the seminary building, which still stands today (2012), was just across the street.   I enjoyed classes and we country kids hung together.

     One of my hardest class was typing.  We didn’t start school until after spud harvest, so we could make money.  By the time I started  I was six weeks behind and hadn’t had the basics.  I practiced every noon period and soon caught up.  My favorite classes were math.  I couldn’t understand why some kids couldn’t get Algebra, it was easy for me.

    My brother Larry was born in Nov. 1938 and Mom spent ten days in the maternity home and then to her mothers.  I was suppose to cook  and take care of things.  I had never cooked a meal.  My sister, Marva, worked in the house and I worked outside.  I kept the center of the rooms clean and the meals were a disaster. And I never washed any clothes.  I don’t remember cooking a meal again, until after Jess and I were married.  I didn’t recommend that to any new bride.