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Life Recollections

Chapter 2, Part 2
The Move to Washington State

In the meantime, come September 1910 we all had to start school. They were building a new school but did not get it finished so we had to walk three miles to a little one-room schoolhouse where two had to share a seat and desk. Our first teacher was Mrs. Howard. She was strict and managed to keep order with a very unruly bunch. Before the terms were over, the new schoolhouse was finished. What a big place it was. Two rooms but we only needed one for school. The other was used for programs, meetings and parties. What wonderful parties and programs we had, especially at Christmas with a tree and Santa Claus. Halloween parties were next best. Our next teacher was Mrs. Gardner. What a time she had with the boys. Boys can be cruel and at times she even resorted to tears but she was a good teacher.

Our next teacher was a man - Mr. Thorndyke. We all loved him. He and his wife lived in the other schoolroom and what parties they put on for us. Even the boys loved him for he would come out and play ball and games with us.

Then our only "Miss" was our next teacher, Miss Nord. But she was dismissed by the school board for whipping a couple of boys but they no doubt needed it.

Then came Mrs. Van Lieu. I was in the eighth grade by then. Two boys and myself made up the class. Dick had quit school when he was 15. We had to go into Granite Falls to take our final exams and of course I was the only one who graduated. My diploma came by mail.

We had many happy times down on the big ranch. We had a lot of work to do but we could go swimming in the river whenever we finished our work. We enjoyed the cows and the newborn calves, the horses and mares with their little colts, the chickens, turkeys and ducks. We had one little banty rooster and hen. They were our pets. We always had dogs and cats but they were taken care of at the barn. We had many big picnics down at the river. It had the nicest sandy beach and bottom just like the ocean. One of the great days was when we had the threshing crew. How interesting. And Mother had to feed the men and me being the oldest was to help. A little frightening but now when I look back what fun it all was.

We had lots of garden to weed. We never had to feed or milk cows but Mother took care of the milk. And we had to weed the long rows of vegetables. One day when we were on our knees in the garden we looked up and saw Ernie with his girl friend coming. We all ran and hid. After getting cleaned up we came out to meet our Martha. We had quit a time to get acquainted but we loved her. She liked to sleep in the morning and Mother got us up early to go and pick blackberries. Oh, those luscious berries. And to our great surprise Ernie carried Martha's bucket and helped her over the logs. We began to see what the duties of a gentleman were after being around those crude schoolboys. But we had a lot of fun with the boys and girls around the neighborhood. One night we persuaded the folks to let us walk into Granite Falls to see a show. We were supposed to bring back a gallon of kerosene. Coming home was a different story.

It getting chilly, we decided to stop and use a little kerosene to start a fire and get warm. We were very careful with the fire but it is surprising how often we got cold so had to stop and use a little more kerosene. The youngest boy had the greatest imagination. He had us girls scared to death telling he could hear bears and cougars all the way. It was late when we got home and I'm afraid the kerosene can was half empty. It was customary for the farmers to go visiting on Sunday nights. Us kids always anted to know if we could have a bon fire to roast potatoes. We never knew what marshmallows or hot dogs were. New Year's Eve was always a big night at a different place every year. This particular night was at a farmer who lived on the hill above us. Their children were all young but we all came with our homemade sleds. What fun coasting and snow fights and then inside to all the good things to eat.
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