My Life Continued 3-20-2010

First I've been caught up with again. Since I want our family history correct John and Millie Farrimond went to the Salt Lake temple in April {I think!!! } I know 1915 was the year not 1919.

I've spent several days looking thru what I previously wrote so not to repeat a lot of stuff. I hope I can remember what not to rewrite as I take from my paper writings and my memory bank. I also found lots of mistakes and hope every one can figure iut what I was writing.
I started school when I was still five turning six in late October. Maybe I'd have been a better scholar had I been allowed to wait a year. Mom was working at the Associated Seed Company sorting the trash from the seed peas. I think it made less stress on Aunt Leah when she took care of Reba and Jossine and Jack with out me. She was good to us but our cousin Vern loved to tease and he could make us cry. I don't remember him ever being called on that and his children were as old as we were.
The children who started with me was Verdale Slack [Verns son] he turned seven in Nov. Jackie Woodfield, Margie Allen a friend and Dawna Dayton. There were others but my recall left me. Angels moved into the comunnity and Aaron was in my class a Daniels family came to Twin Groves and Laura was a class mate also. Where does this take me in my memories I'm not sure except I liked thinking about those years in school when we had reading writing and rithmatic. The three 'R'S. I loved the stories in the primer as our book was called and remember the 'Little Red Hen' story best. We had some sort of art as we drew figures from the story we read about. Since the teacher had three other classes to teach all subjects too that was most likely busy work for first graders..
When a child had a cough they came to school anyway and the teacher had a candy jar with hard tack to calm the coughing. Some times the jar was passed around to all the children. The first four grades met in the' little room' and the other four in the 'big room'. I don't think there was much difference in the room size but that was how it was. For reading we went to the back of the room and sat on little red chairs placed in a semi circle so the teacher could also keep an eye on the other children at their desks. Arithmetic was done at our desk and the black board used often.
Our days in school started with the Lord's Prayer and there was no protesters back in my day.. We pledged alligance to our 'FLAG' that hung on the wall year after year. We had no worries about seperation of church and state. We often sang a song but it didn't make me carry a tune any better. If any one needed to go 'Potty" it was hold up your hand and whisper to the teacher to ask in a quiet voice then a run to the out house in the back yard. If it was winter coats and boots had to be put on to make the mad dash. The heating system was a big black round Heater thing.It stood in the back of the rooms and if your desk was close you stayed warm if far away it was chilly. The heater was stoked with coal and the man teacher are the husband of the lady teacher took care of that chore. Mrs. Martineau read good stories to us and planted a desire in me to read. I grew to love our country thru her reading about the pilgrims and others. My older brother Baker carried books home from the school library and when his chores were done he'd climb up on the fire wood by the stove and read. He had poor lighting but loved reading. He read all the books in the little room then the ones in the big room. Mom said he ran out of things to read and read the dictionary and he loved the Books of Knowledge that was in the big room.
He re -read those books and when he went to High scool in town he got books from the city libray and would bring two are three home to read in the evening. Baker was such a good kind brother. As we grew up I was included in the games of cops and robbers cowboy's and indians and what ever other things that was for fun. I have often wondered why it was easy to let me play the boys games with them.
Jack while in the first grade drew and Painted his Little red Hen left it on his desk at recess or noon and when we got back in the room Cleo Dayton had traded hers for Jack's he went home crying and told mom "Cleo stole my little red hen and hers was big as a hephalant" he tore hers up. I don't remember if mom took him back to school nor do I know what happened to Cleo for her part in the thing. I know mom would have told Verda M. so Jack wouldn't be marked down for not turning one in. It is possible she already knew what happened. I still feel sad that those things happen to any child. As that year progressed I was having eye problems and to the Eye Dr. he fitted me with ugly glasses and the kids called me 'four eye's'. I'm not sure the glasses did what they were supposed to do and I hated wearing them. As spring came I was having other problems and the teacher talked to mom and off to the Dr. we went he told mom it wasn't my eyes but that I had St. Vitus Dance which {Penny found out was Rhumatic heart desease) she ask her Dr. what it was and he said that was the name it had back then. I stayed out of school and was fed fish and Cod Liver Oil yuck. It was dark and thick and tasted awful. I couldn't control my emotions at that time cried eazily for know reason. Part of my healing came from being wrapped snuggly in a blanket and sat in the boys wagon or layed on the ground out side in the sun shine. I heard mom and the teacher talking about me and I wasn't to be teased, get lots of rest, and sunshine. I was to eat fruits and vegies. The boys would pull me around in the wagon after they returned from school. Such good brothers are did it get them out of other chores?? I'm not sure how long I was out of school but the therapy worked and I went back to school. I think mom tutored me some while I was healing but oh how much I missed out on educationally. I finished that year and fourth grades then moved on to fifth grade and school was hard for me ever after. I should have repeated third grade maybe that would have helped but that wasn't done back then in my school. The only good fish to me is one that is almost legal size and fried crisp since that diet.
Dad fished that spring and fisherman would go through our yard to the river to fish and drop some off for me. The fish I eat was the white fish maybe we got a trout now and then I don't know for sure. I do know mom and dad loved trout the very best.
It was hard coming home after school with mom not there and 'Big Girls' not home yet from High School. Dad wasn't always home as he did some odd jobs to help keep us afloat. The house was cold with no fire all day in the winter months. I think Baker would try to start the fire to heat us up since he was a couple years older than me. In the fall we spent time outside doing child things as it was warmer. There was chores to be done such as bringing in the wood for the evening and next morning.
It was hard having mom working I think she was gone about twelve hours each day with travel time and catching the galloping goose train to come home. Dad picked her up with the team and sleigh in winter if he had to go to town for any reason. Life was not easy for my parents but it wasn't easy for any one with the depression coming on. I learned to worry at a young age. Maybe because of loosing our home and I was afraid of the mean old federal land bank men whom I never saw. Then the bills came and how would they be paid. I carried those worry's with me for lots of years. I learned to nag my brothers to get dressed for school after chores were done so as to not miss the school bus. Ruth turned that job over to me when she graduated from eigth grade. We walked to school then. The bus thing came for high school years. I'm glad I don't have that stuff to worry about now.
When aunt Leah watched us I remember watching uncle Joe put on his honey bee protection cloth's and go into the orchard where there was a bee hive and he harvested the honey. He picked the apples in the fall and stored them in a dirt cellar. If we were good we'd get an apple now and then. As spring came the apples wilted and got soft. That is probably why I don't care for soft apples. Many would be hauled out to feed to their pigs because so many spoiled by spring.
We played in the orchard and Slack's had a hedge that seperated the yard from the road to the field and we played in the holes in the hedge. Happy times was when we stayed home with dad. He had chores to do but always came back to check on us and see that we didn't do too much damage to the world around us.
I wrote about Jackie Woodfield being in first grade with me. His parents were friends to the folks and he and I played together when ever we could. I was such a Tom Boy. We would go out picking wild flowers among the rocks and sage brush bringing them home to mom. We picked green apples from his grandparents orchard and hid to eat them. His parents lived with his grandparents until one day he came to school and told every one they was movi ng to California the next day. I was oh so mean to him for leaving after all I think he must have been my first love. Ha!!! I pulled him out of the swing he got at recess that day and pounded on him. The bigger boys seperated us. I don't think he even fought back. I spent the rest of the day in the school room for my punishment. Some years latter I was roller skating when some one said there is Jackie Woodfield. He was not tall and rather skinny as I remember I went over and spoke to him telling him I was Donna and of all things he said oh Dawna Dayton. If I thought I liked him that ended my love affair right then for sure.
It is time to rest from this so until next time.