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Show 7T Mr. Johnson scratched busily in his notebook. "What was your first year of teaching like?" "IT WAS fairly rough, but I'm sure any teacher's first years are. I was teaching all eight grades in Mountain Green. Some of the pupils were about my own age. My brother, Ezra, helped me solve the arithmetic problems, so I could keep ahead of my students. I moved to a different school the, next year, though. It was much;; easier." ' . -J Continued on next page seemed real excited about it. I've seen them before, but they are right strange. There's a crank in the front and a spare tire in the back. Pa turnes the crank and then jumps in the car and we take off bouncing around like a trottin' horse. Pa sez I can try my hand at driving in a week or so. August 30, 1910 TODAY MA woke up at 4:30 to do the laundry. She beat Mrs. Barnes again. Mrs. Barnes was so mad she didn't say nothin', just stormed off like Pa's new bull. At school today Joey thought he was right funny when he snuck around and pulled up Mrs. Vowles' skirts. Even though he ran like the dickens dick-ens she knowed it was him and he wasn't laughin' when we saw him tied up on the way home from school. When we got home, Ma had a big surprise for us. She told us we were going to Salt Lake to the theater. We got in our clothes and headed for Salt Lake. It was a mite cool in the open air bumping along like we were, so we cuddled in our lap robes. What a treat it was - more fun even than dancing with Jim Kirk. The movie was real good. On the way home everyone but Pat who was drivin' fell right sound asleep. Pa carried us all in and put us to bed. I heard him and Ma talking talk-ing over their hot chocolate. Even though I don't always feel so good, tonight they are the best folks in the world. THE INTERVIEW ByfCmily Fisher It was the last day of school, 1938. Mrs. Stewart had watched the last of the children rush home to welcome the summer and their new-found freedom. She sat in the wooden chair behind a worn oak desk, waiting for a reporter from the Deseret News. It was also the last day of her 43-year-long teaching career. OUT OF the window of her room in the Centerville Elementary School , she saw a car pull up. A tall young man opened the door and stepped onto the running-board, and then to the road. Stopping to look at his notebook for a moment, he came quickly into the school. The door to Mrs. Stewart's room was open, and she stood up as the man came in. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Stewart," Ste-wart," he said as he took off his hat. "I'm Joe Johnson, from the Deseret News. We'd like to run a short article in the paper about : your career, just for human interest, in-terest, you know," ,( "I DON'T believe I'd be very interesting to read about, but I'll tell you anything you would like to know." "Thank you." Mr. Johnson fumbled fum-bled around for a chair for a moment, mo-ment, and they both laughed when he finally sat down on a small bolted-down desk at the end of a row. "I'M SORRY about these accommodations," she said, still smiling. "We could move to a different dif-ferent place, if..." "Now, this will be quite all right." MRS. STEWART chuckled again, and sat down in her chair. "We might as well get on with the interview. First, I need just a little background information, you know." "WELL, I was born in 1871. I ' hope you aren't very good at arithmetic, arith-metic, Mr. Johnson. My full name is Jennie Parrish Stewart. I was born in the home where I now live, on the corner of Parrish Lane and Main Street. It's the home on the northeast corner. My first school teacher was let's see a Mrs. Kesler, and she taught me in her own home, up on the upper road. I learned to read and knit there." By VES HARRISON As we promised in our last article, arti-cle, we publish herewith the three prize-winning pioneer stories of our recent contest which space did not permit us to give you then. Much time and effort went into the writing of these entries and you should find them interesting. GOOD OLD DAYS By Ryan Pitt It was the year 1 907 and I was 1 3 years old. My family and I had just moved to Centerville, so the first four months in our new home was very disorganized. Our house was located about a block off Main Street, to the east, and we owned 30 acres of farmland to grow crops on. EVERY MORNING I was to get up at five o'clock and do my chores i which consisted of milking the cows, feeding the horses, and put ting fresh hay in the stalls. I poured the milk through the separator, to separate the milk from the cream. My mother used the cream to make butter every Saturday. The cream ' was poured in the churn, and had salt added to it. Since this was my I sister's job, I never really got to j help. This process of making butter J usually took several hours. : Another job we did was to make l soap. This certainly wasn't the easiest job, but it had to be done, j Whenever papa butchered an , animal, the fat was used to make , soap. It was put in a large kettle of boiling water, along with lye and ash. After the water had evaporated, evapo-rated, and it had hardened, it was cut into bars. THE DAY that everyone dreaded was when sickness struck the house. Of course it was no fun to get sick, but the remedy mama used was even more unbearable. Water was put in the tub that was very hot. To make it worse, mustard mus-tard was added to make it even hotter. hot-ter. Whoever was sick got in the tub and had a sheet put over him. Hot water was continuously poured over the sheet, and did it hurt! They wouldn't take you out until sweat was coming out of ev ery pore. This process was sup-posed sup-posed to just sweat the sickness ' right out of you. I remember going to school ev- I ery day from 9 to 4, and then get ting home and having to help my father on the farm until supper. We were either forking hay or plowing the fields. We also had to irrigate the land, and to do that we used water from the creek that came down out of Centerville Canyon. AFTER supper I always did the homework that I had, until bedtime, bed-time, so there was never any time to just play. I never saw my friends except at school. Once a month we would all load up in the horse and buggy, and go to Salt Lake to sell our crop we had raised. This trip occupied most of the day, because it took about four hours to get there. We never bought any food there, because we raised everything, from canned peaches and fruits to delicious loaves of bread. It was important to be self-sufficient, papa had said, and that's how we were. The only thing we bought in town was shoes, overalls for papa and me, and dresses dres-ses for my sisters and mama. They would get a new dress every year. I THINK the biggest highlight when I was young, was when we went to see our first movie. I remember re-member that year we had saved up money to ride the Bamberger train that went to Salt Lake. We arrived at the theater and I remember going in and sitting down in the seats, and watching the movie. It really used to be a big thing back then. My life may have been filled with a lot of work, but the satisfaction came from seeing our crops grow, and knowing that we could live as a family, and work together. BY JOURNAL 1910 By Danielle Burch August 15, 1910 TODAY I worked real hard again. Ma and I made soap. We had been a savin' our drippings for nigh on six months and most like Ma sezs if we're careful it'll last through winterin'. Ma got up at 5:30 cuz she wanted to be sure and get her washin' out first. Well, Ma won for the second time in a row. Mrs. Barnes was so mad she was a-yankin' her clothes off the line yellin' how she'd be gettin' up at five come next wash mornin'. It was a hoot, but I did all my laughin' 'hind the outhouse cuz I sure wasn't gonna catch trouble from Mrs. Barnes. MA WAS so pleased with herself she gave me and Henry and Alfie two eggs so we could go to the Coop Co-op and trade 'em for penny candy. -.Alfie hung over them barrels for . nigh on an hour decidin' what he was a-choosin'. On the way there we stopped at Mr. Barnes' smithy shop for a drink of water. He was a-askin' us about the race and when we told him Ma won, he was a-laughin' so hard his face and neck turned red like a juiced-up strawberry. straw-berry. On the way home the sprink- . lin' wagon wetted me down but good and I was as muddy as a .spring hog by the time I got myself home. August 18, 1910 TODAY JUSTIN got right sick. Ma put him in the metal tub used for Saturday night bathin' and poured hot water into the tub until Justin hollered so loud you could hear him in the next pasture. While he was in the tub. Pa was a-makin' him a mustard plaster. I stood over by the window holdin' my nose. Well, Pa put it on Justin and his face was turnin' read as a beet and he was a-mutterin- under his breath. Pa asked him what he was say in', but he just said, "Nuthin'." He for sure knew a whippin' and a mustard plaster all on one day wuz too much for any human. Justin Jus-tin had to stay inside while we all played kick the can and eenie-I-over at Mrs. Parrish's house. He kept telling Ma how he wasn't ailin' any more. It wuz so hot while we were playing'. 1 kept on thinkin' on I'd like to be wearing' black bloomers bloom-ers like Alfie's 'stead of my dress and skirts, but I know Ma thinks real ladies don't think that way. August 21, 1910 I BEEN complain' so much about ab-out the heat, Pa cut my hair. He got it a mite short, but I'm guessin' it'll grow back since it always has before. be-fore. Sarah lost her first tooth today. to-day. It was a-loosened, and Pa just got the pliers out of the drawer, pulled it right out and threw them pliers and tooth right back in the drawer. Sarah bawled like a calf lost from its ma. Ma took us girls to the Co-op to buy some fabric for a new dress for school. I think mine's the prettiest what with its pale gray color and little blue flowers. Ma got sugar, eggs, chocolate and flour while we wuz there. When we got home I made my favorite cake. It's called Grandma's County Fair cake. I had to churn the butter in that oV chur-ner chur-ner for near an hour, but it was worth it cuz Ma gave me the biggest big-gest helping of cake. THE FAMILY went to the Alberta Hall tonight. I surely enjoyed en-joyed myself dancin' with my friends and for the first time a boy asked me. Can you imagine how I felt - blushin' to my toes and Pa standin' near lookin' us both over but good? This boy's name is Jim Kirk, and he is right handsome. He said maybe he and I could think on an iron port sometime. August 28, 1910 TODAY was our first day at , school. I heard the bells of ther Bamberger, and I was excited to go back to school. I wore my dress Ma made for me. No sooner we got to school, the driver flipped the seats and started off to pick up more peo: pie. Mrs. Vowles is my teacher. There are 14 people in my class, and, of course, Jim Kirk is one of them. When we wuz out at recess he asked me if I cared to go for an iron port after school. I said yes so - quickly it almost didn't sound like I said anything. My friends were all a-whisperin' over by the tree. After school we walked on over to the Co-op, had our soda, and went on home. He didn't do much talkin' and I didn't go on much either. Soon as I got home, I changed my dress, went about my chores, and then played jump-the-rope with Annie and Julie who couldn't stop waggin' their tongues about Jim and me. We got a car today. Ma and Pa Continued from previous pg. "When did you come back to Centerville?" "OH, THAT was about four or five years later. I taught in Centerville Center-ville until I was married in 1906. My husband and I moved away to Rexburg, where we lived until his death in 1911. 1 then came back to Centerville, and I've been teaching here ever since." "All 1 can say, Mrs. Stewart, is that you must have been very devoted de-voted to your work to be able to put up with all of those children day after day." MRS. STEWART smiled, somewhat some-what regretting the words "must have been." She wasn't sure she wanted to be through with her teaching career, but she knew that she had to end her career sometime. some-time. What would she ever do to fill the time? "I love my little first and second graders so much, Mr. Johnson, that it was a pleasure. We've had plenty of rough days, of course. 1 feel it has all been completely worth while, though. I don't think anyone ever enjoyed teaching more than I do. Perhaps it's because be-cause I never had any children of my own." MR. JOHNSON stood up, shaking shak-ing her hand lightly and reaching for his hat on a desk. "I really enjoyed en-joyed talking to you, Mrs. Stewart." Ste-wart." "I hope I wasn't too boring." "CERTAINLY NOT!" I still can't imagine why anyone would want to read about me, though. I have a niece who's always al-ways after me to write a sketch of my life. Maybe I'll get around to it some day." "PLEASE DO! Your relatives in the future will greatly appreciate it, I'm sure." Mr. Johnson waved goodbye as he left. The room was now quiet, lonely. Mrs. Stewart looked out the window win-dow at the car pulling away, and then down to a field of wild barley V . " "r 'Vt v where children were playing hide-and-seek. "I HOPE the children come to visit during the summer," she said to herself as she fixed her hat and went to the door. Turning out the lights, she looked once more into the dim, silent room, and pictured children laughing behind the desks. Then she closed the door behind her and went down the hall. We realize that the future making mak-ing and recording of history will be in the hands of the youth of our community, and we hope that they will not do as so many of us have done. ..procrastinate, and thereby miss the opportunity to ask questions ques-tions of their parents and grandparents, grandpa-rents, as well as elderly neighbors and acquaintances, and either tape-record or make notes of the facts as they are related to them. After these oldsters are gone it is too late to ask them to tell you the things you may want to know. Don't leave yourself open to regrets. re-grets. If your Historical Society can help in any way, please ask. |