The year was 1947, the month was May, and it was a
Friday. It was a special day for
me. I was still recovering from a bout
with Polio, still learning how to walk again with a leg that had been paralyzed
for several months. But I was not going
to miss this day no matter what.
This day was one of the few times I rode to the
Chain O’ Lake One-Room Country School located in the Town of Rose, Waushara
County, Wisconsin. I had attended there
since 1939, when the school had no electricity, no running water, and no
central heating. All of that was still
true in 1947, except the building did get electricity in 1942.
On this sunny day in May, my brothers, Donald and
Darrel (twins and four grades behind me), and my dad and mother piled into our
1936 Plymouth and drove the mile to the school, along the dusty country road
that I had walked for eight years—the last couple of months with considerable difficulty
because of the polio.
The event was the last day of school picnic, where
everyone brought something to share with others at the noon meal, and the
school board bought the ice cream. Faith
Jenks was our teacher, and after the meal she made a brief announcement. She said that I had passed the difficult and
challenging day-long eighth grade examinations held at the county seat in
Wautoma. And I was graduating and ready
to attend Wild Rose High School in the fall.
She said that Jim Kolka and Mildred Swendrzynski had passed the seventh
grade exams and were ready for eighth grade come fall.
Then we played softball, the students against their
fathers, as the mothers chatted under the big black oak trees that shaded the
school.
Upon arriving at home, my dad gave me a little box,
a graduation present. I tore off the
wrappings and found a Pocket Ben watch, the first watch I had ever owned. Both
my mother and father were smiling, as neither of them had graduated from eighth
grade.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Eighth grade graduation was a
special time in 1947.
SPECIAL
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Writing Workshop for 2016:
Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door
County. Friday, August 12, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the
list. (Still Room)
UPCOMING
EVENTS.
May
26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI Whispers and Shadows.
June
7, 7:00 p.m. Cambria Library. Cambria Fire Dept. Community Center, Cambria.
June
11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.
Telling Your Story
June
14, 9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist
Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
June
28, 11:00 a.m. Larry Meiller Show. Wis.
Public Radio. Discussion of Roshara Journal and Telling Your Story (New Books)
June
28, Book Discussion. Mystery to Me Book
Store, Madison. Details to follow. Roshara
Journal and Telling Your Story
(New Books)
July
19, 11:00 a.m., Farm Technology Days, Snudden Farms, Lake Geneva, Walworth
County. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.
August
9, 6:30 p.m. Winnebago County Historical Society. Oshkosh Library. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.
August
12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August
20, 10:30-11:30 am. Waupaca Annual Arts
on the Square.
Purchase
Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose,
Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm
Story (based on Rural Wit and
Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including:
Jerry’s newest novel, The
Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin
Agriculture: A History.
Contact
the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson
Memorial Library
500 Division Street
1 comment:
Good advice!
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