In Logan County I attended a 1 room school with one teacher for all the grades.  It went up to the 8th grade I think.  It was about a 2 mile walk which I made with friends.  I can remember they had box suppers at the school house.  I think we used to go there for Christmas programs.  It seems to me like it might have been Christmas when they had a box supper.  Anyway I remember they had box suppers at the school house.   At country schools, I don't think they paid much attention to an individual.  I think I was in the first grade for about 3 years.  And then finally when I got to the Enid Schools, I skipped one semester in the fifth grade. I remember going to Mulhall one time with the whole family.   I remember driving along the road and being able to see a town off in the distance.  Papa said "that's Fairview over there" and Mama said "It is pretty nice isn't it".  (Fairview was a town).

 

One of the big things in my life was harvesting when the threshing machines came around.  As I remember, we didn't have any wheat, but some of the neighbors did.  And Papa probably went over to help with the threshing.  I remember going over there and I guess I was a water boy, I carried drinking water.  The threshing machine engines particularly made a big impression on me.  That simply fascinated me to see that old reciprocating steam engine with the rotating wheel and the piston and connecting rod going around with the wheel.  I remember pretending like I was a threshing machine and running around moving my hand like the mechanism of the engine.  I remember how the tracks of the threshing machine engine on the road would fascinate me sometimes.  I would go out on the road and find the tracks.

 

I can't ever remember seeing a car while we were down on the farm in Logan county.  However I do remember seeing the tracks of a car that had gone along the road.  That really fascinated me too.  I liked to walk in the tracks with my bare feet.  

 

I remember watching the threshing machines pull in and set up.  They would pull the separator up to where it was supposed to set.  Then they would back off and face the separator to line up with the engine.  Then they would belt up with a long belt from the engine to the separator and start her up.  That was really lots of fun.  All this flying chaff always got down your neck and made you itch and it was quite a deal.

 

I always liked pets.  I remember I had a pet ground squirrel one time that slept in the house and it got so tame it would come up and eat grain out of my hand.  One time the door slammed shut on it and that was the end of it.  I used to catch small rabbits and make pets out of them.  One day while they were thrashing, I saw what I thought was a baby rabbit & I pounced on it.  It turned out to be a big rat.  He set his teeth thru my index finger and wouldn't turn loose.   I had to take the other hand and pry his jaws open.  

 

We had a dog named Jack.  I don't remember much else about him although he was a good help on the farm.  A nice dog.  But one time we saw him eating peach peelings.  After that he disappeared.  I guess he was sick and eating something he thought would help him and anyway he must have gone off and died. We raised hogs and there would be a butchering every so often.  That was a messy thing but I remember it quite well.  I remember the old kerosene lamps.  We would have to trim their wicks, I guess about every evening to get the extra carbon off before we lit them.

 

Washing was quite a big day.  A big boiler would be put on top of the stove & the water heated till it boiled and the clothing would be put in, I believe, with home made soap.  I think Mamma also made soap.  She put home made soap in the boiler and boiled them while taking a wood poker and poking them around.  It may have been an old broom handle.  Then she would dip them out with a the poker and put them into a tub and rinse them off and get all the suds out of them.  Then she would hang them on the line.  I think that piece of wood that we used on the clothing was one of the cleanest things you ever saw.

 

Of course there were out houses, no plumbing.  All wood fuel.  Beds, I never complained about the bed.  I could sleep any place.  I could sleep on a wood floor or any place without any trouble at all.  We had a well with a bucket that you let down with a rope and pulley and pulled up a bucket of water.   On wash day you had to draw quite a lot of water.  It occurred to me that I don't know where the stock got their water.  I can't remember having a wind mill.  There must have been a stream, a pond in the pasture where the stock drank.  It isn't very clear but I can remember cooling milk and butter by wet clothes and evaporation.  Of course we didn't have any ice.  And we didn't have any spring near the house.

 

I mentioned before about the distances in the area.  As I was saying, back in those days the distances seemed so long and the trees seemed so tall and the house seemed so big.  When I went back there about 40 yrs later, things looked so remarkably much smaller.  Of course the trees might have died and smaller trees grown up but the distances were much smaller than I thought and the house was much smaller than I thought.  I guess you would say the house was about a story and one half high.  In other words, as I remember, it had an attic that could be used as a bed room.