Neighbors

Pete got this from John Puffer...

I forgot to include it in my last email, but I remember Dad saying when he was a boy, before any tiling was done to the farm, that just west of the grove & SE of the house about 10 rods were ponds with cattails & ducks in them. Also that there was a natural waterway from the spot 10 rods SE of the house off southward. In the winter he & his brothers would ice skate from there down to near the country school that was on the SE corner of the section.

Some of my memories of attending that school the one year that I went there are: the students had to take turns going over to Lester Krause's & pump a pail of water & carry back for the day's drinking water supply. Donny Wilhite & I were the youngest so we got to go together, carrying the full pail, one on each side. The students were: Bob, Jim, & Donny Wilhite, Harry Fisher, an 8th grade girl...I don't remember her name, & myself. Each of us were in a different grade. The girl didn't have to do the "water duty" thing.

That HUGE stove in the schoolhouse. Just as you walked in the door from the south was a place to hang your coats. Just north of that was a cob & coal bin. That obnoxious Harry Fisher throwing rifle shells in the cobs & them exploding. The Wilhite boys had a Shetland pony & a cart. They would pick me up on the way to school. Bob would drive, with Jim beside him. Donny & I sat behind them, facing backwards. Once at school, Bob would unhitch the pony & tie it to a fence post so it could graze. About half the time the pony would get loose & go home. So we'd have to walk home that afternoon & then walk back the next morning, leading the pony down to school.

There were two outhouses located at the NE & NW corners of the schoolyard. The school yard was fenced on the W & N side only. On the last days of school the teacher built a fire with cobs in the south ditch & we roasted hot dogs & marshmallows for our noon lunch. When we got up to go back into school we discovered that Jim Wilhite had been sitting on a snake & it was dead.

And my best memory: In the spring, the ditch on the east side of the school had a lot of water in it from snow melt. Harry Fisher had put a plank from the schoolyard over to the gravel road which he would ride his bicycle back & forth over. Harry was in 7th grade, a bully, & had tormented me since my first day of school. We were watching him show off & some wheels within my head began turning. Finally once as he was riding from the yard to the ditch, I ran behind him to the middle of the plank & shoved him & his bike into the cold water. He probably beat the crap out of me, I don't remember. I only remember how good I felt, I felt I had gotten even for a whole year of his bullying me. I'm sure that the Bible says somewhere that this was not the proper way to do things, but it makes me feel good to this days just thinking about it!

John, both our Dad's & their brothers attended that school. I did for first grade only. It closed after that & I started second grade in at Corwith. Dad bought the playground equipment from the school & erected it out SW of the house near that old "falling down" shed. Dad also bought the teachers desk & used it until he died in 1989. I am sitting at that desk, as I am writing this.