It was about 1922 or 1923 that my brother Waldon and my
sister Adele started to go to the country school St. Mary's.
The school got its name from the St. Mary's River, which
was two miles west of the school. We went by buggy
(one horse). The school was one mile west and two
miles north from our home.

The school was just one large room with two cloak rooms
on the north, one for the girls and one for the boys.
Each cloak room had shelves in which we could put
our lunch pails. We had to leave our boots and
rubbers in the entrance way. In the entrance was
a stand with a tin basin where we could wash our
hands in cold water.

The smaller desks were on the east side and they were
for grades 1 and 2. The the desks got larger until they
accomodated all grades 2 - 8.

I recall the big black furnance in the corner of the room.
It was started by the teacher in the morning and it never
got the room warm until noon. There was no well at the
school and so it was up to the Gurney kids to bring 2 big
jugs of water to school each day.

The teachers I had were Mr. Pharis, the next year a sweet
young teacher just out of normal by the name of Thelma
West. She was very kind to us, but the big rough boys
made life very unpleasant for her. She finished her year
and then left. My next teacher was Dallis Minion. He
stayed for years and he never let the boys get away
with anything.

Children who attended our school were: from the north
Dale and Earl Shelton. Mr. Minion came from the north
until he married then he walked from Hillmers, where they
lived, to school. From the east came 4 Binghams,
Hilma, Margaret, Minnie, and Dave. They came in
a buggy with 2 horses. Opal Hillmer walked when she
didn't get a ride with the Binghams. Peterson's, Agnes,
Gladys and Jack rode 2 horses.

From the south came the Gurney kids, Desmonia, Walden
and Adele in a buggy with one horse. Then came the Bone
kids, Eldo, Dean and Beth from the south. Jay, Ted,
Elaine Christensen, and Deloris Jenson came from the
west.

The buggy horses were unharnessed and turned into
the school pasture. Also the saddles were removed and
their horses were turned into the pasture. Then at night
we had to catch our horses, harness and saddle them
so we could go home. Can you picture in your mind all
the students coming from all four corners to school and
almost all the time we would arrive at the same time
and leave to go home at the same time.

We always had 19 - 22 students at school. We had no
playground equipment at all so we just played ball
all the time.

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