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tions otherwise we got real dizzy and nauseous. The boys added handles on the board to
hold on to. What a thrill it was to ride the flying Jenny!

My uncles also made my first seesaw by putting a board at just the right height for Roy
and me on Grandpa Dicks’s board fence. Roy and I spent hours pumping up and down on
that board. I couldn’t come down until he pushed the ground with his feet.

Roy and I had such good times together. We never quarreled or had cross words. If
either of us got into any trouble, we were there for each another. We never tattletaled on one
another—but then I don’t remember us ever getting into much trouble.
When Uncle Walter bought a new buggy, he would stop at our house and give me a

ride to school. I thought nothing of telling him I had to relieve myself. He would say “whoa”
to the horse, and then look both ways to see that no one was coming. I hopped out of the
buggy and behind it, and he would let the back drop-curtain down until I’d climb back to get

in again. Then he rolled it back up.
The school superintendent hired a young girl, Edith Dyer, as the principal and teacher.
She had black hair and was very petite and pretty, and Uncle Walter started dating her. He
took her to her boarding place and to Mr. Parnell’s little store every afternoon after school. I

always went with them. Uncle Walter would buy each of us a bottle of soda pop for five
cents—and I always had strawberry soda pop!

Uncle Press dated Donnie Hawthorn whose parents were boarding the teacher. The
Hawthorns had five daughters: Mabie, the oldest, dated Horace Markham; Uncle Henry
dated Corrie Rigden. The boys dropped out of school in their sophomore and senior years

because the school board couldn’t find teachers certified to teach the higher classes.

n, m

A swamp was located right by Ebenezer School with'the largest fan-shaped pahnetto

leaves I ever saw. Older students knew how to split these leaves and braid them to make real
nice fans; one of these students even made one for me.
The fans came in handy because it was so hot, and with no screens, the flies and gnats
were awful. Our desks were long enough for three or four students to sit together.

Older students weren’t always very nice to the younger ones. One boy, who was ugly
and wore filthy clothes, had green stuff running out his nose and down into his mouth.

One of the older girls, who was about grown, got the idea of making me kiss John
Obb. John Obb was right up for it, but I told her I wasn’t going to kiss him, and I sure
enough didn’t want him to kiss me! This older student wasn’t strong enough to hold me so

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