About a half mile from the farm was the school. I started grade school at age six. I don’t recall in detail those earlier days.
The school building was a two-story brick structure that housed all eight grades of grade school and four of high school, and a gym. There were four rooms of two grades each.
My grade school teachers were Miss Herbst in first and second, Miss Twedten in third and fourth, Clara Gross in fifth and sixth, and Alice Walters in grades seven and eight.
As I remember I loved school. Learning to read opened a new world for me and later math, and numbers in general, interested me.
My first and second grade teacher was like a mother hen. She was so kind and treated us like her children.
I remember Miss Twedten always carried nose drops in her pocket. Several times a day she tilted her head back, and dropped nose drops in her nose.
Clara Gross was a strict teacher but I remember learning so much in her class.
Diagramming sentences stands out as one thing I mastered in grades seven and eight. One day one of my brothers came to my classroom door to tell me our father had died of a heart attack. My teacher said her father had also died that week.
The grade school rooms were all on ground floor around the sunken gym. The music room was also on the main floor and high school on second floor.
High school years were full of excitement for me. So much new stuff to learn along with a play given each year. Coming from a musical family it was exciting that in later years we learned and performed operettas. This was definitely a highlight. I had started in band during seventh and eighth grades and continued into high school. Being chosen for girls octet, sextet, and mixed chorus offered so much music into my life.
Of all the high school classes, I disliked history the most, and learning dates of certain events was of no interest to me. This continued the rest of my life.
Typing, bookkeeping and all things related to office work was where my interest lay. These classes and the teachers in them were all special to me, and that showed up in my grades.
Junior and senior proms were fun times as we chose themes and decorated the gym for them. I was sad when my high school years were over.
It’s strange that I don’t remember too much about graduation. For our class of 23, we had it indoors. I do remember getting some pearl earrings as a gift from my mother and some money from others.
My plans for after high school were to go to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, about 50 miles away. I attended there only one year and did not continue on because money was in short supply. I always regretted that because I loved school so much.
